Experiences of Black History Month

Um, I wondered what Black History, what your thoughts are about Black History Month in general and what its meaning might be to you personally. Well, I was born and raised in a black country in Nairobi, Kenya. I'm Ugandan originally or ethnically. I'm ethnically Ugandan, but my family, my Ugandan family was Gave birth to me and raised me in Kenya.

And um, so there's no Black History Month in Kenya or in Uganda. Um, but I, at the age of 18, I moved to the United States for 10 years. When I was there, Black History Month was February.

Pretty sure. Um, I, I believe it was February. And, um, that's when I started to sort of understand or see that it could be this time to bring consciousness to the lives and experiences of black people, um, and I moved to the UK 6 years ago and I hadn't really sort of engaged or experienced anything with Black History Month, but now I have a daughter who's 7 years old and she's in school.

And so this October at the beginning of the month, she came to me and she said, Mommy, she's biracial herself. Mommy, this is your month. I'm going to buy you a present because it's Black History Month.

I was like, Oh this is so interesting how she's, what, what she's learning and experiencing about. Black history because of course so much of black history is so painful and I was so curious how her school would transmit this information to her but it seemed to be about joy and presence but just this morning incidentally and my partner is white our daughter said to us, you know, I'm mommy, my partner's mama. Mama.

Your people used to be really mean to mommy, and we were both like, this is, um, this is so interesting. Tell, tell us more. What did you know? What do you know about this? And in what way was mama, mama's people mean to mommy? And she said, well, for example, you never used to be able to sit.

On the seat on a bus next to people until someone, and I said, Do you know who? She was like, Yes, Rosa Parks. I was like, that's so interesting. Is your school telling you just about America then? And she was like, Yep.

And I was like, OK, that's cool. I said, incidentally, in England there was also a lot of meanness, so it's just, it's, it's sort of sweet to To think about and sort of wrestle with how we How we teach history, what is history, and how we come to a shared understanding, especially in 2026 when facts are so elusive, everything seems debatable, you know, and in places where I used to live, like in the United States, the erasure. Of standard education that would mention even things like slavery, the facts of colonialism, anything that makes people feel uncomfortable, that means that more and more people are being raised without this shared knowledge of just the The immensity of the grief that has been black history for so long and, and, and what where we are now isn't representative of where we've always been.

Um, I wondered if there was any last thought that, uh, you had things that you wanted people to reflect on, or, or just. Um, Last thoughts to reflect on, I think that. Yeah, I hope that Black History Month serves as sort of A a start and not something that is packed away November 1st, and, and I think that And I hope that the same sort of questioning or enjoyment of Uh, black cultural outputs and creativity that Is a focus in October that that is also inspiration to see other cultures and other ethnic minorities, cultural outputs.

I think sometimes what happens is October can be a chance to realise. So many of maybe the musicians or the talent that goes overlooked the rest of the time, but that same momentum, that same curiosity around black culture, I hope that it expands, um, and, and can sort of have this. A momentum that, you know, creates, like you said, plurality, right, or some kind of plurality, yeah.