Happy Black History Month! We hope you have been celebrating the rich uniqueness of black culture this month. In this post, we will be investigating black history in schools and how it is taught across the African Diaspora.
Black History In Nigerian Schools
In Nigeria, there doesn't seem to be much of a focus on black history in depth. There is not really a separate compulsory subject for history. Classes like 'Social Studies' and 'Government' are available in primary years, but they only broadly cover black history. It is not in much depth.
Black History In Jamaican Schools
It seems Jamaica covers aspects of black history, referring to Jamaican history and African-American history, but less on Black British history. This is interesting, considering many Jamaicans went over to Jamaica to serve in both WW1 and WW2.
Britain
At present, African-American history seems to dominate over other aspects of black history, including African, and even Black British History. The Windrush Generation is just being taught more in schools now. But there is history of Black Britons, before this too, like in WW1 and WW2, which is often whitewashed in history lessons.
The Black Curriculum is an organisation on a quest to deliver Black British history across all of the UK.
When it comes to black history, the negative events surrounding it is often what is emphasised, such as slavery. Little attention is drawn upon Africans being Kings and Queens in Africa. It is particularly shocking to see that even within our native lands, there is a lack of focus on these aspects of our history too.
There should be more taught about figures like Marie Van Brittan Brown; the black woman who invented the CCTV camera. And Garrett Morgan; the African-American who invented the traffic light. Black history isn't purely hardship.