Black History Month UK featuring Black rulers of Europe and great Afrikan queens

Black History Month in the United Kingdom carries a distinct origin story, built on the need to recognise contributions erased from the national narrative. The roots stretch to Carter G. Woodson’s Negro History Week in 1926, an intervention against a school system that ignored Black achievements. Decades later, activists in London, including Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, adapted the idea for British classrooms, placing it in October to meet students as they returned to school. That timing was strategic: fresh minds, new timetables, and a clear signal that Black history is not an afterthought,  because it shifts the month from a token observance to a learning season that challenges myths about Britain’s past and its place in the wider African diaspora.

One recurring myth is that Europe has always been white. Recent genetic and archaeological research tells a different story: white skin tones became common only within the last 7000 years, long after humans had settled across the continent. Cheddar Man, one of the earliest known Britons, is a striking case; DNA evidence links him to ancient populations with African ancestry. This reframes not only British identity but the entire European timeline. When listeners hear that early Britain was peopled by Africans whose features diverged from the later image of “native” whiteness, the conversation shifts from immigration anxieties to deep-time human movement, adaptation, and cultural change. 

Equally hidden are the stories of Black rulers who governed within Europe’s borders. Septimius Severus, a Roman emperor of North African origin, led campaigns in Britain and is associated with York, a reminder that imperial power was ethnically diverse long before modern multiculturalism. Across Iberia and parts of the Mediterranean, waves of African leadership shaped law, architecture, learning, and trade. 

The narrative is incomplete without the leadership of African women. From Hatshepsut’s statecraft in Kemet to the strategic grit of Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba, from Yaa Asantewaa’s defence of the Golden Stool to the Kandake rulers of Kush, these figures challenge assumptions about gender and power. . For young listeners, this matters because we learn how Afrikan women set policy, negotiated treaties, led resistance, and shaped spiritual life.

Sources:

(8) Why Do Historians Never Talk About This? - YouTube

Top 13 Most Powerful Queens in African History

Pope Francis I and Benedict XVI praying to a Black Madonna

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Housekeeping
• 1:21 Subscribe, Follow, And Donate
• 2:15 Consultancy For Doing Business In Ghana
• 3:18 Origins Of Black History Month
• 5:10 Black History Month In The UK
• 6:20 Europe Before White Skin
• 8:15 Black Rulers In European History
• 9:45 Centring Great African Women
• 12:30 Why Teaching Black History Matters
• 14:55 Closing And Next Week’s Health Teaser

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

Good evening and welcome to this week's edition of African Focus with myself, Kwame, Ghanaian broadcaster, writer, journalist, historian, podcast, and entrepreneur. And this week's edition of African Focus, it's a special, it's uh Black East Month UK. So we thought that we'll give you a a couple of um you know a couple of videos in in this one uh episode for Black East Month UK. So that's the theme for this week's um topic, uh Black History Month, celebrating Black History Month in the UK. So before we get on to the topic, um just to make you aware that if you like what you hear, please share to your friends, your family, social media networks, subscribe to Ghana, African folks on YouTube, hit the notification bell, and YouTube will notify you every time we upload a new podcast. Similarly, uh, we are on Spotify. So again, look out for Ghana, African folks on Spotify. Uh, hit the follow bell, meaning that Spotify will notify you every time we upload a new podcast to your feed. 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All right, so um, and again, if you're interested in coming to Ghana to do business, you want to know about the Ghana card, you want to know about citizenship, you want to know how to start business in Ghana, we do offer a consulting session whereby we can make a package for you. Uh, we do have two packages um or two sessions. One is a four-hour consultancy for$30 an hour, and the other one is a half an hour BV session, and that's for$20. So, you know, depending on what your needs and wants are, uh, we'll determine if you want a full one-hour session or a half an hour consulting uh session. So uh I've got more than 10 years' experience of doing business in Ghana, and so we do have a lot of information that can help you, you know, in your surgeon to Ghana. So if you want to book your consultation myself, uh, I will leave you the email address at the funnest of the show. Just drop me an email and we can book you in. All right, so uh let's get into the podcast looking about Black History Month UK. So uh obviously Black History Month UK uh emanating from uh Black History Month in America. So for those of you who don't know particulars on the content, uh every February um African, as I had to put it, History Month is celebrated throughout the world in February and was started by the father of Black History in America, uh Carter G. Wilson, who wrote a famous book that I would implore that you all get and read, The Miseducation of the Negro. Uh, because back then we were called Negro. So Carl G. Wilson wrote that book, The Miseducation of the Negro. I might leave in the fullness of the show, actually. And um, you know, he started what was called Negro History Week in America in 1926, simply for the fact that in American schools, uh the vast contribution the African people in America made, yeah, was not being taught in schools in America. So, cottage was initiated uh back then in 1926, Negro History Week, which has become Black History Month, and in 17 quarters, uh Black History Season. So it's not just a month, but for three months. Uh, in the UK, he came to short of the UK in 1997, uh spearheaded by Akiba Adaisabo, who is a Guinean uh activist, who fled um the world's regime in the early to mid-80s, and he came to London and he was part of the Greater London Council, and he saw the experiences of black people, particularly black children, in the UK system, that he thought that he would also initiate uh black history for UK. And so, um, but before that, there were other Pan-African groups who were doing black history assessments, but it was not a coordinated and unified um kind of um attempt. Yeah, what Akeaba Ade Sebo did was to make a uniform, and that's why you know in October 1987, you know, Black History Month UK was born. And the reason why Akiaba Adaisebo um chose October is that he wanted it to, you know, our children to be taught history, and October was a good month because that's when they had resettled in school, you know, they come after long summer holidays, and I'm in school, and uh, you know, October, you know, being a good month to House Black History Month UK. So that's when Black History Month UK started in 1997, October. And in a couple of years' time will be the 50th, no, sorry, the 40th anniversary of the founding of Black History Month in UK. And I'm sure that there'll be some special events to commemorate that fantastic milestone. But in this podcast, we're gonna give you a couple of videos that you may not have seen or may not have heard, and definitely will definitely not may have heard, and uh definitely may not have known of. So the first video that I'm gonna put down for you is that um, you know, many people think actually Europe is a white country. So you look at or you know, the country in Europe are actually white, you know, i.e. UK, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, etc. Not understanding that white skin didn't come up in Europe until about six and a half thousand years ago. So before 6,500 years ago, most of Europe was black. In fact, all of Europe was black, yeah. And even to give you an example, in the UK, the first British person was not a white person, it was a black person called Cheddarman, yeah. Again, I'm leaving that in the further to a to a show. Cheddarman was the first person to inhabit the UK, but even so, but even that's from because Cheddarman had a mother. Yeah, we all come from our mother's room, yeah. We don't come in out of osmosis, yeah. So Cheddarman came from his mother's room, yeah, and this is about 10 to 15,000 years ago in the UK. There was no white people in the UK up until about roughly about 5,000 years ago. So that tells you about black people, African people, because Cheddarman's DNA links it back to Africa. Yeah, so he may not have had a you know thick lips and a broad nose, but his features and his skin tone and his DNA all point to the African continent, yeah. And so, you know, many people are not aware of that. And secondly, right, many people don't understand that Europe has had many black rulers, yeah. So, for example, in the UK, one of the earliest rulers in the UK, Britain, was an African called Seven Maceptimus, who ruled the UK for 195 CE, so this is before Christ or Common Era, to 211 CE. Yeah, so you rude the UK for about 14-15 years, and that should be buried in York Minister, yeah. And there's other black rulers who have ruled countries like Spain, France, Portugal, but you don't hear of them, yeah, because of this this propaganda or this um false narrative that Europe has been a white content and that black people have come to Europe in the recent years when the opposite is true, is that Europe was a black continent before the abundance of white skin in Europe, yeah. So I'll leave you that um video so that you can understand the vast contribution that African people have played to the civilization of Europe. Now, the second video I'll play that I'll leave for you for you is of great African women. Because oftentimes when we talk about great African women or when we talk about black issues to boot, generally speaking, it's always about the men, you know, the great kings of of Egypt, you know, Manson Musa or of Mali, you know, um you know, great kings like the pharaohs in Egypt, etc. etc. Yeah, we don't know or not told about the great Afghan women who are shaped Afghan history in antiquity, yeah. So you're talking about figures like you know Queen Cleopatra, yeah, you know, of Egypt. She was not white, she was actually mixed race, yeah. And then the the the that's Cleopatra said, but but the original Cleopatra was black African, um Queen Hadra Suit of circle Egypt, you know, otherwise known as Kemet. That's what the land that you know is Egypt. That was what was called Kemet K-E-M-E-T, which means literally the land of the blacks, not land of the Arabs, not land of the whites, but land of the blacks. So black people, African people, were are the original people of Egypt, just like the original people all around the world, yeah. And also you got great, also great kings like Queen, the Queen of Sheba or Shaba, yeah, in Ethiopia, who uh King Solomon was you know attracted to that King Solomon married the Queen of Sheba and had a son comeet the first, who also would you know the Asian kingdom of uh Kush, that is called Ethiopia today. Yeah, and actual fact his emperor or his majesty emperi is an actual descendant of the queen of Sheba and um King Solomon, yeah. So there's other queens as well, like um Queen Candice of Moreau, that's the president of Ethiopia, yeah. Uh Nanaya Asantua of Asante in modern day Ghana, yeah. Queen Amana of the Hausa land, yeah, Queen Nizinga, right, of Luanda or modern-day Angola, Queen Nehenda of Zimbabwe, yeah, and other great queens that you don't know about. So I'll put that there so that you understand the immense contribution that African women have played in the annals of African history, and that dispels the um often untold story of the greatness of the black woman because today, you know, with all due respect, most of the women want to emulate white women in terms of wearing this hideous wigs, you know, the false eyelashes, the false nails, etc. Right? That's not you, black woman. That's not you, and because you know you didn't know your history, right? You think that the white woman is the standard, not overstand that you, black women, you are the standard. Even the Pope of Rome, this is this is again no black history, or the Popes of Rome, right? Bow down and kneel to a black Madonna. That's the original Madonna, not the part of Stan Madonna. I'm talking about the original Madonna, yeah. I'll put I'll put a picture of Pope Francis and Pope Benedict kissing or praying in front of a black Madonna. That's the black Virgin Mary, the original Virgin Mary. Yeah, not the white Virgin Mary that you pray with or that you pray to, the original black Madonna. Yeah, so it turns out black women have played a massive role in history and African history as well. So I'll leave those two videos for you so that you can see for yourself the splendor and you know richness, tapestry of African history, and this is why we celebrate uh African history month in the UK in October, or black history um, you know, in February around the world to make you understand and appreciate the vast contributions that African people have made towards civilization culture that is often hidden, particularly in Muslim societies and even Africa, where your curriculum is a US centric Arab curriculum whereby this history is not taught to you. Yeah, that's why many Africans born on the continent view other Africans as foreigner and view the diaspora so-called as foreigner. Yeah, but you don't know that we're all from the same mother and family, and so this is a very important reason why you know it's very important to teach black history because a lot of us don't know the entirety of black history, and it's important that we begin to understand the entirety of black history so that you know who you are, you are the original people of the planet, you are the mothers and fathers of civilization, and that's what we were brought into what to destined to be. We were here, we were here long before Judaism, we were here long before Islam, we were here long before Christianity, we were here long before uh Buddhism, Hinduism, and all these other you know, man-made religions. Yeah, we were here long, long, long before any so-called religion you know came out. And so, you know, uh, I'm gonna keep it short and brief, but the two videos that I will put down for your information will tell you a lot about the richness and the vast contribution to civilization and culture that African people, particularly African women, have made to world history and culture. All right, so for myself, Krammy, and from all the crew here on African Focus, uh, thank you very much for listening. And we'll see you next week for some more healthcare because, yep, there's some serious, serious news about scientific that our women wear that I got to bring to next week, right? So we're gonna have another health special looking about scientific pads, all right? So for myself, Krammy, and from all the crew here on African Focus, thank you very much for listening, and we see you in the next edition of Ghana in Focus.