By Elizabeth Sitotombe

BLACK means strength, black means resilience, black means blood, sweat and tears. 

The month of February, each year, is celebrated as Black History Month in many countries. 

The observance, which first originated from the US, was roped in by other countries around the world.

Germany and Canada also devote a month to honour and celebrate black people’s achievements and contributions in February, while the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK celebrate Black History Month in October.

Interesting indeed; how so many European countries celebrate black people and yet they still cannot guarantee the safety of blacks in their countries!

Origins of Black History Month

Historian Carter G. Woodson and Minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). 

It was an organisation dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by black Americans and other people of African descent focusing on their contributions to the US in 1926.

It officially became Black History Month in 1976 when US President Gerald Ford decided to recognise and honour “…the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavour throughout our history.”

February was the month of choice to coincide with the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln who paved the way for the end of slavery by signing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Disappointingly, decades later, we continue to see a system biased against black communities.

Atrocities against blacks continue daily worldwide.

Black people still find themselves tackling injustices and inequalities every day of their lives. The systematic racism faced by black people is more rampant than ever. 

They are sidelined, ignored and misunderstood, especially in European countries.

According to a study, black unemployment is now higher in the US than in 1968 as is the rate of incarcerated blacks as compared to other races.

Between 1525 and 1866, 12,5 million people were forcefully taken from Africa and sent to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. About 10,7 million survived the traumatic two-months journey.

In 1964, the demand of negro-Americans for full recognition of their civil rights was finally met.

However, in 2020, the struggle against racial injustice in the US took another nasty turn following the senseless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many others.

Their killings share many parallels with killings of the past, forcing the reality that black people are still living in a world driven by racial division and inequality.

Black people are now living a modern kind of slavery.

Individuals are being killed for simply being black.  The long painful history continues to haunt them.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, black people died disproportionately, exposing racism in the healthcare system. 

Hidden biases by white doctors toward black patients were exposed. 

It is a known fact that blacks and other minority groups in the US experience more illness, worse outcomes and premature deaths compared to whites.

Footballers Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho were victims of racist abuse at the Euro 2020 final for missing penalties. 

Sport has always somewhat been viewed as immune from racial politics, but here we are.

From a young age, children are taught that the colour black is associated with negativity. 

For instance, in movies, which today are the most influential for young people, blacks are always the first to be killed and in a very gruesome manner too. 

A villain in cartoons will likely be brown or black.

A blackman is always guilty until proven innocent, even in this day and age.

History is repeating itself right before our eyes.

Why then are we celebrating Black History Month? 

Who is being recognised? 

Or is it simply a liberal exercise to assuage the whiteman’s guilt!

Why are the crimes of white people being written out of Black History Month?

Rather we should pay respect to the unsung heroes who had to bear a lot of pain for the betterment of white lives.  

Black women were exploited by white medical professionals.

James Marian Sims perfected his surgical techniques by operating on an enslaved black woman without anaesthesia because he believed that black women did not feel pain. 

He described the experimental surgeries on his enslaved subjects as: “So painful that none but a black woman could have borne them.”

He went on to offer the procedure in Europe to wealthy white women who were sedated.

Those women define the real history behind black people.

On September 30 1919, in what is now known as the Elaine Massacre, 100 African-American sharecroppers on the plantations of white landowners attended a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. 

The purpose of the meeting was to obtain better payments for their cotton crops from white plantation owners.

Black sharecroppers were exploited when they tried to collect payment for their cotton crops.

White people resisted such meetings by black people and would attend as they did on that fateful day. 

A fight ensured leading to white people burning the homes and businesses of black people.  

About five white people lost their lives while more than 500 blacks were murdered. 

They were killed for defending themselves and their businesses.

Black History Month should therefore recognise individuals who have made outstanding contributions and should also recognise those who lost their lives at the hands of white people.

Everything the whiteman does has a sinister reason.  

They accepted Black History Month to trick black people into believing that they are equal to whites and that they had repented from their previous sins.

“We can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of black people, I do not believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people,” said John Wayne in reference to African-Americans. 

Which is exactly how the whiteman thinks to date. Zimbabwe is currently under siege from the UK because of the re-allocation of land to the black people in the country through the Land Reform Programme. 

Even after gaining independence, the British’s hidden hand can still be felt trying to move black Zimbabweans around like little chess pieces.

White people will only pretend to celebrate us, but they would enslave us all over again at the click of a button.

Indeed, history has an uncanny way of repeating itself. 

A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. 

Black people deserve to know the whole gruesome truth, not the cosmetic sanitised truth from the West.

We need to count the number of women abused, the number of lives destroyed and the people murdered. 

Their names should be honoured every time Black History Month is celebrated because learning from the past will help future generations tackle these foreseeable problems, because, ‘those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it’.

We should not have a black history that absolves white people of their sins and the sins of their fathers. 

History that is not fully acknowledged can never be fully understood.

Furthermore, black history should not be restricted to just one month. 

It should be recognised all year round because it is through the dedication and hard work of black people that white people are prosperous today.

They should not be given a chance to forget, not even for a second.

For black people, today mirrors the past; black people are still not free, they are not recognised in the manner they deserve. 

They are still in bondage. 

Black History Month, with its celebration of great accomplishments by African-Americans, is nothing but a farce.

We continue to watch as history repeats itself.