Black History Month

The month of October is almost over which marks the ending of Black history month (BHM) here in the UK which is celebrated annually every October. The aim of BHM is to remember the achievements of people of African descent and their contribution to the progression of society. The ways in which this month is marked is usually by events being held around the country and schools teaching pupils about Black history.

I remember learning about Black history in secondary school. Personally, I did not enjoy it much because every year we were taught the same aspect of black history. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade. We were taught about Africans being captured by the Europeans and then being transported to America and the Caribbean in slave ships to live the rest of their lives as slaves (I’m sure many of you like myself have watched the Roots series). We were also taught about Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement. Do not get me wrong these are very important aspects of Black history which greatly impacted the progression of black people around the world; but I always used to wonder isn’t there more to black history rather than slavery and the civil rights movement?  I know for a fact there was life in Africa before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. As a result of my curiosity I started doing my own research on African history and I learned so many things. Africa had the first civilization and many great empires; it had some of the world’s first scholar’s, some of the greatest inventions in the world were created by Africans.  There is such a wide range of rich African history that many people are unaware of. This is one of the main reasons why this blog was created; to share the knowledge that I have gained.

There is still a debate as to whether BHM is still needed. Some argue that it is needed to educate people about black culture and achievements. Others argue that it is irrelevant because there isn’t an ‘Asian History Month’ or ‘Latino history month’ etc. However my opinion is that black people should educate themselves about their history. In this day and age information is readily available at the click of a button. We have access to numerous sources of information such as the internet and books. We should not rely on the education system to teach us about our history but we should make the effort to educate ourselves and each other about it. In later posts I will post articles about aspects of African History which I have learned about and my aim is to help educate you about the African history you do not know.


Written by Dinah

Killings of African leaders

As many of you may have noticed by now, Africans well the black race in general, has lost many leaders. These leaders are not just any leaders. They were the leaders who had Africa’s interests at heart. They were prepared to fight and die for their cause. If these leaders were not castigated, then the black race would not be suffering at present. For the rest of this article I am going to elaborate more on our leaders and their accomplishments before they were removed from power.

Kwame Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana. He was a visionary leader, who aspired for all Africans around the world to unite. Kwame Nkrumah had the foresight for a United States of Africa. Under Kwame Nkrumah governance Ghana’s economy rose rapidly, and Ghana was tipped to become a rich nation. However he was unable to achieve his dream because he was ousted from power by his fellow African brothers who were being helped by western powers such as the CIA.

Patrice Lumumba, the first president of the Republic of Congo was a leader who envisioned for Congo to become a powerful and rich nation. He was a man of respect and dignity, who wanted respect and patriotism to flourish in Africa, and also supported Kwame Nkrumah’s idea of Africans Uniting. Congo’s economy also grew under its good leadership, however you can guess what happened next. He to was betrayed by fellow Africans who were again being supported by western powers. So as a result Congo is in a worst state now than it was when Lumumba was in power.

There are also many more African leaders who were ousted from power by the west who used Africans as their middle men. I have often asked myself, why did the west do this? Do they have a grudge against the black race? Or is it simply because they do not want the black race to prosper? You see many years ago Patrice Lumumba said after Congo gained independence, that “Now is the time for us to show the world what the black man can do”. By this Lumumba meant that independence not only marked the turning point for Congo, but for the whole of Africa. So it is evident that the west didn’t want the world to believe that Africans can develop by themselves without their help.

All of this could easily have been prevented if Africans stuck behind our true leaders, instead of turning on them. How much would the west have paid the Africans who helped them oust our leaders from power? I assume it wasn’t much but as they say you give an African money and he is prepared to do anything even if it leads to the detriment of his country. Today Africans have never recovered from the loss of our leaders, and as a result we are suffering. Although I do not think the West is fully to blame, we are. We are the people who didn’t stand by our leaders. Instead of emulating the Cubans who stood behind Fidel Castro when assassination attempts were made at him by the west,  African's cared more about their own greed. Cuba today is a good peaceful nation. I wish we could one day follow their footsteps in terms of supporting great leaders. I do not agree with Africans or even black people in general who consistently blame "the white man" for  all their troubles and problems in recent times, we need to stop finding someone to blame and take responsibility. As if not for our cooperation none of this would ever have happened. So what do you say people do you agree or disagree?

Below is a song that relates to this article listen to the lyrics

Patrice Lumumba -Congo's first president

Kwame Nkrumah - Ghana's first president

 
Written by Aaron

The System of Life

I am someone who love’s reading books on self-development and how to become successful and wealthy. Whilst reading “Rich dad, Poor dad” by Robert Kiyosaki and watching U-stream’s by Shanel Cooper-Sykes it opened my mind to “the system” that we are all part of whether knowingly or unknowingly.

What is “the system”?

From childhood many of us are taught that we should do well in school and aim for high grades which will enable us to enter further education. From A UK educational system this would be attaining high GCSE’s proceeded by A level’s and then progressing into University to obtain a degree so that in the end we can get a  “good” secure job that pays well. This system is ingrained in many of us and many people follow this because it is seen as the norm in society and the ‘right’ thing to do

People who do not do very well in school or those that choose not to go to university are sometimes told that they can never be “successful” or amount to anything in life.  This is because the mentality of most people is that academic education = success which is not entirely true.

Those who do have academic qualifications usually end up working for a big successful company for most of their lives which means they are always working for someone (the company owner’s). This primarily benefits company owners because they are becoming even richer; thus re-enforcing the cycle of ‘the rich getting richer’ even if the workers are well paid. From a Marxist theoretical point of view this will be viewed as the ruling class (the rich) exploiting the lower classes to maintain the status quo.

The education system does not teach people HOW to create wealth but instead aides in the mentality of having to work for someone else instead of working for yourself. From reading many books by successful wealthy people the common thing they all mention about creating wealth is to be creative and to have the right mentality about money. It is important to be educated about money, businesses, investments, assets etc. These are the things we are not taught in schools. I’m going to expand upon this on a later post but in the mean time useful books to read about the creation of wealth are: 'Think and Grow Rich' – Napolean Hill, 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' - Robert Kiyosaki, 'Secret’s of A Millionaire Mind' – T. Harv Eker

Written by Dinah

Can Africa ever unite?

On many occasions I have asked myself: Why is Africa poor? and why are a lot of black people around the world suffering? Is it because people of other races have been blessed with better intellect? Or is it simply because a curse has been put upon us?

You see black people have been blessed with so much, we have been blessed with all of our natural resources, our vast and beautiful landscape, and in fact God gave us the task of building the world’s first civilizations. Although this might seem a long way away, but Africans from ancient times were more united than what we are today. So racism in ancient times was never a problem for us. Nevertheless since black people are not united in modern times, we are then left vulnerable to be victims of exploitation, degradation, humiliation, colonization and other forms of brutality from other races. This is because other races are united, for example white people and Asians are united, although they might not necessarily have peace with each other, they know that in order to survive in this world they need to work together, so as a result they stand firm. However black people choose not to stick together and as a result we have fallen victim to this cruel world. However all of this could come to an end if black people all over the world could unite. As I know that unity can create trust, and trust and trust can create cooperation, and cooperation can create wealth amongst people. So in short if Africa were to unite then we will be the world’s superpower. However what do you think is stopping us from uniting? Is it simply because of our language barriers? or our mentality i.e. greed, corruption, the white is superior etc. Can anybody share a few thoughts on this issue?
Click here to read the blog post where this issue is discussed further

Written by Aaron

Introduction

Hi everyone!

Thank you for viewing this blog. This is a new blog which aims to discuss social, economic and political issues with a particular emphasis on Africa.  We hope to enlighten and educate you the readers on many issues that we feel are important for people to know. We hope to open your mind about many things which aren’t always taught in schools or portrayed in the media. We aim to post once a week.

Now to introduce ourselves, we are brother and sister (Aaron and Dinah). We are both students in the UK, one in University and the other in College. Combined we have backgrounds in the Social Sciences including Politics, Law, Sociology and Psychology.

We hope you enjoy what we have to offer and feel free to leave your comments and opinions