The nation’s first Black Booker Prize winner is calling for schools to teach Black history all year round, not just during BlackHistory Month.
Bernardine Evaristo was delighted when her 2019 prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other became part of the curriculum for English Literature A-levels.
But the 63-year-old is keen to see more diversity in schools as well – and she is backing our petition for Black history to be taught to all school pupils aged eight to 16.
Bernardine said: “It’s really important for Black and Asian writers in this country… that our work is taken seriously.
“Children of colour going through Britain’s education system never see themselves in the literature they’re taught. That is at the most important time in their lives, when they need to see themselves in the literature as well as everywhere else in order to feel validated.
“When I was in school everything was white.
“Britain, my area, my school was white, television was 99% white and literature 100% white. It was only when I matured that I realised what was missing, and was very angry. I then made up for lost time.”
Bernardine, who has a white Irish mother and Nigerian father, added: “I did feel a sense of loss as my father never taught us anything.
“At the same time there was no Black history taught. The white world was the world I knew. My identity as a person of colour didn’t develop until my late teens.”
Now, as a successful author and inspiration to millions, Bernardine is keen for more people – especially youngsters – to learn about Black history as it is a part of British history.
She said: “If I’d have had children, I’d be teaching them Black history and Black culture, Black societies, Africa and the diaspora. I’d be doing that so they grew up with a positive sense of Black identity.”
The Mirror has joined forces with sister titles across Reach to create blackhistoryisourhistory.com – a website featuring more than 100 stories about Black history, and the Black future.
Sign our petition here.
