April 2011
Programmes not Property!
Joint Statement from the Trustees of the Africa Centre

The Africa Centre is an important charitable organisation at the heart of the African Community in the UK. We, the Trustees of the Africa Centre, wish to respond to an open letter or petition to the Trustees, dated 25 March 2011, which relates to the plans the Charity has in respect of 38 King Street, Covent Garden. We welcome the evident considerable goodwill expressed towards the Africa Centre by the petitioners. Unfortunately the petition itself includes incorrect background information and the accompanying E-mail, from Boko Inyundo, also includes incorrect or incomplete information, as does his open letter dated 18 March 2011.

The Africa Centre is managed by its Council of Management, also known as the Board of Trustees, chaired since 2004 by Oliver Tunde Andrews. As a Board, we have debated the best way forward for the Charity over a period of years and currently have the possibility to move premises. We feel that such a move is an opportunity for the Charity to refocus and deliver a reenergised programme of activity. 38 King Street has been our home for many years but it is in poor condition and far from ideal. It is a Grade 2 listed building and has to comply with several restrictive heritage guidelines. Since 2004, we have spent substantial sums clearing debts inherited from previous administrations, removing tenants who weren’t paying us what they owed, and on redevelopment and fundraising plans. We have secured funding from Arts Council England to allow a programme of cultural and artistic events to occur and we have been assessing the options available for refurbishing our current venue. The current venue has many problems and is costly to maintain. Too much of the funds we were raising were going into maintenance of the building and not enough on events and promotion of Africa. We have also found that donors are often happy to make contributions towards specific events but not towards the fabric of the building.

In the light of all the above, the Trustees’ view, reluctantly formed, is that the Charity’s interest and those of the African Community will be better served by moving to an alternative location but remaining in the centre of London.

Any discussions we have had in relation to leaving King Street have been predicated on the need to achieve the best deal for the Charity. There are stringent charity law requirements requiring the Charity to achieve best value. We are rigorously complying with these, and have met and will continue to meet all our legal, regulatory and contractual obligations.

We have had discussions to sell a long leasehold interest in the 38 King Street building, whilst retaining the freehold and taking rental income from the proposed
leaseholder in addition to the purchase price. We have no intentions to sell the freehold to our historic home.

We have also resolved to use what is left of the net sale proceeds, after securing our new home, to set up an Endowment Fund to boost our programming and re-establish ourselves as a soundly-based multi-faceted charitable and cultural organisation which will retain the support of key stakeholders and attract the support and attention of the arts community. This will allow us to develop new forms of partnerships with like minded organisations within the African Diaspora community. We are firmly of the belief that the establishment of an Endowment Fund should also greatly increase our leverage in any fund-raising drive in the corporate arena.

Far from being some kind of betrayal of our duties to our stakeholders, the proposed sale therefore offers a golden opportunity to properly leverage our one key asset (which we will retain in terms of the freehold) to provide an Africa Centre that is:

• Fit for 2011 and beyond, and able to fully exploit the opportunities offered by the 2012 Olympics, the Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 Festival.
  
  
• Relevant to all our current and potential constituents, including young people to whom the fading 1960s/70s style King Street building has limited relevance.
  
  
• More accessible and inviting to all our friends, especially for disabled persons.
  
  
• Equipped, funded and able to concentrate on its core objectives which will relocate the Africa Centre back to the forefront of African cultural life in the UK.
  
  

We hope you will join with us in this true renaissance of the Africa Centre.

Programmes not property!
Trustees of the Africa Centre

If you have any further questions, please download our Q&As pdf which aims to answer some of the most frequently asked questions we have had from our stakeholders: The Africa Centre
Questions & Answers – as at 1 April 2011

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The Members of the Council of Management of the Africa Centre wish to pay particular and heartfelt tribute to Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, member of the Council for the past eight years, who passed away on May 25. Taj, until his move to Africa some two years ago was for many years an active Trustee and stalwart of the Centre, and was instrumental in shaping the turnaround strategy that we continue to endeavour to implement. His exceptional combination of idealism and pragmatism, backed up with his innate wisdom, made an exceptional contribution to the Centre's survival in some of its most difficult times.

We will particularly remember Taj as a scholar and ardent Pan-Africanist, with an unflinching commitment to improving the lot of his people, and who always strove to find solutions to Africa’s problems, and by extension, those of the Africa Centre. We will cherish our time working with him and will greatly miss him. He was the last person we would have expected to leave us suddenly in this way, and his departure is a huge loss. We share the grief and loss with his family and send our heartfelt condolences and pray that his Soul Rest In Perfect Peace.

Oliver Andrews,

Chairman Council of Management

Link to story on BBC website

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Dear Friends,

Welcome to our new Africa Centre website!

The Africa Centre is being renewed to serve its stakeholders better. Since its inaugural launch in 1964, the Centre has played an important role in projecting a positive face of Africa in London, providing a focal point for all forms of cultural and social activities related to Africa through meetings, talks, visual arts exhibitions, cinema, literature, and the performing arts.

As you may be aware, financial difficulties led to the deterioration of the Covent Garden building, ultimately hindering the full and effective use of the facilities and affecting programming. The latter has now been reduced to a minimum and we are currently forging ahead with plans to redevelop the premises and sustain its operations into the future.

The purpose of the present redevelopment is to guarantee a future Africa Centre where the building’s main facilities can effectively serve the Centre’s remit as a topflight contemporary African cultural and creative centre in Europe, whilst at the same time providing income generation that will ensure long-term sustainability. Business of Culture were brought on board to manage the Centre in the interim and to direct and advise on the Development of the Centre and its future organisation. Considerable progress has been made in stabilising the Centre’s operations and finances and in creating a credible foundation to go forward.

Since the redevelopment process started in 2006, we have come a long way. A lot is happening and various project preparation strands are coming to completion. These include the Feasibility Study carried out by a professional team led by Ash Sakula Architects and project managers, Malcolm Reading Consultants; the commercial and business case for the future centre, incorporating the findings of a thoroughly researched cultural demand assessment, carried out by Good Communications and Business of Culture; the fundraising strategy being developed by The Philanthropy Company and the development of a new programming vision for the future Africa Centre. During this transitional period the centre will continue to be involved in small-scale but exciting cultural events that will pave the way forward.

As Chair of the Africa Centre’s Council of Management since 2004, and on behalf of the Trustees, I would like to reiterate our determination that the Centre’s role be continued and enhanced in the future, free from the uncertainties of the past twenty years. We are committed to realising the potential of King Street site, which has been one of the main strengths of the Centre in its forty-year history and, and offers an unrivalled 'shop window' for Africa in central London.

This new website forms an essential part of our series of initiatives intended to incubate the new Africa Centre in people’s minds, and to reflect the dynamism and excitement of the redevelopment process on an ongoing basis. I encourage you to visit the site regularly for updates on progress made, as well as for details of upcoming programming activities and initiatives.

Best Wishes

Oliver Tunde Andrews

Chair