At Shrewsbury College, we would like to raise awareness of and celebrate Black History Month with a range of activities this month. One of our activities is interviewing staff and students to learn more about their culture, traditions and ancestry.
Praise Makula (A Levels)
What Black History means to me: As a Black girl, Black History Month means honouring the strength, beauty, and global impact of my heritage.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: By organising cultural days in college, it seems like a fun idea because if there was a day in college that we could all dress up in our ethnic attire to represent our culture and our countries, I think that would be amazing.
Colette Rugman
What Black History means to me: An embedded approach all year - not just in the month it is highlighted.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: By looking at content and ensuring there is diversity, even if the specification does not provide this, it can be done with displays, extension work. Inviting speakers in to discuss issues in the subject or to provide role models within the subject for minority students.
Do you have anything else you would like to say? I think it is about making the curriculum relevant to all groups, with content, but also with role models who can inspire them in subjects where they may be underrepresented.
Ellie Chanda (A Levels)
What Black History means to me: Black history to me means recognising and celebrating Black culture, Black accomplishments, and most importantly Black Excellence. As the only Black person in most of my classes, it means a great deal to me to succeed, as I feel I carry the responsibility of how Black people are represented in white spaces of academia. Black history month is very important to me as it allows me to see the many strong figures that have come before me and reminds me that I belong in white dominated spaces too.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: I believe the posters around campus, the books in the LRC, and the video displayed in tutorials this year were very well done. Perhaps get an easy-to-play African board game in the library or canteen. Or perhaps something small in the canteen, like plantain chips.
Chris Marenya (Engineering)
What Black History means to me: Black lives are being celebrated.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: Educate people with more posters around the college for awareness.
Zane Maisiri
What Black History means to me: I actually never knew about it, so to me it's just another day to be proud of my country and where l have come from - the good and bad.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: Get information about students' heritage, and give some time for silence as the anthems of black countries are played.
Hannah Edwards
What Black History means to me: A chance to highlight achievements, often overlooked through history, in a wide range of areas, including music, sport, literature, science, and history, whilst also celebrating how migration waves have shaped British society.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: Promoting the stories of Black British heroes, icons and role models in all fields that speak more to our young people than well-known faces involved in the American Civil Rights movement.
Tanisha Moore (Creative Media)
What Black History means to me: Communities coming together to celebrate culture and learning about my ancestry.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: Educate people who know nothing about different cultures, and have people of colour come in to tell their stories.
Valerie Mosupye (Preparation Routes Teacher)
What Black History means to me: Black History to me is an opportunity to reflect on history, promote learning and encourage progress towards a future built on equality, justice and pride for all. It is a meaningful time to honour Black identity and culture as an important part of our shared history.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: The college could also include black history throughout the curriculum, and invite black guest speakers, local authors, historians and community leaders. We could have African and Caribbean food festivals, music performances, and art exhibitions.
Sophia Roberts (A Levels)
What Black History means to me: Recognising and celebrating the differences in culture.
How I think the college should celebrate and raise awareness of Black History: Show both positive and negative aspects of history, such as integration and segregation, but also the history personal to the counties themselves. Trying different foods from around the world and displaying decorations such as flags.
Do you have anything else you would like to say? Personally, I have never seen Malawi represented before. It's a country often forgotten about, perhaps due to the minimal number of immigrated Malawians, as it's one of the poorest countries in the world.
Reggae
Reggae is a musical genre developed by Jamaicans of African ancestry in the late 1960s. Reggae bands incorporate musical elements from many genres, including Jamaican folk, ska, rocksteady, calypso, American soul music, and rhythm and blues.
Amapiano
Amapiano is a South African music genre that originated in the 2010s and combines house, jazz, and kwaito music. The name 'amapiano' comes from the Zulu word for 'pianos' and the genre is thought to have originated in the townships of South Africa.
Boerewors & Pap
Boerewors translated directly from Afrikaans means farmer's sausage. It is traditionally served inside a bread roll or with pap which is a traditional porridge made from mielie-meal (ground maize).