Emancipate Ourselves from Mental Slavery
Controlling what Black people know about their history is a crucial part in Black people understanding who they are and what they can become. When we as Black people know where we are coming from and what we have achieved, we will be more comfortable about taking ownership about how our Black identity benefits us…..and not trying to escape from the corrupted narratives of our own Blackness!
I am writing this Blog on the final day of The Notting Hill Carnival which has always evoked a variety of views and opinions…..some good and some not so good. Some of you may be aware that the Carnival was created as a response to racism experienced by “West Indians” in the UK and the Racist murder of Kelso Cochrane; but is now mainly an international festival with elements of Black culture and as we know other cultures like to dip into “Blackness’ as long as it is not a permanent thing. The irony is that the very things that we were criticised and mocked for such as, food, music, language fashion and hairstyles have now been appropriated by mainstream culture.
I stopped going to the Carnival a few years ago but when I went, almost every year, for me it was an essential injection of Black culture, much needed at a time when Black people in the UK were experiencing a succession of racist happenings that included the murder of Stephen Lawrence, The New Cross Massacre, The Mangrove Protest, The Kelso Cochrane murder, The Windrush Experience, The Bristol Bus Boycott and countless other memorable moments of Racism in UK Black History.
Notwithstanding early Black migrants from as far back as the 16th century , the Black community is now essentially four and five generations old even though not all of them consider themselves to be Black and much of our histories is not taught in our schools and in many cases by our own parents who perhaps are less than familiar with that history particularly those not comfortable with that association.
However, we have a big problem!.....and that problem is that it should be our duty to reaffirm all the positive reasons why it is good to be Black as so many of us are looking to be anything but. When Black History became a thing in the UK much of our work was all about highlighting our positive Black Histories that included our contribution to world history, all the important things that we discovered and the role that many of us played in world politics. The purpose of declaring our Black History was not only to educate ourselves as Black people but to educate the general public who still considered Black people to be an inferior species…..and some still do. It was also designed to counter the lies misinformation and disinformation regarding Black people. This re-education should particularly apply to our children and grandchildren to instil some sense of pride in the Black aspects of their heritage. I am not sure why we abandoned this assertion of our history, but this has contributed to the resurrection of some of the ancient stereotypes returning and contributing to further racism perpetrated on the Black community and reviving anti Black Racism. Sadly, Black Britain is in a permanent state of cultural amnesia…….we need to rediscover the reasons why being Black is a glorious heritage!....and appreciating that much of so-called European civilisation was drawn from Egyptian history…..yes Black Egypt in Africa!
It is my belief that we should use Black History Month as an opportunity to promote stories about who we are as Black people. Unfortunately, the far right are busy rewriting our history following the tradition now being practised by Trumps’ America. The facts that should be universal should be how long we have been here, who we are, what we have invented and discovered in all walks of life that include science, medicine, literature, politics and of course sports and music. I was in York recently and I saw little references to the Black Roman Emperor Septimius Severus who lived in the town in AD306 with a massive army of 50 000 troops. We have done some work in Southampton and some of the information is contained in my two books, “The Black History of Southampton 16 Century to 21st Century” and “Black Stories Southampton: Extraordinary Accounts”. Unfortunately, Black History Month has become an opportunity for white institutions to polish their equality credentials which is not a bad thing, but they might want to consider supplementing that with some real truths and hard truths about the Black history experience and the increased levels of Racism in the here and now!
We live in times when truth is a rare commodity and we have a greater responsibility as Black people to not just know the truths about who we are but a responsibility to let those truths be shared as widely as possible particularly when it is so easy to jump ship and fool ourselves in believing that Black History is nothing to do with us as we believe that our Black component is not as significant as other parts of our make up!
Don John