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My name is Adam Gordon and I work on the International Strategy Team for BEIS’s National Security and International Affairs Division. I am also an Ambassador of my Directorate He Faith and Minority Ethnic (FAME). I’m Black British Caribbean (my family is from Jamaica and Cuba), born and raised in Birmingham. History has always interested me, especially black history. Here I wanted to share my thoughts on why I find black history so fascinating. You can learn more about history.
where is my girl
When we are taught about powerful women throughout history, it is often the likes of Boudicca, Queen Victoria, Elizabeth and Marie Antoinette that are discussed. is. But to me, some of the most inspiring and powerful female leaders in history are the black African queens and empresses.Beyonce was preceded by Ndongo and Queen Nzinga of Matamba! She ruled Ndonga and Matamba, now Angola, in the 17th century, fought many successful battles against the growing Portuguese threat, and successfully helped her land be colonized during her lifetime. Fierce Leader (capital her F!) prevented. Nzinga was revered for her intelligence and her military prowess, and ruled her lands in her own right and not by the agents of her husband or her son.
Nzinga is often seen as a paradoxical figure because she is a slave trader, like Dahomey’s Amazons, the subject of the recent Hollywood blockbuster The Woman King. is a conversation for another day, not surprising in the context of her time. There is no denying that it has been accomplished. She was a rebellious black woman in history, and her determination in the face of oppression was unwavering. The next time you sing Beyoncé’s “Run the World” in your car, know that black women like Queen Nzinga have been doing it for years.
“By focusing on America’s civil rights campaign, post-World War II civil rights are seen as primarily an American issue.”
Wasn’t there a black civil rights campaign in Britain?
Frankly, I am more tired of hearing about the civil rights movement in America than I am about the struggles that took place in England. I want to hear about the real reason behind the Notting Hill Riots, the Bristol Bus Strike, the Handsworth Riots, or the Notting Hill He Carnival. By focusing on America’s civil rights campaign, post-World War II civil rights are seen as primarily an American issue. I am not saying that British society had anything close to the segregation and brutal treatment of blacks that the American Deep South did. By applying the . And most importantly, black Britons took to the streets to fight and win their civil rights in the face of great adversity.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s name will never die, but Paul Stephenson, Claudia Jones, Lynton Kwesi Johnson, Darcus Howe, and many others are credited with their contributions to the black British civil rights movement. It’s time to put down a brighter spotlight.
Before the late Chadwick Boseman died young, he was scheduled to star in a Hollywood movie about the life of the black samurai Yasuke. It was arguably the Hollywood epic that rivaled Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai. Yasuke was African, probably from around Mozambique, and according to sources, he was the first foreigner to become a samurai. He lived in his 16th century and served Oda Nobunaga, one of three important feudal lords who put an end to the conflict between the clans known as the Great Unifier of Japan.
I was fortunate enough to take courses on Japan at university before, during, and at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, but I had never heard of this miraculous story. I can’t stress enough how wonderful it is! Japan in the 16th century was very secretive and closed to outsiders. Samurai weren’t mindless thugs wielding swords in the streets for fun. They were members of the upper echelons of society. They had a way of life called bushido (warrior’s way), a code of great honor and duty. Therefore, it is not unusual for a black man of African descent (perhaps a former slave) to be not only accepted into Japanese society, but welcomed into the warrior class. He would have had to learn a dialect of Japanese to get it and also have the intelligence to learn the intricacies of being a samurai. Or just below?
this is just scratching the surface
Black history offers us a different perspective on important global events, inspiring and rebellious female leaders, and samurai stories worthy of Hollywood blockbusters. We could have written about Mansa I of Mali, the richest man in history. An architectural marvel that is the great Zimbabwe. Centuries of Ethiopian Empire. Border disputes between Namibia, Angola and Zambia that contributed to the end of apartheid. Benin and its lost treasure trove. Or Patrice Lumumba, the former leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo who was assassinated during the Cold War and presumably dissolved in acid (a story worthy of a spy thriller). That’s just a few!
Any time, not just October, is a good time to learn black history. So stop what you are doing, read a book or talk!
Photo credit: Claudia Jones poster by Duncan Cumming/Flickr
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