Sofia Akel (MSc Management, 2017 [Graduate]; BA (Hons) History, 2016 [Grizedale]) has a mission to bring reading to more people.

Sofia set up the Free Books Campaign last year to get books by authors of colour to those who couldn’t afford or access titles of their choice, across the UK and Ireland, with the joint goal of increasing literacy and access to books. Research from Runnymede and Penguin shows that just 1% of students at GCSE level read any books by such authors, indicating how deeply rooted the issue is.

It is a cause Sofia is passionate about, one that has led to her working with major UK publishers and campaigning footballer Marcus Rashford, and one that has parallels with her work on racial equity in Higher Education.

Sofia started her race equity campaigning while at Lancaster, lobbying for greater equity for people of racialised backgrounds within the University. She continues to tackle those issues within HE in her role at London Met University, and has published research on racism in HE, and Islamophobia, which informs universities and students’ unions across the UK and overseas.

Her work also brought her to the attention of the British rapper/actor Kano, for whom she researched the deaths of Black people in or following police contact in the UK for his song Teardrops performed at the GRM Daily Rated Awards.

Sofia set up the Free Books Campaign in July 2020, working with publishers Verso, who had begun to give away free e-books of related texts following the Black Lives Matter protests. They collaborated to give hard copies to people unable to access or read online, and Sofia then started to receive messages from people wanting to donate and help further access to reading.

The Free Books Campaign became a community interest company (CIC) earlier this year, and has distributed almost 2,000 books by authors of colour to those who cannot afford or access them otherwise across the UK and Ireland.

“It’s important that people read books by authors of colour that aren’t just about negative things – racism or colonialism – but are also about our cultures, our lives and lived experiences, joy and happiness, the whole breadth of human experience,” says Sofia, who has worked with schools, community groups, refugee charities, domestic violence shelters and other organisations to distribute the books.

“It is essential for us to read of the cultures, experiences and histories that fall outside of our own socialisation and world view – even just in terms of developing as people, developing our emotional intelligence and more, this is a vital part of that growth.”

The success of the fundraiser – close to £10,000 has been donated, along with free books from publishers – has seen the Free Books Campaign partner with Vintage Books, a subsidiary of Penguin, to choose a new title by an author of colour each month and distribute copies. There has also been a collaboration with the Marcus Rashford Book Club and Macmillan Children’s Books, with the Manchester United and England footballer having campaigned relentlessly to end child poverty and hunger.

Sofia hopes the campaign – staffed entirely by volunteers, herself included – will have positive effects in three areas.

“The first aim is to get books by authors of colour to those who can’t access them or afford them,” says Sofia, who admits to being glad of her marketing, budgeting and fundraising experience gained while at Lancaster for helping her with the campaign. “The second is to increase reading and book ownership, which is really important, because there are a lot of people facing financial hardship who can’t afford to buy their own books.

“Another aim is to get these books out there as widely as possible and to support authors of colour themselves. We often buy the books, so we are supporting authors of colour whenever we purchase them, which we typically do through independent bookshops to ensure our supply chain can help communities as much as possible.”

Sofia adds: “It has been really rewarding, and I am really glad that I just went with my gut and started the campaign. I didn’t know that it would end up this big, that we would end up as a company, or any of those things. I’m just really proud we have been able to get all these books into homes.

“It’s sad that this campaign has to exist in the first place. Under austerity we’ve lost nearly 800 public libraries that have been shut down permanently. Anyone reading this, I’d like them to think about what they can do to support their local library, or set up their own little community bookshelves where people can come and exchange books – it’s a really good way to connect with your community.”

ENDS