Team Picks: Black History Month

At OneVillage Partners, our staff, board of directors, and volunteers are always learning – about history, society, and ourselves. In honor of Black History Month, we’ve gathered up everything we’re reading, people from history who are inspiring us, and resources we utilize to challenge our perspectives. And we want to share all that good stuff with you! We hope you enjoy these recommendations.

In Partnership,

The OneVillage Partners Team

1.     “This month I am honoring and celebrating Ella Koblo Gulama (1921-2006), a Sierra Leonean paramount Chief and politician. She was the first female in Sierra Leone to break the philosophy of traditional elders who think that women are slow learners and should be confined inside a domestic household. Ella created long-term impact by proving how hardworking and consistent women could be in achieving anything, by becoming the first elected female in the house of representatives as a paramount chief of the Moyamba District. During her time as the paramount chief of Moyamba, she became the first female cabinet Minister in Sierra Leone and across Sub-Saharan Africa. She represented Sierra Leone across Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East. She was a guest of the United States State Department in 1957, where she met with the Vice President Richard Nixon and toured the United States for four months. #Strongblackwomen” - Cheryl Acheampong, Women’s Empowerment Program Manager

2.     “The Smithsonian National African American Museum is a great resource. At the Facilitating Racial Equity Collaborative, we are using their Talking About Race curriculum. Besides being free, it’s just really good. - Renee Pardello, Board of Directors

3.     “My recommendation for Black History month is Remaking Black Power, by Dr. Ashley D. Farmer. I like this book because it embodies a comprehensive scholarly analysis that challenges long-held misconceptions about the role of women in the Black Power movement, complicating the assumption that sexism routinely sidelined female activists. The author depicts the radical strides women made in dismantling racism, sexism, and classism, while also illustrating how that radical activism has continued to reverberate in the decades since. Exciting book to read!” - Sheku Gassimu, Community Action Program Manager

4.     “Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Just finished this over Christmas. An incredible saga about several generations of families, starting in pre-colonial Ghana up to modern day, about how trauma is absorbed and passed down, and what one's connection to "home" will do with that trauma. It's starts with sisters being separated during the slave trade, one being shipped inhumanely through Cape Coast castle to America, and the other staying in Ghana as war with the British colonizers picks up.  Every chapter is crammed with so much joy and sadness, I needed to put it down and take a breather every once in a while (and maybe have a discreet little cry).” - Chad McCordic, Country Director

5.     “Ayiti by Roxane Gay. I don't typically read short stories, so it was an out of the box read for me. Throughout the book and the various stories, Roxane Gay writes about the hardships that come with being from Haiti, but also the tremendous love that Haitians have for one another and their home country - regardless of whether they still live in Haiti or have immigrated elsewhere. What we tend to hear about Haiti from the media is that Haiti is the most impoverished country in our hemisphere, riddled with corruption and endless natural disasters, but Ayiti totally reverses that narrative and shines light on all the beauty throughout Haiti and her people - I absolutely loved that. Roxane Gay's stories are totally sticking with me. - Gaby Driessen, Director of Development and Communications

6.     “I just finished reading Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson. This novel follows the story of Pheby Delores Brown, a plantation-born slave whose relatively sheltered life is upended.  It is an emotional but important read, and when I read it, the beautiful narration and the author's thorough historical research had me feeling closer to these events than any other book I've read.” – Jill LaLonde, Executive Director

7.     “For Black History Month, I want to share the life/work of one of the Early Kings of the Themne people of Sierra Leone, King Nemgbana (pronounced as “Naimbana”). Nembgana was regent of the Koya Kingdom from 1775 to 1793. It was Nemgbana who signed the treaty making way for the establishment of the British colony on the Sierra Leone peninsula. He was a progressive ruler who was opposed to the slave trade, though he could do little to fight it under the circumstances. He joined the advance of Western influence by sending two of his sons to Europe to be educated, having foresight that their Western education would be useful in negotiations with the Europeans. Nemgbana was, in fact, the last traditional Temne ruler in the area that ultimately became the city of Freetown.” – Emmanuel George, Community Action Supervisor

8.     “I just finishing listening to a captivating episode of the podcast Resistance about the Gullah Geechee community in South Carolina. The Gullah Geechee are descendants of slaves living in the lowlands of South Carolina who trace their roots to Sierra Leone (as can the host of Resistance, Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr.) Around 40% of all enslaved Africans brought to America during the height of the slave trade were brought through the port of Charleston. So many people taken from places like Sierra Leone specifically because they had the ability to work land and grow rice in an environment that was very similar to the places they were taken from. You learn from the podcast that the Gullah Geechee people settled and made a home in the lowlands because white people didn’t want it – limited road access, rising tides, etc.  But now, developers want in. The podcast explores the Gullah Geechee’s fight for their ancestorial lands.” – Kate Laursen, Senior Communications Manager

A closing note from Emmanuel George, Community Action Supervisor:

I believe the growth of Sierra Leone should never be defined without recognizing the work of our forefathers that laid the foundation for harmony amidst hostile environments. We should remain resilient in the face of "clandestine" or even "spontaneous" divisive antics to shape and reshape a Sierra Leone that fulfills the dreams of those past, todays and future generations of men and women that call themselves Sierra Leoneans. I recognize that ours is a strange time with a lot happening and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic still opening spaces within our circles. This should be the real time we must support one another looking at the bigger picture beyond race, beliefs, culture, creed, religion, etc. to keep saying yes to the positives that bind us together for the general good of humanity and the planet.

Honorable Mentions:

The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead

Someone Knows My Name, by Lawrence Hill

Anything by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Exterminate all the Brutes, directed by Raoul Peck