Last week, I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University Of The Arts, London. It meant more to me than the faculty knew at the time, which I explained in the acceptance speech I gave on the day. Marshalling my partner and my family together for the day was an uphill struggle, but a week after, thinking about, and looking at the photos, I am proud of myself and my family - of what we have survived together and have been able to build.
Honorary Doctorate Speech / 11/07/2023
The last university I applied to was Goldsmith University, to study a masters in English Literature, in 2008. I’d lived in the uk since 1996, for 12 years at the time, but because my immigration case was still pending, by Home Office rules, I was classed as an international student – a status that tripled the school fees, which meant I could not afford to go. I spoke with the staff, explained my predicament, that I was in limbo, but there was nothing they could do. Rules were rules they said. I had to turn down the offer.
Days later the course lecturer reached out to explain he taught my work on the course. I’d been writing and performing poetry for years and some of that work had crept into academic circles. The lecturer explained that if I had made it on the course, I may have had to write an essay about my work for him to mark, which would have made a mockery of his classroom. So he advised, not to be too down about the outcome. Years before, I only turned to writing - I only became a writer - because I could not afford art materials. Pens were cheaper than paint, I’d write out the pictures in my head.
And before applying to Goldsmiths to study creative writing, I applied to UAL to this university to study graphic design. I showed my portfolio at the interview, again I was accepted, and again immigration rules priced me out of education. International student status again, I couldn’t afford to go. However, because I am my father’s son, because my mother taught me the value of eduction, because I am Nigerian, so naturally enterprising, and because Naija no dey carry last - I worked around these hurdles…
I befriend groups of students from Goldsmiths and UAL, who would sneak me into lectures in both institutions. I’d pretend to be one of them, taking notes by day, further researching by night, applying them to the work I was making, many of which have been mentioned tonight.
So today means more than you can imagine, a recognition from this university, an honorary award from the very institution I could not afford to attend, a doctorate no less! And I didn’t have to pay a penny… this is is a gift above asking, one I could not have imagined.
Though I thrived without full higher level education, I understand what I didn’t get experience: shared learning, a body of students, growing, nourishing and inspiring each other, essentially a sense of a community, of artists. It is still a hole in me, which perhaps this award may some way fill.
I never seek to be political, I am not an activist, but politics always finds me, and in wanting to learn, I found myself in the jaws of harsh anti-immigrant policies.
As global migration intensifies with climates changing, in increasingly hostile environments, should the wind rush other immigrants across treacherous waters to arrive at our shores, should they show a passion for learning, my plea to the educators here is simple: bend the rules when you can, break the rules if will, but let them learn, let us learn.
I’d like to thank my family and partner for supporting my artistic pursuits despite those hurdles, my oldest friend Jack Prideaux who was there from the start, Stella Odunlami for building with me, and the faculty for this, for the everything this is.
Thank you x
