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We Need a Global Black History Day
Black history is unlike any other history. When most people think about black history, they are mostly thinking about Black American History. They think about public icons like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks. They remember the Little Rock Nine and the atrocities of American segregation and American chattel slavery. But what about everything in between? I will personally admit that before college, I was blind to many of the public figures in black freedom fighting outside of the U.S. I didn’t know anything about Frantz Fanon, Marcus Garvey, the Belgium Congo, the Shark Island genocides, and the lingering effects of South African apartheid. I learned these things in college and by chance while reading novels like “Heart of Darkness” and “Invisible Man,” which eluded to the issues of racism, imperialism and colonialism.
Black “otherness” is a global phenomenon. If you take the stories of black bodies from around the globe, you’ll see and hear a lot of the same. Our culture, our histories, and our humanity are constantly denied by the modern world. Black people just need a day, of reflection on a global level. A day that we can remember the slaves that died, drowning at sea, to escape their unknown fate. We need a day to remember the people like Nelson Mandela and Patrice Lumumba who fought hard to liberate black peoples from post-colonialism. We need a day to remember the Haitian Revolution, the Black Panther party, the Maroons, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, the Rumba, Reggae, Voodoo, Blues, black artists, poets, black love. We need a day to celebrate black life.
