Students shall not pass unless they accept Lord of the Rings is offensive

The University of Nottingham's module "Decolonising Tolkien et al" argues Tolkien's works portray "people of colour" negatively. Photo / Getty Images

A university is teaching students that JRR Tolkien demonises “people of colour” in the Lord of the Rings books.

A history module called Decolonising Tolkien et al, taught at the University of Nottingham in the UK, uses a text that says orcs and other dark-skinned characters in the trilogy are the victims of “ethnic chauvinism”.

Dr Onyeka Nubia, a historian and writer who leads the module, argues that eastern races in the fictional realm of Middle Earth are depicted as evil while fairer-skinned peoples of the west are shown as virtuous.

In academia, “decolonising” usually means re-examining or moving away from white, western viewpoints.

In the module’s core text, Onyeka writes that maligned peoples include Easterlings, Southrons and men from Harad. The trilogy also features the dark-skinned orcs, evil creatures that do the bidding of Sauron, known as the “Dark Lord”.

It adds that Tolkien’s treatment of the fictional races shares in a tradition of “anti-African antipathy”, in which people from Africa are painted as “the natural enemy of the white man”.

The module also examines racial issues in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Calormen in CS Lewis’ fantasy novel have long been seen by some as exhibiting oriental stereotypes. They are described as “cruel” people with “long beards” and “orange-coloured turbans”.

Students of the course in Nottingham will also learn to “repopulate” the canon of British myth and legend.

Nubia, an occasional contributor to the BBC, provided articles saying medieval England “had diverse populations and Africans lived there”, but “ethnic chauvinism” was evident in literature, including Milton’s Paradise Lost, and that the tradition persisted in the works of Tolkien and Lewis.

He claims in the core module text that Shakespeare’s work helped to promote a vision of a “fictional, mono-ethnic English past”. His plays are said to be problematic for “missing direct references to Africans living in England”, creating the “illusion” of racial homogeneity in England.

In 2021, academics taking part in an Anti-Racist Shakespeare programme at The Globe Theatre in London argued that the Bard’s work consistently links whiteness to beauty, while “dark is unattractive”.

Contributor professor Vanessa Corredera said at the time: “If you put the play in context with other Shakespearean plays, and even the sonnets, this language is all over the place, this language of dark and light ... There are these racialising elements.”

A number of the sonnets are addressed to the physically contrasted “Fair Youth” and the “Dark Lady”.

The Daily Telegraph previously revealed that Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, was set to be “decolonised” following concerns about the playwright being used to promote “white supremacy”.

Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust set out plans to “create a more inclusive museum experience” at the site. This process included exploring “the continued impact of Empire” on the collection, the “impact of colonialism” on world history, and how “Shakespeare’s work has played a part in this”.

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