Decolonising SOAS Campaign

In October 2014, I co-founded Decolonising Our Minds alongside Kabir Joshi, Neelam Chhara, Dhelia Snoussi, Mehdi Beyad, Halimo Hassan, Ladan Dirie and  Adam Omar at SOAS, University of London.  Decolonising Our Minds central ethos was to challenge legacies of colonialism which have seemed into everything from academia to policy and culture and media more broadly.  

Over 2 years, I lead on programming over 45 events.  Pioneering the voices of black and brown writers, activists and thinkers examining everything from the Legacies of Slavery, the historical archiving of the slur, Paki to interrogating British Values.  The events attracted thousands of young people and on several occasions we sold out venues such as the Institute of Education’s, Logan Hall (capacity: 993).  We featured artists and thinkers such as Teju Cole, Cecile Emeke, Heems and many high profile academics.  

In 2016, I became the Co-President of Activities of Events of the SOAS Students’ Union.  As the elected sabbatical officer of 5,000 students in one of the most politically engaged student unions in the country, I co-founded and lead on the Decolonising SOAS campaign.  The campaign set about creating debate around everything from curricula, outreach, outsourcing and unconscious bias.  The campaign was voted the number 1 student priority in a student referendum.  Through our pressure, SOAS became the first university to start a ‘Decolonising the university’ working group with academics, students and cleaners involved.  The campaign also garnered international press from the likes of The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Observer and The Independent.  

The Andrew Wainwright Trust kindly supported us in the work of producing a short film interviewing students and lecturers on the campaign and it’s importance.  You can see the film here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKQtY15cdc 

Decolonising the curriculum: 

https://www.soas.ac.uk/blogs/study/decolonising-curriculum-whats-the-fuss/