You got served
Black
History
Month

Channels have been created in literature, music, fashion, sport, business, politics, academia, social sciences and health care for centuries and much of this information remains unknown. Whilst Black men and Women/people of colour have made significant contributions and impacts globally, this year’s Black History Month focuses on women with the theme – “Saluting our Sisters”. 

Celebrating the achievements of Black women/women of colour makes way for Black History to be recognised and engaged with as nothing other than history itself, which has always included Black people/people of colour and therefore is nothing novel. This relationship between curation and history has meant that there are accounts, stories and memories that are simply not documented such as the role Black women have made to society in literature, music, fashion, sport, business, politics, academia, social sciences, social and health care and more.

It’s important because whilst there have been many achievements, and during times of adversity, significantly more are still to be revealed.

Black history or simply history

The colonial encounter, slavery, and migration produced fiction literature that has become the basis for action, argument, personal and historical memory.  

Professor Sam Kasule focuses much of his teaching in English literature on post-colonial, post-slavery and diasporic writing, and fiction written by Europeans following the European contacts with India, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. His research and teaching consider the shapes that information has taken as it has been captured and transmitted. His view is that while people share the same history of migration, slavery, and colonisation they have differing memories; hence his focus on writing by women of colour and people from “mixed-race” backgrounds in much of his teaching.  
 
Professor Kasule has taught many various modules and led various professional seminars in this field. His current teaching which includes World Literatures in English (Level 4), Colonialism and Independence, Riots and Rebels Level 6), and Global Literatures in English (Level 7) specifically highlights writing by women of colour, among other writers. In the first year, students are introduced to contemporary leading female writers, critics and theorists Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwean), Andrea Levy (Black British), bell hooks African American), and Toni Morrison (African American).

At Level 6, Colonialism and Independence students are able to continue the exploration of selected texts by women writers which has included Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwean) Nayantra Sahgal (India), Jamaica Kincaid (African Caribbean), Nadine Gordmer (South African), Jean Rhys (African Caribbean), and Erna Brodber (African Caribbean). Additionally, in another module, Riots and Rebels students are able to study Harlem Duet, by the leading African Canadian woman writer, Djanet Sears.

Later at Level 7, on a module that has which has a limited number of texts, the selection includes the writing of Jamaca Kincaid (African Caribbean). This rich collection of writing that spans several generations of writers from different continents serves as both a window into women’s writing and the wider world of literature in English, and a source of arguments about what those narratives mean to us today.

The fiction focusing on ideas of colonialism, gender, migration, colour and race, and voices of women of colour, approached from a different perspective, has helped to inspire students to write dissertations that explore interdisciplinary themes. But his current developing collaborative research on the idea of African European performers in Britain and Germany is likely to excavate more work by women of colour within the area of drama and performance.