-I think the reason why Black History Month was first
celebrated and probably is still celebrated
is the fact that for the rest of the year, if you like,
there's hardly any recognition of the achievements, history,
and so on of Africans, people of African descent,
those from the Caribbean.
You could still walk down the street and interview somebody
probably and say what month is it and people wouldn't know,
or ask them something about the history of Africa or Africans,
whoever they were, and they may not know.
So, there's still a long way to go until there's
that understanding.
But having said that, of course people
don't know very much about British history anyway.
This year when everyone's talking about abolition
and talking about Wilberforce, it's
important that people actually know that the main force
to liberate enslaved Africans were Africans themselves, not
the white men of property.
So to deal with these lies and inaccuracies,
it's important that this history is promoted and is prominently
presented to people.
Many people go through their lives
not actually knowing anything about Africans,
or not knowing that there was an African emperor of Britain,
for example, 2000 years ago, or that Africans contributed
in all the major wars of Britain since the 18th century,
and so on and so forth.
There are many, many examples.
I think Black History Month has had an effect, certainly
in London, some of the other big cities,
and also other parts of the country.
There is a recognition, to some extent,
that this history exists, that Africa
has a history, that Africans in Britain have a history,
have a presence going back 2000 years.
So, for some people there's that awareness.
In some schools, there's that awareness,
but more work still needs to be done.
The other thing about it is that we shouldn't just
see it as something positive.
It's an acknowledgement that for the rest of the year,
black history is largely ignored,
or the history of Africans is largely ignored.
So the more it becomes entrenched, the more it's
commemorated, the more ghetto-ised
our history becomes.
And what's important is that this history is celebrated,
not just in October, but for the rest of the year,
that it's integrated into the National Curriculum,
that there are resources, there are books,
that it's integrated into all the exhibitions at museums,
libraries, archives, that it's on television, and so on and so
forth.
So just having it in one month and making a big deal
about it in one month is not really
the solution or the way forward.