By; ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
As part of the activities to commemorate the 2023 Black History Month celebration in Nigeria, a university tink-tank under the auspices of Black History Month Nigeria, Department of Theatre and Performing Arts, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has urged the Nigerian government and African Union member states to include African and African-American history in the curriculum of schools across all member-states saying that the world’s history is not complete without Black History.
University Don, Rasheedah Liman, while addressing a group of select secondary students in Abuja, stated that the development of the African nation-states is largely dependent on its ability to reflect on its past and present whilst also forging ahead in different spheres of human engagement.
“Many African countries, particularly Nigeria, have fallen to the trappings of neoliberalism so much so that History as well as other subjects in the arts and humanities have been relegated for science subjects; all in the name of STEM.
“While STEM courses have their place, subjugating core subject like history or any other subjects in the arts to the back yard is an attempt to control the minds of young people in Africa; something that portends great danger to our collective humanity”, she said.
While donating books to schools’ libraries in the Federal Capital, Dr Emmanuel Gana and Jerry Adesewo noted charged the Nigerian government and member-states of the African Union to develop intentional history-centred policies and humanitarian action to educate the teeming population of the continent on the history of Africans and Black people.
