By Stokely Grey
With Black History Month quickly approaching I think of how many of us still take history for granted. While growing up in Basseterre, St. Kitts, history was a mandatory subject for every student. However, throughout my entire formal education beginning with the Basseterre Boys School to graduating from the Basseterre High School with a CXC passing grade in history, the overall theme seemed particularly repetitive. The summary that I and many of my schoolmates gained was a theme of history that highlighted and glorified Europeans and their achievements, their technology, their intellect and created an illusion of their superiority. At the same time Africans and their descendents were portrayed as almost being lucky to have had any interaction with Europeans from 1492 until today. This theme was clear not just in the classroom but also in everyday life. In the neighborhood, the street and at church, the theme reoccurred as the civilizations of the Hebrews and Greeks and even the British were viewed as righteous despite the clear contradictory illustrations of African enslavement and subsequent genocide. I also felt it strange that there was little of anything mentioned of my African ancestors prior to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. There was no documented information presented to me on the pre-slavery history to counteract the lies of African inferiority, savagery and paganism. Though I did not believe most stereotypes I was certainly not learned or educated enough to adequately address them in a scholarly fashion. I have now come to the understanding after ten years of my last formal history class in St. Kitts that I was undoubtedly mis-educated.
This mis-education was done in various ways and on many levels. From the receiving of inaccurate information to the complete downplaying and even ignoring of huge amounts of relevant historical facts. Though at first it appeared that my mis-education was isolated to the subject of history, it later became clear that it also applied to all manner of subject areas including Economics, Literature, Religion, Philosophy and even Mathematics. Therefore, in order for my fellow “Kittitians” to not share the same disappointment as I did, I hope this article and others can act as a seed that will sprout into a proper Knowledge of Self.
Black History Month was invented by an “African-American” scholar by the name of Carter G Woodson. Woodson was born the son of former slaves in New Canton, Virginia. Over his life span he became an esteemed historian, author and journalist. In 1926, Woodson single-handedly pioneered the celebration of "Negro History Week", for the second week in February, to coincide with marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. 1 This was later changed to span the entire month and hence the origin of the current Black History Month in February. Though the masses of Black people are aware of Black History month, too few know anything about Carter, G. Woodson or any of his authored works, the best of which is arguably “The Mis-education of the Negro”. Dr. Woodson, one of the first Black Ph. D graduates of Harvard University, was also a senior columnist for the “Negro World” the newspaper of the beloved Marcus Mosiah Garvey
One might ask the question, why is it important to study Woodson and his works? This book, The Mis-education of the Negro, though written in 1933, is still relevant to African people and their descendants in the Diaspora of the Americas today. On the first page Woodson explains how “…the Negroes are taught to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton and to despise the African.”2 This truth reminded me of how I grew up blindly thinking of the Greeks as the authors and fathers of the very education I was receiving. Socrates, Herodotus, Hippocrates and Pythagoras are just a few of the Greek heroes I learned to look up to without knowledge of the Africans that came and laid the foundation before them. I was also taught at Sunday school to look up to Paul, David, Moses, Abraham and Jesus not knowing of the African religious patriarchs, matriarchs and even Christs that existed long before those in the Bible. I consider this book a seed that can germinate in the minds of our people and inspire a desire for a deeper study of our history (OUR-STORY). This study can then possibly spawn a greater pride in self and increase one’s critical thinking skills in all subject areas. I recommend that there be a copy of “The Mis-education of the negro” in every household.
It was not clear then as it is now how the consciousness of African people, though once falsified during slavery, have not yet fully recovered. What Woodson states are harsh truths that we must all examine. I think that if history is a guide to a people’s future then we need to continuously study and reassess what we have been taught and what our youth are being programmed to believe. It is my contention that the book, “The Mis-education of the Negro” and others like it, can instill within the youths of St. Kitts-Nevis a pride that will significantly increase the love for education, literacy, entrepreneurship while decreasing the school drop-out rates and crime rates. When celebrating Black History Month this year remember its origin and explore the works of Carter, G. Woodson.
1. Delilah L. Beasley, "Activities Among Negroes, Oakland Tribune, Feb. 14, 1926, pX-5
2. Woodson, Carter Godwin. The Mis-education of the Negro. Trenton, NJ: Africa World, 1990.1. Print
EDITOR'S NOTE: Stokely Grey has indicated that he could be reached at skbgrey@gmail.com
