Why African History is relevant for Education, period!

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Build a solid foundation 1st with African history being inclusive in all educational pursuits.

This morning I posted a reflection of mine and one response back streamlined the thoughts I had after putting up the post.
Here’s the post-

Imagine children all over, passionate about learning and the effect that it makes in their world when they question and discover.



And here’s the response back- thanks brother-Olusegun Adesesan Bamgbelu

“It starts with them learning to love themselves, When my parents told me that it was the Africans that invented mathematics, with the Ishango bone, they calculated the volume of a truncated pyramid, that Imhotep was the father of medicine and a polygot.

Even the pure sciences of Physics,Chemistry Zoology and Botany are taught with a European slant. It leaves our kids wondering if Africans ever contributed anything to scientific knowledge.

The reality of the answer to that question brings up an interesting conundrum.

I have a lot of respect for Einstein, Planck, Kelvin, Fibbonachi, Euclid, but they were standing on the shoulders of giants, and those giants are our ancestors.”

It took me back to the years when I taught Mathematics to my beloved American children- New Yorkers, Californians, North Carolinians and South Carolinians. All our children in another land, yet still our children in our global village.
I had created a month long celebration of Black Mathematicians and Scientists after coming to appreciate this month long drive from my Alma Mata “Fordham University” which had a tradition of celebrating Women’s history month in honor of women’s contributions to society and the world at large.

I adopted that model because as I taught math and science, I saw the indifference my minority brethren across the span of the nation had towards the subjects. The rallying point came for me when a student much loved by me for his comedic antics in my classroom asked the pivotal question- “Why should I care about mathematics and science when my ancestors had nothing to do it, they discovered nothing, created nothing and when I listen to the news or radio I hear nothing about black or hispanic students involving math/science. Anyhow, black people aren’t good at math or science.”
I will never know how I kept myself from bawling out in frustration, grief and utter despair. Then I steeled up my resolve and realized at that moment that it was no accident that I was the only black person in the entire school and the community (I taught in a small community in the Central Valley area of California, comprising of a high migrant community- mostly Hispanic and Caucasian)
I stopped teaching that day and reached out to my students. I told them of my struggles with math as a teen, how lost Science- Physics, Biology and Chemistry left me until my mother made Chemistry make sense to me by bringing it down to my own understanding. The other people who also ignited my love of learning of science, going beyond mere recitation and actually discovering why it was important to the world.
I continued by explaining that in my educational journey, I learned about Western civilization and great thinkers. Yet, fortunately for me, my mother supplemented it with informal lessons about the greatness of my own ancestry. Their contribution to society and encouraged my independence as an African woman- telling me stories about great African women- Queen Amina of Zaria, Mrs Kuti to name a few.
Due to this strong foundation, I expected nothing less than excellence when I embarked on my educational journey.

I challenged my students to expand their understanding and expect that they would comprehend math/science.
I am proud to say that over the years I have had a low failure rate in my classes; always have engaged and empowered students.

The key difference is to ground a child’s inner self- it doesn’t matter where the child is from, what counts is ensuring that you stir the child’s spirit. Start from their past- their ancestors- their precedents and remind them that they too have the same power within.

Never discount this, it is critical

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