Akyaaba Addai-Sebo: the shocking conversation that led him to start UK Black History Month

‘I decided that every child growing up in the UK must have an appreciation and an understanding of Africa, Africans, people of African descent …’ Akyaaba Addai-Sebo. Photograph: Yves Salmon/The Guardian

One morning in late 1985, Akyaaba Addai-Sebo walked into work and had a casual conversation with a colleague that would change the trajectory of British society. Then 35 years old, he was working at the Greater London Council (GLC) as a coordinator of special projects in the Ethnic Minorities Unit.

“Elizabeth, the secretary of the principal race relations adviser Ansel Wong, came to work looking very downcast,” he recalls. “I asked her: ‘Elizabeth, What’s wrong?’ She said: ‘Last night I was putting my son Marcus to bed and he asked, ‘Why can’t I be white?’ As she told me the story, she was crying. ‘I named my son after Marcus Garvey,’ Elizabeth told me, ‘And here he is, just six years old questioning his identity. I’ve failed my son.’”