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