When the headline 'Lord of the Racists?' began circulating, it sounded like another entry in Britain's endless culture wars. Reports claimed that a University of Nottingham course accused J.R.R. Tolkien of 'demonising people of colour' in The Lord of the Rings. But when you actually look at the course — titled HIST2056: Imagining 'Britain': Decolonising Tolkien et al — the story is much less sensational, and far more intellectually grounded.
The module, taught by historian and author Dr. Onyeka Nubia, appears on the University of Nottingham's official course listings and is publicly described on uoncourses.org and the Talis module catalogue. Its focus is not on denouncing Tolkien, but on exploring how British myths and fantasy have been used to imagine national identity — and how those myths might be 'decolonised' or reinterpreted through a modern lens.
