Don't Know Much About History

I didn’t spend much time studying history at school.

After three years of turgid medieval and Tudor monarchs I’d had enough and elected to do a GCSE in Geography instead. As a result, I left school woefully ignorant of the recent history of both my own country and the wider world. When I later developed an interest in international affairs while working in Hong Kong just before the handover, my lack of historical background became a serious impediment. Consequently, when I should have been spending my evenings drinking and having sex, I invariably had my head buried in a history book instead.

So last week I couldn’t help but feel a bit depressed when I heard the owner of Bermuda Rentals, Douglas Howe, question why Dellwood Middle School had embraced an African values curriculum when we’re a British colony.

As I imagine most children at Dellwood have African roots, I don’t understand why Mr. Howe feels they should be denied the opportunity to learn about their heritage. Neither do I understand why he feels it’s inappropriate for white children to learn about the traditions of their classmates. Frankly, given the composition of its population, I’m surprised that Bermuda’s regular history curriculum doesn’t contain a more equal mix of Bermudian, English, African and Portuguese history.

The element of ASHAY that Mr. Howe seems to find most objectionable is the part focussing on Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is a pan-African holiday which was established in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University. It was created to reaffirm African culture, serve as a regular communal celebration (the holiday is celebrated from 26 December to 1 January) and introduce the Nguzo Saba, seven communitarian African values.

Mr. Howe said that as a Christian, he was offended by the ASHAY programme, which he felt had everything to do with religion and nothing to do with history. This is puzzling. Kwanzaa is deliberately non-denominational; besides, most black Bermudians are also Christians. It’s unlikely that Dellwood is trying to instil African tribal religions in its children.

That said, it’s unfortunate that Dellwood’s principal, Jeanette Musson, chose to refer to the seven principles of Kwanzaa as “the seven principles of blackness”. That does suggest a somewhat exclusionary curriculum. However Google indicates that only a minority refer to the Nguzo Saba in that way. Although the principles do make reference to maintaining unity in the race, restoring “our people” to their traditional greatness and believing in the righteousness of “our struggle”, when considered in the context of the civil rights movement that seems perfectly reasonable. These references aside, the Nguzo Saba express a set of principles that anyone might choose to live by. Moreover, while the holiday may have originally been created for blacks, non-blacks can and do celebrate it, just as they do Chinese New Year.

The more Bermudians of different races know about each other’s heritage, the better. Provided ASHAY is part of a balanced programme of history teaching, I see little wrong with it.

Comments

[coy on 18.01.05 at 06:35]

Maybe we should give Mr. Howe a chance to explain how he was taken out of context. I'm not sure he would want to repeat his comments

[KJD on 18.01.05 at 07:43]

It seems like this whole thing is being blown out of proportion by some poor comments by both Howe and Dellwood's principle in framing things in such a fiercely racial way.

Bermudian children, black and white, should learn the history of the world. In particular they should learn the history of the world most relevant to them --

a) Britain, especially colonial and post-colonial Britain because of its obvious impact on our development as an island, and our ongoing relationship.

b) The history of our other places of origin: Portugal, the Azores, Africa, the West Indies etc.

c) The United States & Canada given the enormous impact they have on us today as our largest trading partner and the dominant destination for our tertiary education respectively.

d) Bermuda. I've always had an interest in history and its still shocking how little I know about my homeland beyond the story of our founding and settlement, which is literally all I was taught in school (Saltus btw).

It seems to me the issue isn't whether we should learn about all these things but how. A, B and D should be taught as our collective story. Perhaps before we focus on Independence we should start writing our own text books and enlighten our kids (black and white) about our story. Perhaps future generations will be better informed and better able to make objective decisions than we are!

[Andrew on 18.01.05 at 10:01]

It would be much better if you knew what ASHAY was before supporting it. As I understand, ASHAY was written by Ms. Musson, Dellwood's principle and few really know what it is teaching. There should be a group reviewing ASHAY immediately to insure that the principle is not brain-washing the students in her own idology. Get the facts!

[KJD on 18.01.05 at 10:36]

Andrew --

Simmer down there buddy, I think you've misunderstood the intent of my post.

I'm not supporting ASHAY, I don't really know enough about it to say one way or another about it. From what you said, it sounds pretty dubious. From what thelimey said, not so bad.

Doesn't really matter for my purposes...

I'm merely saying that I think we ought to be teaching a history curriculum that gives an integrated, objective look at Bermuda's history, that of our neighbours, and where we came from -- including from Africa.

[Fornicator on 18.01.05 at 11:47]

"There should be a group reviewing ASHAY immediately to insure that the principle is not brain-washing the students in her own idology."

While I totally agree that ASHAY needs to be reviewed, the starting point for the discussion shouldn't be that it hasn't been reviewed, or that ASHAY specifically needs to be reviewed immediately. The program got specific mention in the Budget, so it's not like it has slipped in under the radar. Further, there has been a lot of brainwashing in the teaching of history in Bermuda's public schools (I can't speak for Private). So let's not be hypocritical and stick a warning label on ASHAY only.

While we ought to be concerned about any teacher brainwashing kids in their own ideology, we should equally be concerned about the brainwashing that occurs(ed) from a signicant (if not complete) lack of non-Eurocentric education in the curriculum. Bermudian history, African history, slavery, Caribbean links and civil rights, issues were not taught, or were taught superficially, when I was in school. And of course let's not forget Asian, Pacific and Native American history as well. For decades we were taught nothing but Eurocentric history - Of course this was with the brutality of the Brits and Americans censored. Even the Germans got off lightly. Romanticized it was indeed! Brainwashing, it was for sure!

Personally I'd love to know if today's history books have changed, because the old way of teaching history was far more damaging than what I've heard about ASHAY. I'm particularly interested if South Africa is studied, and if the supporters of the Apartheid regime are flagged. This would be quite telling.

NB: The new Bermuda history book that came out this year is a fantastic starter book. It should be in everyone's hands if you ask me.

[onion on 18.01.05 at 12:08]

As a black Bermudian of course I am in favour of children being taught African history. However, the ASHAY program is more geared toward teaching an ideology than African history. I am against this just as I would be against students being taught a European ideology. The focus must be on history.

Firstly, the emphasis must be on Bermuda history. Bermudians know very little about black Bermuda history.

[mwz on 18.01.05 at 12:30]

If one researched the subject of Kwamzaa it does not take long to find that Kwanzaa really has nothing to do with Africa at all. Ron Karenga himself stated that "I came up with Kwanzaa because black people in this country wouldn't celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that's when a lot of bloods would be partying." (quote taken from frontpagemagazine.com article December 26 2002 Happy Kwanzaa) I do not know what is being taught at Dellwood and therefore cannot comment on it. However if Kwanzaa and Ron Karenga's teachings are being taught as African history then there is something seriously amiss. Ron Karenga is nothing but a cult leader who was found guilty of a brutal torture and who told blacks to reject Jesus. Also, two of his followers killed two Black Panthers in a power strugle for the Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA. Ron Karenga is not part of African History he is part of American History. Unfortuntely history highlighted by black on black violence at the height of the civil rights struggle.

[Point on 18.01.05 at 12:57]

From http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/NguzoSaba.html here is a link and a summary of the Nguzo Saba symbols and principles, first in Swahili and then in (English):

Umoja (Unity) - To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) - To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) - To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) - To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Nia (Purpose) - To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (Creativity) - To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Imani (Faith) - To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

[Boogie on 18.01.05 at 13:07]

Ron "Karenga" is a murderer in African garb and his holiday and his seven principles should be consigned to the garbage dump of history.

For those that don't know, there has been two strains of thought among the Blacks for more than a century. The majority has been those who have seen the political or even economic route as the way out of the economic vice grip of the inner city in the US. They are best exemplified by the left/right pantheon of Booker T Washinton, Ralph Bunche, your Colin Powells and - dare I say it - your John Swans.

The cultural nationalists have seen a reconnection to Africa - and the extreme view is emigration to Africa - as the solution. The best examples are the "Hebrew Israelites" (Black American accents living in the shadow of Israel's bombmaking factory at Dimona), Rastafarians (the debate last week on whether or not Bob Marley's remains should be reburied in Ethiopia) and Karenga's US Movement.

Karenga had no agenda other than the adoptation of African names, clothing and supposedly "pro-black" rhetoric. It is true that people who were close the Black Panthers of Los Angeles in 1969 accuse members of US as killing some Panthers. It is certainly true that there were confrontation between the two groups. Only now do we know that the FBI's Cointelpro counterintelligence program used US to agitate against the Panthers.

Karenga spouted anti-white rhetoric while accepting the FBI's coin and bucking for tenure at Long Beach State.

No-one has asked the right questions about ASHAY. What is it's curriculum, what are its sources, are they readily available and arethey subject to peer review?

For example does it teach young people that we can never know how many Africans died on the Middle Passage (to the Americas)? Or does it say (like the cultural black nationalists and sloppy political black nationalists) that it was 100 million?

Does it explain that considering the estimated population of the world and Africa, extrapolations from ship's manifests and further estimates of illegal shipments that the likely number of people shipped from Africa is certainly under 10 million between the 1450s and the 1880s?

Anything short of good scholarshp is worse than forcing black children to learn about the American revolution or Sir George Somers.

Karenga's a fraud and so is his programme. I've seen him speak twice.

[Tiger Bay on 18.01.05 at 13:11]

All positive thoughts, but sounds like they were written by a committee.

What happened to self-reliance and accountability?

Perhaps more focus should be placed on the individual, and on enhancing kids' confidence that they can succeed under their own motivation and discipline.

We know from bitter experience that the group is not well suited to raising children. Group solidarity is nice, but only you can study and work to get ahead.

[jake on 18.01.05 at 13:17]

I welcome your points of view as I have always viewed Kwanzaa with some confusion. When I am in the US it is assumed that it is my celebration, which as unfamiliar as I was it was not.

I tend to celebrate the week of boxing day until the new year anyway. Even when I am supposed to be working, I spend the time with friends and family as much as I can.

If the principles can be applied in that way fine.

As for the accounting of history, it is important that we number as best we can the tragedy of slavery. If for any reason it is to prevent those who would seek to diminish its significance.

I glory in the spirit of the Holocaust survivors and Jewish community who have made the remembrance of this evil, prominent. And still there are those who seek to deny it ever took place.

The only way to fight those kinds of mentalities is to be accurate in our portrayal of history. We betray our ancestors with less.

[The Limey on 18.01.05 at 14:01]

To dismiss Kwanzaa as some kind of evil ideology cooked up by a crazy cultist is to ignore its widespread acceptance by many moderate African Americans, who look upon it as an opportunity to celebrate all that's good about their culture. Type 'Kwanzaa' into Google News and look at what comes back. Kwanzaa has become considerably less radical since its birth; had it not it would not have gained such widespread acceptance by corporate America as well as individuals.

[intrigued on 18.01.05 at 14:08]

So what if the sloppy political balck nationalists mis-estimate the number tenfold as 100 million versus 10 million. So waht if the number was only 2 million. Their concerns are no less important. By the way, 10 million is roughly one third the size of Canada. If one third of Canadians were shipped off to another country aginst their will, even if sent out by their own countrymen, would that not be one of the largest travesties in the history of the world. Would it not warrant considerable bandwidth in our teachings? By any measure the level of teaching in the public (and I am sure the private) schools is woefully inadequate given the scale of injustice in the history of the world.

[onion on 18.01.05 at 14:15]

Why in Bermuda don't we start forging our own identity and focus on(1) Bermudian history (black and white) and (2) World history including African history directly from the source and not through the eyes of black Americans trying to recreate some generic Africanism.

[jake on 18.01.05 at 14:59]

Onion, I think that is an unfair characterization. Much of the scholarship on African history has taken place in the US by African Americans - who are as entitled to the history as we are.

It is wrong to cast en entire segment of a community on the basis of one individual or even two short lved political movements. Of greater and lasting significance was Martin Luther King - and African/Negro/Black/ American or however you wish to describe him. Do we throw him out too one day after the holiday celebrating his work?

I hope not.

[onion on 18.01.05 at 15:34]

True. Let me be more specific. I am talking about Kwanzaa and other ideologies that come up under the baner of "African". It ain't African!! So why do we teach children that this is African history? It ain't!

Talk about the Egyption empire, the Cush and Mali empires, the University of Timbuku where philospohy and medicine and engineering thrived before they ever reached Greek or Roman shores. Talk about the Egyptian sailors who did expeditions to the Far East and Sout America before Columbus ever set foot on a boat.

But don't put some African words and philosphies together and call it African history.

[Fornicator on 18.01.05 at 15:42]

"What happened to self-reliance and accountability?"

TB - That is covered in several principles.

"No-one has asked the right questions about ASHAY. What is it's curriculum, what are its sources, are they readily available and arethey subject to peer review?

For example does it teach young people that we can never know how many Africans died on the Middle Passage (to the Americas)? Or does it say (like the cultural black nationalists and sloppy political black nationalists) that it was 100 million?"

Boogie, how do you know that ASHAY is teaching anything beyond the principles? You've immediately jumped into charges of racist propaganda. I can appreciate your apprehension to Karenga, but many of the world's history tellers tend to be tyrants and slimeballs. I sincrely doubt that Karenga takes the crown.

I'd love to hear what you think about the current level of "truth" and "balance" that has been taught in history classes. You seem to have less of a problem with the teaching of American history and Sir George Sommers, but that too has and can be taught with just as much harmful/ignorant fiction. And this is even if it has been subjected to peer review. Remember, Christopher Columbus discovered America - that BS is still taught today, as is a lot of other "approved by peer review" rubbish in the North American curriculum.

"To dismiss Kwanzaa as some kind of evil ideology cooked up by a crazy cultist is to ignore its widespread acceptance by many moderate African Americans, who look upon it as an opportunity to celebrate all that's good about their culture."

Good point. I'd love to know what Boogie thinks of Judaism.

[shipstones on 18.01.05 at 17:17]

I was taught in English schools and understood that the Brits enslaved africans. I was taught about the holocaust and all the European wars and the various world crusaders.
I came to the conclusion that we as human beings had a pretty brutal past. The only animal that would brutalise and kill whole hords of its own kind for the sake of their own betterment in land ownership or wealth and power.
From what I know it was the same in Africa, only limited by the inability to travel long distances from some areas. Slavery existed, genocide existed etc. Weapons were not as far developed and therefore there was not the same capability to kill as many people and take over more land. If you are busy hunting food you don't have time to play warlords.
We can certainly learn from history, African, European or Chinese, so that we can avoid the mistakes of the past and perpetuate and build on the things we have done right.
Thats my view from being taught in UK. What rubbish books were Bermudians being taught from that show such a different view and a whitewash of the past?
Yes each battle that UK won was glorified and those of their enemies vilified. But that is only natural. One has to read between the lines of any history book and know the background of the writer before you try and understand what really happened.

[Boogie on 18.01.05 at 17:48]

You know as someone who got a history degree in the late 1980s at the height of the "Afro-centric" movement in the US, I now feel betrayed by its leaders.

If it wasn't Karenga, it's Molefi Assante (fired for plagarism). If it wasn't them, it was George GM James ("the Greeks were freaks, don't study them! Yes, I have a degree in the classics and my doctoral thesis was in Logic but black people don't need it"). They led us down a path of self promotion and little scholarship.

If I had a child at Dellwood I would be demanding to know exactly what is being taught. I repeat what are ASHAY's sources and what conclusions is it teaching our young people? Only its instructor knows.

[Fornicator on 18.01.05 at 20:20]

"I was taught in English schools and understood that the Brits enslaved africans. I was taught about the holocaust and all the European wars and the various world crusaders."

Ships,

Strangely enough, I've got a friend who attened private school who said that she was taught all the things that were denied in public school. My friend quoted all sorts of stuff and left me absolutely baffled as to why we weren't taught it too. Now, I have a cynical idea why we weren't taught it, but who knows... All I can tell you is that when I was in school there was no mention of slavery, no mention of civil rights, no mention of the evils of colonialism, no mention of civil rights, etc. We were brainwashed.

[shipstones on 18.01.05 at 23:14]

I'll ask what my daughter was taught. She is 27 went to Warwick and Saltus.
By the way I went to a grammar school which was equivalent of Warwick before it went private.

[Mwalimu Melodye Micere Van Putten on 19.01.05 at 18:03]

Hotep and Greetings Limey...

As the creator of the Ashay Rites of Passage Programme, first let me say that I appreciate your interest and the opportunity to provide the salient points of the Ashay programme, as well as give you some personal background information.

As a child of the 60's, I didn't have a course in black history, but Martin King, Malcolm X and even WEB DuBois were still alive and helping to reshape the political landscape for not only African Americans, but gave inspiration to freedom movements globally. Initially, I sought to teach my own child his history and culture that was absent from his academic experiences in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA.

The program, originally called "Black History Workshops for Children," began in my living room with 12 children and funding from family and friends in 1986. I came to understand it as my life's work in 1989 when TIME Magazine named me a "Rising Star" for having created the programme. The following year, I was made a "Presidential Fellow" by Temple University and began my graduate school studies in the field.

BHWC/Ashay has received numerous awards and recognition, including Citations from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate, the Mayor and City Council of Philadelphia, the NAACP, Outstanding Young Woman of America, etc. It has been featured in various U.S. newspapers, radio and television programmes. My work as an Africalogist and Education Consultant has taken me to universities, churches, school systems and community centers all over the United States. In fact, lecturing on global black history at the invitation of Bermuda College is how I got to Bermuda.

Regarding the Ashay programme, it is being implemented as a "character education" programme utilizing the prism of global African history and culture to teach what I call the lessons of empowerment. It begins with the value system of the ancient Egyptians/Kemet, Maat. Maat is truth, justice, righteousness, harmony, balance, order and reciprocity. It extends to the principles of Kwanzaa as a modern expression of the ancient values. Practical application is the broad goal; how do we USE these values to empower young people to reach for their highest possibilities.

To further enlighten your subscribership, the following are the four objectives of the Ashay programme concerning all students attending Dellwood Middle School:

1. You are valuable and have genius that you must grow.
2. History and culture are sources of knowledge and lessons to be learned.
3. You must develop and grow good character in preparation for a successful life.
4. The World is waiting for you to contribute your gifts and talents.

Ashay is filled with information which all successful people utilize, no matter their ethnicity. For example, the Kwanzaa principle, Nia/Purpose. Children are taught that:
1. They each have a Purpose in life.
2. In pursuit of their purpose they must have goals.
3. In pursuit of their goals, they must have a plan to reach their goals.
The workbook exercise in connection with this principle has children mapping out their goals and the plan to get there. That map would include schooling, university course of study, licensing or certification requirements and, finally, a job in their field. Better yet, seek to own/create the business. These are values and principles that ALL successful people utilize. I could go on and on, giving explication to each principle, but I think you get the picture.

The course also gives introductions to a broad variety of historical figures and events in black history including Sally Bassett, Mary Prince, the Conspiracy of 1761, Frederick Douglass, the Underground Railroad, Marcus Garvey, etc. The programme is supported by numerous texts, including Chained on the Rock (Packwood), Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern (Van Sertima), The Black 100 (Salley), amongst many others.

Because Ashay is holistic in its approach, it utilizes various disciplines in its curriculum including history, culture, the arts (literature, poetry, music), African language, geography and science.

I truly believe that part of the "controversy" here is that we are not accustomed to hearing about black history being taught, unabashedly and unapologetically, from a position of empowerment. Ashay represents balance in a school curriculum that has been dominated by the teaching of European history and culture for all children. Then there's the fear factor... All of these elements, and probably a few more, contribute to an uneasyness expressed by various members of the community, black and white.

Finally, Black History Workshops for Children was renamed and customized for Bermuda as "Ashay." Ashay means "it is good;" indeed, it is good for young people to have a fuller understanding of history and culture. It is good for young people to develop a healthy respect and appreciation of African history and culture. It is my hope that this fairly detailed e-mail will also provide your audience with the beginning elements of mutual respect based on what Ashay is really all about. Ashay!

In the Spirit of Empowerment,
Mwalimu Melodye Micere Van Putten, M.A.
Africalogist/Education Consultant

[jake on 19.01.05 at 19:55]

So what's wrong with that folks?

I remember reading Van Sertima's "They came before Columbus" when at the Bermuda College.

I welcome voice in our island. Let these children be taught without the stigma that many of us as adults carry. Yes we have achieved material success in its many forms, but to do so we often lost the very freedom our success was supposed to embody.

Who knows what those children, properly instructed, will go on to create. There may lie the cure for cancer, or the next great composer.

I do not know. I am from the old school, and I do the best with what I have. I glory in your spirit though.

[J Galt on 19.01.05 at 22:57]

Hello Melodye,

Thank you for the very informative post, I have a few quick questions, I hope you will be able to answer

What do you see as your purpose in life?
As you pursue that purpose what goals do you have?
How do you plan to reach those goals?

[butwhatabout... on 20.01.05 at 12:46]

Mwalimu --

Thanks so much for taking the time to contribute to this dialog. As a white bermudian though, there are two things that continue to concern me about this program that I'm hoping you can clarify:

1) this issue around the principal at dellwood calling the Ashay principles the "7 principles of blackness''. to me this sounds divisive, not empowering

2) i'm not sold that it's in the best interest of bermuda's future to be teaching our kids that they should be using their spending power to support black businesses just because they're black-owned. to me this principle is less controversial somewhere where the black population is (a) not in the majority and (b) not as economically empowered as black bermudians already are.

[jake on 20.01.05 at 13:03]

That is ridiculous. Are we economically empowered in proportion to our demographic? Even close? The relationship is closer to inverse.

I support buying quality, but let's not act as if there is an "enough" that black Bermudians are entitled to. On that basis what do you suggest white Bermudians are entitled to? More? Why would that be?

[shipstones on 20.01.05 at 14:43]

Jake,
I think you have jumped off the tracks again.
As you suggested that I help any young Bermudian with a degree get a job, not just blacks. I cannot see where a education curriculum that is "7 principles of blackness'' is going to help the white kids at Delwood who are the minority! Those principles are fine. They can be applied to anyone if worded correctly, but to apply them to one race is detrimental to the harmony of the island.

[Mwalimu Melodye Micere Van Putten on 20.01.05 at 17:12]

Hotep...

Asante sana (thank you very much) Limey and all those who responded to my attempt to clarify what Ashay is all about.

First, I cordially invite you all to be in attendance when I give my first public lecture of the year sometime next month. It will be informative as well as entertaining and will serve as a fundraiser for the school. Stay tuned for the particulars.

Second, regarding the wording of the "seven principles of blackness" that are the cornerstones of the Kwanzaa celebration, I think that people are trying to find a problem where there is none. The principles are universal, even as this particular context for them is designed to assist people of color recover from centuries of oppression. That's the truth that few whites want to deal with. People of African descent are STILL recovering from centuries of oppression - enslavement, segregation, discrimination, overtly and covertly. What is interesting to me is that these same people who object to Ashay have NOT objected to the one-sided view of history that has been taught for eons! Don't get me started!!! I make no apologies for what I am doing to empower young people, black or white. The young people who attend Dellwood Middle School know that I have a geniune love for them and a passion that insists that each of them, all of them, reach for the greatness that is within them. For me, that's the bottom line.

In the Spirit of Empowerment,
Mwalimu Micere

PS: Limey, congratulations on your new RG column. Any possibility of talking with you about some things?

[shipstones on 20.01.05 at 20:53]

Ms. Van Putten,
I do commend you on your program, but as you agree that it applies to all, why not "7 principles of humankindness". You can still teach both African History and European History. But you must teach in that the sordid side of both. History is not pretty whether it be African or European or Asian. Human beings have done many bad things! Then it would truly apply to all kids at Dellwood. You may depress the hell out of them telling them of the various genocides etc. but go ahead. Or are you going to teach them all the good things about just African history? Just as you suggest European education is based.
There are always two sides to a story, we humans always choose the side that serves us. I don't know if you have spoken to the wife and husband who have gone through a bad divorce, but if you do, you will see how different the same story can be.
There are no unbiased historians I am afraid!

[akinola on 27.01.05 at 16:42]

You america fakes are all the same. Arabs were the first to take slaves out of africa, raping the women castrating the men creating the arab african races, the bearded enemy of the yoruba race. The Edo sold slaves to the Portuguese to fight them with firearms. Oyo sold slaves to Europeans in slave markets and the Dahomians sold slaves to America for cannons. Because of the rebellion of the dahomians in Haiti and the yoruba in Brazil. African traditions were beat out of Kunta Kinte. The Missionaries were used to create better slaves in the master's religion. No Jew, Moslem or Christian deserves reperations because you still financially support the sankofa religion. African traditonal rulers are the rightful rulers of the black race, not the 9th and 10th calvary traitors like Martin Luther King and a Negroe PLP government.

[jake on 27.01.05 at 16:45]

Uh...right. Thanks for dropping by.

[akinola on 27.01.05 at 16:51]

The Ashay programme is watereddown propoganda and in England the standards are much higher with african nationals teaching languages and everything. Independence would retard African education truthfully without Government sponsored training programs in London. Eru slave history cannot compete with traditional african history.
With crooks like this you whites can understand why we sold you slaves in the first place. Obatala people like Mr Howe must be congradulated for comprehending the difference between pagan idols and christianity.

[shipstones on 27.01.05 at 16:56]

Jake,
Trivializing again or just lost for words!

[Susan on 03.02.05 at 12:34]

Students today have some excellent historical and cultural resources that weren't around when we were going to school:

Rose Jones's Bermuda Five Centuries

Bermuda Connections: A Cultural Resource Guide for Classrooms, produced by the Smithsonian Institution and based on research undertaken for Bermuda's participation in the 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Especially pertinent to this discussion are the sections on Being Bermudian and Family and Community Connections.

The exhibits at Commissioners House at the Maritime Museum. The staff have produced world-class exhibits on slavery, Portuguese Bermudians, our West Indian connections and more. Every child in Bermuda should be exposed to these exhibits.

All three of the above address and explore Bermudian identity and history. They encourage conversation about who we are and who we have been. Our collective experience here has been very different than it would have been overseas - whether we're black or white.