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About African History Month: History and Origin
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The African American experience
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The African British experience
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AfricanHistoryMonth.org
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African History is more than a month
Originally established as Negro History Week in 1926
by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American
author and scholar, this event evolved into the establishment
in 1976 of February as "Black History Month."
This commemoration has increasingly been referred
to as "African American History Month,"
although both names are currently in use.
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The roots of African History Month begin in America
February 1926 when pioneering African American historian
Dr Carter G Woodson first established Negro History
Week. He is widely recognised as the man responsible
for putting forward the idea of African history as
a form of cultural empowerment and emancipation.
Dr Woodson worked as a coal miner which financed his
studies at Berea College in Kentucky and the University
of Chicago. After obtaining a degree in philosophy
at Harvard in 1912, he started the Association for
the Study of Negro Life and History, thus creating
an organisation to promote the study of African history.
Dr Woodson had
written about how "the thought of the inferiority
of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class
he enters and in almost every book he studies ....
To handicap a student by teaching him that his black
face is a curse and that his struggle to change his
condition is hopeless is the worst form of lynching.
It kills one's aspirations and dooms him to vagabondage
and crime".
In his view,
the knowledge and dissemination of African history
would, "besides building self-esteem among blacks,
help eliminate prejudice among whites." He aimed
both "to inculcate in the mind of the youth of
African blood an appreciation of what their race has
thought and felt and done" and to publicise the
facts of the Africans among Europeans, so that "the
Negro may enjoy a larger share of the privileges of
democracy as a result of the recognition of his worth."
In a speech at
Hampton Institute in 1921 Woodson addressed the issue,
he said "We have a wonderful history behind us...
If you are unable to demonstrate to the world that
you have this record, the world will say to you, 'You
are not worthy to enjoy the blessings of democracy
or anything else'. They will say to you, Who are you,
anyway? Your ancestors have never controlled empires
or kingdoms and most of your race have contributed
little or nothing to science and philosophy and mathematics."
Later on in his 1933 classic work, The Miseducation
of the Negro, Woodson showed the fundamental problems
concerning the education of the African person. He
noted how Africans have been educated away from their
own culture and traditions and how as African peoples
we have attached ourselves to European culture often
to the detriment of our own heritage.
Dr.Woodson argued
that if education is ever to be substantive and meaningful
it must first address the African’s historical
experiences, both in Africa and the Diaspora.
There is a Swahili adage that says: "You are
what you make of yourself, and not what others make
you." Mirroring the thoughts of Ghana's Kwame
Nkrumah who has written about the need for "a
re-awakening [of] consciousness among Africans and
peoples of African descent of the bonds that unite
us - our historical past, our culture, our common
experience and our aspirations."
And thanks to
the great contribution by the late African historian,
Cheikh Anta Diop, we now know that the history that
we need to recover includes that Egyptian science
and technology which laid the foundation for the development
of Europe. The use of historical knowledge must be
a weapon in our struggle for complete liberation.
An overall view of ancient African civilizations and
ancient African cultures is required to get rid of
all myths about the African past, which continues
to linger in the minds of African peoples everywhere.
And that is what African History Month is all about.
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Ever since the
1970’s, African history, art and culture has
been celebrated by African Britons in the Diaspora.
Whether the vehicle was Berry Edwards or Eric and
Jessica Huntley ‘Caribbean week’ or Alex
Pascall’s ‘Black Londoners’ programme
on the BBC, our story was being told.
After talking to African British teenagers Akyaaba
Addai-Sebo a special projects officer for Greater
London Council’s discovered that they had a
great reluctance to have anything to do or identity
with Africa. Akyaaba felt this was due to the negative
representation of Africans in the media, and the many
racist, and distorted images about Africa's past and
present.
In 1986 and 1987, Akyaaba with the backing of several
other people organised key events that established
the trend for African History Month. These included
serious debates about the African contribution to
civilisation with leading U.S. historians.
In 1987 the race unit Akyaaba was a part of moved
to the London Strategic Policy Unit. Symbolically
the year 1987 also marked 150 years of the end of
slavery.
Prior to the demise of the GLC, and in a drive to
improve racial harmony in London, councillors passed
a declaration that put ‘Black’ History
Month in October. As a result the UK’s first
‘Black’ History Month took place as part
of the African Jubilee Year 1987-88 celebrations organised
by the former London Strategic Policy Unit.
The event was
a success. In response, the then Association of London
Authorities later endorsed ‘Black’ history
month as an annual event leading to it’s official
recognition on the cultural calendars of all London
boroughs and several Metropolitan and City Councils
around the country. London councils became committed
to financially supporting the Month every year and
Local councils around the country followed suit.
The late Len
Garrison, who was one of the founder members and chairman
of the Black Cultural Archives (BCA) then historically
went on to say "Remember what we inherit today
has been won with bloodshed and sacrifice by others
yesterday".
African History
Month seeks to restore an integral element of British
History which has been ignored and denied in the creation
of racist mythologies. The need to continuously educate,
enrich and challenge the content and construction
of conventional history is essential in the drive
to eradicate inaccurate views of world history.
Current History books still serve particular imperialist
purposes as elements of world history are distorted
by authors myopic views centered around global interaction
with Europe and Europeans.
African American historian John Henrik Clarke commented
that, ‘to control a people you must first control
what they think about themselves and how they regard
their history and culture. And when your conqueror
makes you ashamed of your culture and your history,
he needs no prison walls and no chains to hold you.’
The majority of Africans in the Diaspora still suffer
a lack of knowledge of self and our past and as a
result suffer from cultural disinheritance. Historically
this has lead to the internalisation and feelings
of a inferiority complexes, which are a direct result
of becoming caricatures and an inferior subset of
the human race in the body of Western thought.
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AfricanHistoryMonth.org
was the brainchild of Ligali
Co-founder and Head of Media Affairs, Emma Pierre-Joseph
and emerged from a discussion with Ligali Co-founder
Toyin Agbetu. In the UK the purpose of ‘Black’
history month was being lost as the African experience
was turned into an ‘Urban’ one. The African
History Month site attempts to stay true to the original
vision of founder Dr Carter G Woodson by focusing
on African History.
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It has always
been the feeling of members of our community that
African History is so integral to our lives that it
should not be relegated to a once a year focus. AfricanHistoryMonth.org
utterly supports this view, believing that EVERY month
is African History month and endeavour to reflect
this by containing details of events that occur throughout
the year.
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