by Adewale Atewogbade

Created on: February 08, 2010

In Canada and the US, February of every year has been designated the black history month.  Thus February has become a focal point for the celebration and recognition of the contribution of the black race towards the advancement of the human race as a whole.  It is also designed to raise awareness that black people are a part of the human race, and that they are capable of full participation in all activities that affect humanity, rather than just being relegated to the backbench.  Black History month is also designed to rectify written historical records that tended to wilfully exclude blacks or deliberately make unsavoury references to their past.  February was chosen by the originator, US historian Carter Woodson in honor of Abraham Lincoln who played a significant role in the abolition of slavery and Frederick Douglas, a former slave and abolitionist who rose to prominence as a writer, both of who's birthdays are in February.

The relevance or not of a special period dedicated to the celebration of Black History has been debated by many and is still under the microscope of many critics.  Blacks are part and parcel of this planet and under normal circumstances, a particular period for observing and remembering their past is probably not in consonance with how this planet is governed.   One of several rationale that might have been responsible for the allowance of this particular recognition of blacks by the US government may have been an attempt to permanently erase the stigma of enslavement that permeates the American Nation.  As the worlds self proclaimed bastion of democracy, it is not out of character for the Americans to try and practice what they preach.  But this is all beside the point. 

Without the struggle by the blacks themselves for emancipation, a struggle that has traversed a very narrow, rough and rocky road over an unusually long period of time, it is likely that those who propagated the idea of  selective freedom would have had the upper hand and the black race would be relegated to the background. 

Fortunately, fighters like Rosa Parks, the famous four and Martin Luther King stood their ground in the face of all adversities and hence it is that the stigma of slavery, inferiority and second class citizenship is wearing off as events like Martin Luther King Day is now recognized as a national holiday in the US, Black history month has become

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