Today marks the annual celebration of Black History Month where we honour the innumerable contributions of people of African descent to Science, Math, Literature, Athletics and ingenuity. As well as their role in shaping our understandings of justice, freedom and dignity, values we all hold dear.
The cultures, experiences and contributions of people of African descent are much too vast and rich to be relegated to 1 month. Nevertheless, I don’t see Black History Month as a stumbling block but as a stepping stone to learn, understand and cherish the contributions of African peoples to Canada and the world, all year round. I honour the legacy of scholar Dr Carter G Woodson, who was instrumental in the creation of what we now know as “Black History Month”. Dr. Woodson and others like him took it upon themselves to combat the deliberate erasure of Africans from the history books and incite pride into a people rightly deserving of it. For that we are thankful. I challenge you to understand the human story through the lense of Africans which includes African Americans, African Canadians, Caribbeans, Afro Latinos and beyond. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King: Be proud of [y]our heritage. We don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Somebody told a lie one day. They couched it in language. They made everything black ugly and evil. Look in your dictionary and see the synonyms of the word black. It’s always something degrading, low and sinister. Look at the word white. It’s always something pure, high, clean. Well I want to get the language right tonight. I want to get the language so right that everybody here will cry out, Yes! I’m Black. I’m proud of it. I’m black and beautiful. Happy Black History Month Family :)
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AuthorMy name is Akua B and I'm a lover of all things Africa, natural hair and poetry... Archives
March 2017
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