CEO Blog #24 – December 2025

Artists in focus: Xavier of the Masai Mbila Collective, Kibera, Kenya. This piece is titled ‘Bewhere of the Dog’.

And suddenly, just like that – we are in December again! I know it’s a cliché, but time does seem to go faster as you get older, and after all The Africa Centre is in its sixth decade!

In keeping with the unseasonably cold weather we have recently had in London, here are some random thoughts and reflections of mine from the last month:

It was a delight to launch our 60th anniversary film, Home, directed by Curtis Essel. Thank you to everyone for all the great comments, lovely feedback and wide sharing of it across social media.

Our UK-Kenya Season with the British Council was brought to an official close with a lovely reception at The Centre. It was a lovely evening. Thank you to the British Council, all our delivery partners in UK and Kenya, and all the wonderful people who have attended the events that we have put on over the past 9 months all across the UK. We are proud to have been the first external organisation chosen by British Council to deliver a season with them. We are already building the legacy of this season, as next week we are hosting the pre- launch event of the Pan-African Biennale which will be held in Nairobi next year. If you attended any of the events and have thoughts on this, we will appreciate your feedback. You could win a limited edition The Africa Centre t-shirt in a prize draw! If you want to be included in the prize draw please put your name and email in the comments section when you complete the form.

Our featured artist this month is the wonderful Masai Mbili Art Collective in Kibera, Nairobi. And is on display The pieces above were purchased from them during our visit there at the start of the UK-Kenya season and are now on permanent display at The Africa Centre.

In a year of seminal anniversaries, we have been delighted to have presented our programme of activities commemorating the 140th anniversary of the 1884-85 Berlin conference. The programme culminates next week with a conference we are organising in association with AFFORD, SOAS University of London and The Fatherland Group. Details here. Please book ASAP. The importance of this conference is underscored by recent policy developments across Africa, from trade to education, that underscore how insidious the legacy of colonialism on the continent is.

It was great to be a guest on the African & Caribbean Students Network’s podcast last month. Thanks and well done to them for all their work. I also had the pleasure of being a guest speaker at the Friends of the Huntley Archives at LMA annual festival last weekend, where I was in conversation with the legendary journalist and broadcaster Juliet Alexander in a session focused on The Power of Archives in Cultural Preservation, using The Africa Centre as a case study.

This conversation is very timely as next month we launch the long-awaited Africa Centre 60th Anniversary Archival Exhibition. Postponed from the short run originally planned in November, this will now run from 26th January to 18th March 2026 at The Africa Centre and will feature material, documents, pictures, films and reminiscences from our archives. If you have memories to share or material that you think should be included, please do let us know. More information will follow in early January. If you or your organisation would like to be an exhibition sponsor, please drop me a line at [email protected].

As we come to the end of another year, we need to remind everyone that The Africa Centre is still in need of your financial support. We appreciate all the wonderful people who have contributed to us in 2025. We have more than doubled the number of Friends of The Africa Centre compared to this time last year, but we still need more of you to join up. Every little helps us to be sustainable and keep developing our exciting and impactful programme of activities. To join as a Friend, please sign up here. You can also sign your organisation up as a corporate sponsor. And if your organisation would like to sponsor one of our programmes or events, please drop me a line at [email protected]. Thank you!

Hearty congrats to ALL the Africa world cup qualifiers! By the time you read this, we will know who the African representatives will be facing. Good luck to Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, South Africa and Cape Verde. DRC also still have a good chance of qualifying, having beaten Nigeria in the continental playoff to make it to a FIFA international play-off match in March.

Talking of football, this month is AFCON! One of the Africa Centre’s highlights over the past two years has been our screening at The Centre of all the games of the last AFCON. This year, we are planning some great events during the tournament as well – please keep an eye on our website and social media for details!

I wish you all a wonderful December!

Olu Alake

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER