Posters fit for Black History Month
In 1999 I was watching a TV programme about the start of the first millennium, which looked at how different cultures had contributed to human civilisation in the last 2,000 years. I noticed the programme said little or nothing about how Africa or people of African descent had contributed to the human story. The programme had chosen to start with the world at the time of Jesus and had even shown one of the wise men as being black.
So I asked: how is it that at the first millennium Africans seemed to be in the right place at the right time, and yet in the next two millennia, we were led to believe, did very little. I also noted that Shakespeare had been voted the writer of the millennium – but what is his work without Othello?
Starting on Monday, the Guardian will be publishing a poster each day to mark Black History Month. Together the five posters create a timeline marking the key figures and significant events for Africans and the diaspora over the past 2,000 years. My original intention was not to retell the story of the last two millennia, but simply to insert an element that had been left out. I approached the editor of a black lifestyle magazine and proposed that they publish a timeline celebrating the black contribution to the new millennium.
I spent a month in the British Library trying to put together a complete picture, and when the timeline was published, I received a huge amount of positive feedback from readers who wanted to know more – people of all backgrounds wanted to get copies.
Last year I received a phone call from someone who had remembered the poster and wanted something similar to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. I updated the poster by adding extra timelines to look more closely at particular aspects of abolition. Again, I had to spend hours of research trying to collate information across a vast area. Most importantly, I learned that the most difficult task in developing the timeline was deciding what to leave out, to avoid it becoming too cluttered or too dry and academic.
I wanted to develop something that teenagers who may not read a lot would be able to understand with little effort – hence the use of short entries where possible, attractive colours, and giving readers just enough information to encourage them to go and read further about that subject. The poster again received a positive response, and I received praise and encouragement from academics in many different countries.
When I later decided the poster could be used as an educational tool, I sought out their advice, and it improved immeasurably because of their involvement – in many cases they spent a considerable amount of time looking at the poster, criticising it, but always being constructive in their suggestions.
It was in part at the behest of one of the academics that I contacted the Guardian. When it was suggested that we create a special version for Guardian readers I found the idea both appealing and daunting. Here the audience would be far larger and much more demanding.
So I spent many more hours in the British Library researching; liaising with academics to discuss the poster's content (I'd particularly like to mention Marika Sherwood, Cecily Jones, Anna Hartnell, Dick Ellis, Paul Gilroy, Stephen Tuck and Richard Reid, whose expertise and dedication to the project was invaluable); working with the designer, Jon Wedderburn; and tracking down veterans from the voyage of the Empire Windrush.
What drove me on was that I believe the stories of world-shaping individuals such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, William Cuffay and Claudia Jones are especially important this year, because we are celebrating both an anniversary and a milestone: the 60th year since the arrival of the Empire Windrush; and the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic party candidate for the US presidency. Without knowledge of the Windrush it is almost impossible to understand, for example, how London's diversity helped its bid to host the Olympics in 2012. Without knowledge of the civil rights movement, it is difficult to understand why Obama's candidature raises so much discussion and high emotion...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
So I asked: how is it that at the first millennium Africans seemed to be in the right place at the right time, and yet in the next two millennia, we were led to believe, did very little. I also noted that Shakespeare had been voted the writer of the millennium – but what is his work without Othello?
Starting on Monday, the Guardian will be publishing a poster each day to mark Black History Month. Together the five posters create a timeline marking the key figures and significant events for Africans and the diaspora over the past 2,000 years. My original intention was not to retell the story of the last two millennia, but simply to insert an element that had been left out. I approached the editor of a black lifestyle magazine and proposed that they publish a timeline celebrating the black contribution to the new millennium.
I spent a month in the British Library trying to put together a complete picture, and when the timeline was published, I received a huge amount of positive feedback from readers who wanted to know more – people of all backgrounds wanted to get copies.
Last year I received a phone call from someone who had remembered the poster and wanted something similar to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. I updated the poster by adding extra timelines to look more closely at particular aspects of abolition. Again, I had to spend hours of research trying to collate information across a vast area. Most importantly, I learned that the most difficult task in developing the timeline was deciding what to leave out, to avoid it becoming too cluttered or too dry and academic.
I wanted to develop something that teenagers who may not read a lot would be able to understand with little effort – hence the use of short entries where possible, attractive colours, and giving readers just enough information to encourage them to go and read further about that subject. The poster again received a positive response, and I received praise and encouragement from academics in many different countries.
When I later decided the poster could be used as an educational tool, I sought out their advice, and it improved immeasurably because of their involvement – in many cases they spent a considerable amount of time looking at the poster, criticising it, but always being constructive in their suggestions.
It was in part at the behest of one of the academics that I contacted the Guardian. When it was suggested that we create a special version for Guardian readers I found the idea both appealing and daunting. Here the audience would be far larger and much more demanding.
So I spent many more hours in the British Library researching; liaising with academics to discuss the poster's content (I'd particularly like to mention Marika Sherwood, Cecily Jones, Anna Hartnell, Dick Ellis, Paul Gilroy, Stephen Tuck and Richard Reid, whose expertise and dedication to the project was invaluable); working with the designer, Jon Wedderburn; and tracking down veterans from the voyage of the Empire Windrush.
What drove me on was that I believe the stories of world-shaping individuals such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, William Cuffay and Claudia Jones are especially important this year, because we are celebrating both an anniversary and a milestone: the 60th year since the arrival of the Empire Windrush; and the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic party candidate for the US presidency. Without knowledge of the Windrush it is almost impossible to understand, for example, how London's diversity helped its bid to host the Olympics in 2012. Without knowledge of the civil rights movement, it is difficult to understand why Obama's candidature raises so much discussion and high emotion...