What black history were you taught at school?

[Spymaster]

Just slavery although one of our best teachers was history. In one of our lessons someone asked him why the slavers went all the way from the US to Africa when they could have just gone to the Caribbean and taken slaves from there. The teacher, Mr Ennals, said that anyone who was interested in that question could come back at lunchtime. About 10 kids did and that hour or so was probably the only dedicated black history lesson we ever had.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

None. I didn't do it to GCSE and we basically started with the Romans and went forwards from there through British History only. I think I just about got to Henry VIII before I stopped.

ETA - not to say there wasn't any black british history by that point of course. Nothing included in our headline tour of half an hour a week lessons though.

 

[Lord Camomile]

The teacher, Mr Ennals, said that anyone who was interested in that question could come back at lunchtime. About 10 kids did and that hour or so was probably the only dedicated black history lesson we ever had.

Fair play to Mr Ennals

 

[Yu_Gi_Oh]

I sincerely doubt Rastafarianism even ever got mentioned at either of my schools.

In my infant school we spent about a term learning about Rastafarianism, and then the next term, two Rastafarian children joined our school, and none of us seemed to bat an eyelid. I guess they knew these kids were coming and tried to make it as familiar as possible in advance. Good for them tbh.

We did very little apart from slavery in history afaicr, although I did drop out of school at 14, so who knows what happened in year 10 and 11.

I learned a lot more during my BA in English through studying a lot of American and Postcolonial literature. I'm continuing within these sorts of contexts during my MA, and the syllabus I follow at work is full of MLK, Baldwin, and Ta-Nehisi Coetes in one course, and lots of postcolonial literature in the other, some of which is related to or set in Africa, but still, it doesn't go back far enough, or spread wide enough, to explore black history outside of a context of oppression.

 

[editor]

None, but then we were taught no Welsh history either. Just Ennngerrland.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

A little bit. In our History GCE lessons we covered a bit about apartheid in South Africa and race relations in the USA.

 

[Lord Camomile]

None, but then we were taught no Welsh history either. Just Ennngerrland.

Was that in Wales or England? Not saying it's ok if it's the latter, just much fucking worse if it's the former

 

[editor]

Was that in Wales or England? Not saying it's ok if it's the latter, just much fucking worse if it's the former

In Wales. I only got to hear of Owain Glyndwr years after I'd left school. Oh and I tell a lie: we did celebrate something to do with the (guffaw) Prince Of Wales.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Bloody hell...

 

[felixthecat]

We did a project on Jamaican Maroons when I was at primary school. It was a little village school and we had a slightly eccentric teacher who made us do all manner of unusual (for that day and age) projects.
In secondary school a bit about apartheid and the civil rights movement.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

More than most by the look of this thread. Covered slavery and the eventual ending of it in the U.K, the American civil war, the 1960's civil rights movement, apartheid in South Africa/Mandela, Also did stuff like the Windrush arriving in 1948, race relations in the UK (Brixton riots, police mistrust etc).

 

[planetgeli]

More than most by the look of this thread. Covered slavery and the eventual ending of it in the U.K, the American civil war, the 1960's civil rights movement, apartheid in South Africa/Mandela, Also did stuff like the Windrush arriving in 1948, race relations in the UK (Brixton riots, police mistrust etc).

Talking about the Brixton riots at a University interview is what got me an unconditional offer. Not to do history though.

 

[ringo]

'O' levels in ancient history, the history of architecture and archaeology, 'A' levels in ancient history and archaeology, degree in archaeological science and not one lesson, bar the occasional mention that a Western empire such as the Romans invaded a black African nation and the prehistoric period when we were all in Africa.

 

[Sapphireblue]

i don't remember ever having an interesting history lesson, we did a bit of Romans i think, Henry VIII and then endless fucking corn laws and industrial revolution. i think we did a bit on american independence and tea party and that but american history skipped straight to that bit without any mention of the indigenous people.

had to do it at GSCE as it was either that or geography (sheep farming in Norway anyone? no, i don't know why either) so it was basically compulsory. at least the GCSE teacher wasn't a bullying fake jovial wanker as was the teacher i'd had until then.

 

[Orang Utan]

We had RE lessons with books like 'Our Friends The Jews' and 'Our Friends The Sikhs' in a school that many Jews and Sikhs attending, which, even as a kid, I sensed wasn't quite right

 

[krtek a houby]

We had RE lessons with books like 'Our Friends The Jews' and 'Our Friends The Sikhs' in a school that many Jews and Sikhs attending, which, even as a kid, I sensed wasn't quite right

Our religious lessons (when I had them before attending multidenominational school) didn't mention other religions much. Apart from Protestants, for some reason. "Our Friends in the North", if you will. Even in multidenom. we weren't taught about other cultures/histories/religions.

 

[nogojones]

None

 

[chilango]

None that the best of my memory. Including GCSE and A Level.

I can remember doing:

Russian Revolution
French Revolution
English Civil War (and the restoration and William of Orange I think)
Probably the industrial revolution
Owain Glyndwr.

 

[chilango]

Mandela.

But that was news, not history

 

[stuff_it]

Secondary school seemed to be an endless re-hash of WW1, thanks to a change of schools and syllabus.

 

[Chilli.s]

none

 

[Lord Camomile]

We had RE lessons with books like 'Our Friends The Jews' and 'Our Friends The Sikhs' in a school that many Jews and Sikhs attending, which, even as a kid, I sensed wasn't quite right

I was very perturbed a few years ago when I was looking through an old RE project of mine and it said "we" for Christian practices. It was a CofE school, so not really surprising, but still unnerved this atheist to see it in his own handwriting

My parents sent me there because it was a good school and a 5 minute walk from our house, but I've always been curious about how they dealt with all the Christian stuff. Pretty sure I asked my mum once, but I've forgotten her answer

 

[Casual Observer]

We had a 30 minute talk on Zulu history in my first year at secondary school. The talk was given by a classmate not a teacher.

 

[Idris2002]

Just slavery although one of our best teachers was history. In one of our lessons someone asked him why the slavers went all the way from the US to Africa when they could have just gone to the Caribbean and taken slaves from there. The teacher, Mr Ennals, said that anyone who was interested in that question could come back at lunchtime. About 10 kids did and that hour or so was probably the only dedicated black history lesson we ever had.

The Confederacy did plan to conquer a lot of the Caribbean and Central America, so your fellow pupil wasn't that wide of the mark, really.

 

[dylanredefined]

Mary Seacole ( the nurse who actually saved lives unlike that owl murderer flo) and that's about it.

 

[Tankus]

In Wales. I only got to hear of Owain Glyndwr years after I'd left school. Oh and I tell a lie: we did celebrate something to do with the (guffaw) Prince Of Wales.

Same here

WJEC at its finest

 

[agricola]

Same here

WJEC at its finest

IIRC the only Welsh history taught at GCSE level in the north-east of Wales in the early 90s was the nineteenth century stuff like Rebecca, Merthyr and the ironmasters and the Chartists, but not more local matters like the Mold Riots or the Tithe Wars. We were even taught (in geography) about the effects that the loss of heavy industry could have on a society with Corby as the example; this was at the same time that Brymbo finally went under, and ten years after Shotton had gone through the largest single-day mass redundancy in modern history (6500 in one day), both of which were less than ten miles from the school and with kids whose parents had been affected in the class.

 

[Gromit]

IIRC the only Welsh history taught at GCSE level in the north-east of Wales in the early 90s was the nineteenth century stuff like Rebecca, Merthyr and the ironmasters and the Chartists, but not more local matters like the Mold Riots or the Tithe Wars. We were even taught (in geography) about the effects that the loss of heavy industry could have on a society with Corby as the example; this was at the same time that Brymbo finally went under, and ten years after Shotton had gone through the largest single-day mass redundancy in modern history (6500 in one day), both of which were less than ten miles from the school and with kids whose parents had been affected in the class.

Didn't even get that in South Glamorgan. I remember some stuff about Medieval Argiculture, WWII, Battle of Hastings, Bayeux tapestry, Oliver Cromwell.

Apart from the argiculture stuff it was all about war modern and ancient.

 

[chilango]

IIRC the only Welsh history taught at GCSE level in the north-east of Wales in the early 90s was the nineteenth century stuff like Rebecca, Merthyr and the ironmasters and the Chartists, but not more local matters like the Mold Riots or the Tithe Wars. We were even taught (in geography) about the effects that the loss of heavy industry could have on a society with Corby as the example; this was at the same time that Brymbo finally went under, and ten years after Shotton had gone through the largest single-day mass redundancy in modern history (6500 in one day), both of which were less than ten miles from the school and with kids whose parents had been affected in the class.

We got Glyndwr, but nothing else “local”.

In Geography iirc - Industry in the Greenfield valley.

Neither Shotton Steel nor Point of Ayr colliery - despite their importance - were ever part of what was taught.

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

In primary school we had the same teacher for 3 years. He was very interested in history...and taught us about colonialism....what happened in Ireland...America...Australia... India and Africa in terms of colonisation, persecution, slavery and the subjugation of the native indiginous people and their culture and language. He helped us to see the deliberate dismantling of countries..cultures and people.....
We learned about apartheid in SA... . I remember the Dunnes Stores workers went on strike around that time and refused to handle fruit that was coming from South Africa because they did not want to support apartheid. We spent weeks following that in school in 84.

We learned about the lives of slaves in America working on the plantations and in the cotton fields...the inhuman and inhumane treatment they received ..we learned about MLK...and the civil rights movement...
We learned about colonial powers.....
Colonial Britain...France...Holland and others...
He even taught us about the native American group that sent alms / money to the starving Irish during the famine...while Victoria and her government twiddled their thumbs and did sweet f a..

We got to the stage where we recognised that we, as descendents of people who were colonised and also sold into slavery, should always recognise and talk about what happened to the blacks in Africa and those who were taken and sold into slavery in America...and their history.....that we should never tolerate racism in any form or apartheid in any form. He was a great teacher...He was so interested in human rights and connected so many issues together. He used to say that you couldn't look at any historical issue in isolation.....and that imbalance of power leads to persecution ..