## **The African Oral Poetry Foundation - Trustees’ Annual Report** 

## **Charity’s Name:** 

The African Oral Poetry Foundation 

**Charity number:** 1207494 

## **Charity’s Address:** 

8 Beech Close, Fordham, CB7 6AP 

## **The charity’s trustees are as follows:** 

Martin White Dele A. Sonubi Wilfred Wiley 

## **Structure, governance and management** 

The Foundation is a registered charity, number 1207494, and is constituted under a ‘Foundation’ model constitution dated 23/01/2024. The Foundation Constitution provides for a minimum of 3 trustees, to a maximum of 12 trustees. Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. Any decision may be taken either at a meeting of the charity trustees or by resolution in writing or electronic form agreed by a majority of all of the charity trustees. 



## **Objectives and activities for the public benefit** 

The objects of the Trust are to advance the education of the public in the art of oral poetry and traditional songs of Africa, in particular, but not exclusively by: 

(a)  Collecting, managing, preserving African poetry and songs from oral traditions. 

(b)  Publishing and disseminating research into the histories, contexts and practices of the oral poetry and traditional songs of Africa. 

(c)  Providing information about the poets, musicians, historians and others working with and within the oral traditions of Africa, to increase the public’s knowledge of African oral poetry and to add to the collective knowledge and understanding of this subject. 

## **How we delivered public benefit** 

The benefits of the Foundations’s work are delivered to the public through the AfricanPoems.net website. For the past 10 years the AfricanPoems website has been publishing translations of poems and songs from oral poetry traditions, providing historical background and cultural context to increase the public’s knowledge of African oral poetry and to add to the collective understanding of this subject. 

## **Financial review** 

During the financial year to 5 April 2025 the Foundation has no income or spending to report. During the financial period of this return none of the trustees have been paid, nor did any of the trustees resign and take up employment with The African Oral Poetry Foundation in the financial period of this return. 



Approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by: 

**Martin White** 4 February 2026