African Awareness alive at Charles F. Broome

African Awareness is still going strong at Charles F. Broome Memorial School.

Yesterday, decked out in their African garbs, students continued to learn about their African heritage while other schools ended their activities at the end of February.

“We want to make the children aware and be able to appreciate their African Heritage. So, during February we held several activities and will continue to celebrate our African Heritage,” Senior Teacher, Grace Wickham told The Barbados Advocate.

Wickham, who is also in-charge of the Black History Month committee said the students at Charles F. Broome conducted research on several people of African Heritage.

However, during the day they had the opportunity to view a display which comprised of African inventors and books authored by and about several outstanding black people, such as Barrack Obama and Oprah Winfrey and Condoleezza Rice. Professor Pedro Welch, retired Deputy Principal of the University of the West Indies, and former Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Education, also conducted an interactive session with the students.

Recognising that the achievements of black people are not to be underestimated, Professor Welch shared with students that the first person to develop blood transform was Dr, Charles Drew – a black man; the person who pioneered open heart surgery – Dr Daniel Hale – a black man; the fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt – a black man; etcetera.

“Across the world our people have been doing some wonderful things. So, you must never ever feel that there is something wrong with your colour or being African,” he expressed.

Professor Welch also pointed out that some everyday actions and words used by Barbadians come from Africa. To “Stupse,” he said, came from Africa – “to show your disgust or your amusement”.

“Did you know “wunna” is not Bajan? It is not broken English – it is African. It comes from an IGBO word – it means all of you,” he said.