Black History Month kicks off

Black History Month at Warwick began last week. A series of events will investigate and celebrate the history of ethnic minorities.

Warwick Students’ Union will hold talks on the Black Panthers, contemporary migration, national security, as well as a panel debate on ‘Multiculturalism; a failed experiment?’, to raise consciousness on such issues. An African open mic night will provide a platform for students to share their views, and Warwick Urban Poets will be holding poetry readings. A member from the Caribbean department will be talking about the past and present state of slavery.

Jehanzeb Khan, anti-racism campaigns officer at the Students Union, highlighted the underlying purpose of Black History Month as “exposing marginalised histories. That relates traditionally to the often rich and advanced cultures that were stamped out by hundreds of years of slavery and colonialism and the propaganda onslaught that came with them.” He added that “the contemporary experience of black and ethnic minority groups… is also marginalised from the public consciousness.”

Former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, affirmed that despite the significant role Africa has played in global civilisation, their “contribution has been omitted or distorted in most history books.”

According to Khan, such societies are “looked upon as just barbarian and in need of Western rationale and guidance, which ignores a lot of the well developed and rich societies in these countries.” He added that such histories consisted of “distinctly different experiences often involved with struggles to do with the inter-personal and institutional racism such groups suffered.” Such cultures of resistance formed powerful social movements which led to wider freedoms in society as a whole.

“The histories of struggles are still major ongoing issues in Britain and beyond,” Khan said, adding that “disproportionate policing is still a major issue.” A policeman is twenty times more likely to stop and search a black person than a white person.

The events of Black History Month aim to help tackle such common misinterpretations and, according to Khan, “combat a Eurocentric worldview that places a lower status on other cultures; and instead provide a space where people can expand their perspectives with this diversity.”

Student reaction has been generally positive, though some have raised concerns over the Union’s publicity of the week. One third-year Philosophy student said: “While it’s great that they’re having this series of events, I wasn’t even aware that they’re happening. With such an important issue, I feel the Union should be making much more of an effort to raise awareness. At the moment, it just feels like they’re paying it lip service.” The Warwick SU website lists just one event for Black History Month – the opening event on 26 October.

Black History Month originated in 1926 in the United States of America, where Carter Woodson, longstanding editor of the Journal of Negro History (now the Journal of African American History), initiated African and Caribbean celebrations. Akyaaba Addai Sebbo introduced it to the United Kingdom, aiming to recognise the contributions of African, Asian and Caribbean people to economic, cultural and political life. It is now run as an established month in the UK and on its 20th anniversary in 2007 Britain held more than 600 events in aid of the event.