Press Release: Announcing the Free Black University
The Free Black University (FBU) is a hub for radical and transformative knowledge production in the UK. Currently, the UK education system is failing to support for Black students wellbeing, narrow the attainment gap and decolonise the curriculum to the detriment of our community. We have been campaigning for years to be heard by institutions and have found that our mission has become futile. We are now asking Universities to invest in FBU so we can better support Black students and the wider Black community with liberatory education.
In light of the Black Lives Matter protests across the world, we stand at a critical juncture in our collective history – things cannot continue as they have after this moment. As of July 8, the National Union of Students recommends universities make a donation to the Free Black University. Similarly, the University of Manchester’s Student Union added a call for the university to make a £50,000 donation to the FBU to their list of demands. This is in an effort to ensure that institutions act beyond performative statements of support. The FBU exists to re-distribute and cultivate transformative knowledge in the Black community. We firmly believe education should centre Black people’s healing from a racist society. It should be free, anti-colonial, and accessible to all – so we will provide it.
The long-term vision for this work is to:
Provide Black radical books to people right across the Black community who would otherwise not have access to it – this includes those incarcerated.
Deliver a range of open access, accessible online lectures and teachings to the community on topics that include: pre-colonial African philosophies, decolonial approaches to climate justice, decolonial approaches to the study of gender and sexuality, Black British history, African diasporic spiritualities and theologies, and much more. We aim to recover the knowledge that was stolen from us through the passage of slavery and the oppression of colonisation using a decolonial lens.
Create a space of community and care for Black students – there is a mental health crisis amongst Black students that universities are failing to sufficiently address. As an organisation, healing is a foundational principle – this will be a space through which Black students can connect to various modes of mental health support and healing work. We will connect with Black therapists, counsellors, and community healers to offer a range of support to our community.
Build an open access, free, and expansive online library of radical readings from people across the world – we will no longer stand for the gatekeeping of knowledge for those who desire access to it.
Build a publication – the type of knowledge that is being produced will only ever be as radical as the ‘peers’ re ntentionally designed and curated to ensure it’s welcoming and doesn’t further perpetuate the physical aspects of coloniality that we are fighting against.
Host an annual conference that brings together Black radical thinkers (that are not only academics) to collectively produce knowledge and vision for Black liberation.
Provide free and accessible education centred on the freedom of Black people, which necessarily succeeds the freedom of all people.
This project has the potential to change the landscape of education and knowledge production. Let us show universities all over the world just what can be done when the agenda of Black liberation is at the heart of building spaces that produce knowledge and teach.
This project is Black, queer, trans, anti-colonial, and revolutionary from its very heart. Help us bring this vision into fruition. You can support this vision monetarily by donating to our GoFundMe, sharing our material on social media and circulating this project amongst your networks.