WHY IS SLAVERY TAUGHT IN U.S. BUT NOT AFRICA?

US-based Ghanaian-Liberian comedian Michael Blackson is also a philanthropist - he’s opened a modern school that’s free to locals kids in his hometown of Agona Nsaba in Ghana.

He says it’s not just about giving children opportunities, but also about changing the curriculum in African classrooms. Because one thing he says is often left off is African history - in particular, the history of slavery. Blackson says he learned more about this topic in school in the US than he ever did in school in Ghana, which came as a shock.

He says he’s going to make sure his school teaches it, so that the students have a more complete self-understanding. As he explains in this clip, he’s worried there’s a kind of ‘cover up’ of this past across Africa - a legacy of colonial ‘brainwashing’ when African education systems were being first set up.

It’s certainly part of the African Stream mission to give Africans full self-knowledge about their past and present - because it’s only from this basis that progress can be made. What are your thoughts on this? Should African self-awareness be more future-oriented instead?