Murphy Browne © January 31-2020
I wrote this article 11 years ago, in 2009
and as we inch toward February 2020, I realize it is still relevant. When
I wrote this piece in 2009, it was in
reaction to a “well meaning” White person declaring that Carter Godwin Woodson
would be so disappointed that the name of the month had been changed because Woodson
had labelled it “Negro History Week” in February 1926 when he launched the
celebration. Woodson realized that the role of his people in American history
and world history, was being ignored or misrepresented among White scholars. He
saw the need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. Along
with William D. Hartgrove, George Cleveland Hall, Alexander L. Jackson, and
James E. Stamps, he founded the “Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History” on September 9, 1915, in Chicago. In 1915, Woodson also published “The
Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861: A History Of The Education Of The Colored
People Of The United States From The Beginning Of Slavery To The Civil War.”
His other books followed: “A Century of Negro Migration” (1918) and “The
History of the Negro Church” (1927). His work “The Negro in Our History” has
been reprinted in numerous editions and was revised by Charles H. Wesley after
Woodson transitioned to the ancestral realm in 1950.
Originally published in 2009
AFRICAN LIBERATION MONTH
What's in a name? Shakespeare wrote that a
rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. He could afford to think,
write and even say those words. He was a White male who had power and privilege
bestowed on him because of the colour of his skin. His parents probably named
him; he was not given a name by people from another culture who had stolen his
name and language from him. For enslaved Africans who did not have a choice in
naming themselves it is a very different matter. Europeans re-named us. Under
pain of death we were not permitted to use our own names or speak our mother
tongue. Africans in the Diaspora are the only group of people who do not
collectively know who they are. There are individuals and groups who will
acknowledge that they are African, but as a people we do not yet know and take
pride in who we are. Other groups whose ancestors left their places of origin
many years ago are proud of who they are. There is a reason for this difference
in attitudes. Our ancestors did not choose to leave; they were kidnapped,
dragged out of their countries, out of the continent in chains and held captive
their entire lives. Were it not for the more than 400-year enslavement of
Africans we would all know that we are Africans and our names would reflect this
knowledge.
Deliberate, strategic methods were used to
alienate Africans from tradition and from each other, and to teach African
inferiority and European superiority. Europeans first attacked African culture;
then they denied that African culture ever existed. Stripped of their names and
identities, our ancestors were no longer Africans; they were made
"Negro" by White slavers. The names many of us carry today reflect
the nationality of the Europeans who enslaved our ancestors. Had this not been
the case, my great grandfather's name would not have been Kelly Murphy Jonas.
His name would probably have been Kofi. Kofi is the Akan name given to a male
born on Friday. My name would have been Abena, because I was born on Tuesday.
My childhood friends Staye and Faye Daniels would probably have been Taiwo and
Kehinde because they are twins. Taiwo and Kehinde are the Yoruba names given to
twins. Africans in the Diaspora cannot claim one particular country as the
country of their ancestors either; our history of enslavement with the
accompanying destruction of family units makes it impossible. Since everyone
has two biological parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents and so
on, it is possible that one person can have ancestors from more than eight different
African groups. European slavers knew that divided we were vulnerable. They
designed a system to make us lose the basis of our collective identity. We were
separated, and then our names, our language, our stories, our songs, our family
structures, even our understanding of God -- the things that bound us together
-- were beaten out of us. Then, they had to make us believe in, protect and
even demand White supremacy. We had to be taught to love and revere Europe and
European culture more than life itself. We were also taught that Africans had
contributed nothing to the world.
There has been continued African
resistance to this attack on our sense of self since the first Africans were
kidnapped and enslaved. There were always people who resisted. Some of these
freedom fighters are well known; many others are not. In 1971, Richard B. Moore
wrote in an "Open Letter on Our People's Name" to Bayard Rustin,
Executive Director of the Asa Phillip Randolph Institute: "This term
'Negro' has long been a synonym for slave, loaded continuously with scorn and
hostility, and still linked in the public mind generally with a vile and
repulsive image." Born in Barbados on August 9, 1885, Moore moved to New
York as a young man. In the 1960s he created the "Committee to present the
truth about the Name Negro". He also published the book, “The Name Negro,
Its Origin and Evil Use,” as part of his campaign to encourage Africans to
reclaim their names. He made the connection between the use of the word
"Negro" and the beginning of the African slave trade. He proved
Europeans used it in their attempt to instill an inferiority complex within
Africans. Moore died in Barbados in 1978, but his work and his words live on.
Carter G. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro History Week in February
1926. Woodson chose February to honour the memory of Frederick Douglass. At the
time when Woodson started the recognition of African heritage and history as a
public entity, African Americans still used the name they had been given by
Europeans. During the 1960s and '70s the "Negroes" and
"Coloureds" of the U.S. renamed themselves Black. It was the time of
being "Black and Proud."
In 1976, as part of the American
bicentennial celebrations, "Negro History Week" became Black History
Month. Since then we have been expressing our kujichagulia (self-determination)
by naming our celebration Black History Month, African Heritage Month or
African Liberation Month. In Canada, the Canadian Negro Women's Association
pioneered the celebration of Black history in the 1950s. The Ontario Black
History Society was instrumental in the recognition of Black History Month as a
citywide celebration in 1979. In 1993, the celebration gained province-wide
recognition. In 1996, due to the intervention of MP Jean Augustine in December
of 1995, Black History Month became a nationally recognized celebration in
Canada.
Whatever you are comfortable naming
yourself, educate yourself about your history.
Murphy Browne © January 31-2020
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