Good Food for the Whole Village

Many of our prison population have embraced Black History Month as a time of inspiration and learning. Leon Dundas, Deputy Chaplaincy Manager at HMP Lowdham Grange tells how Black History Month uplifts and elightens those he works with, or as he puts it: “provides good food for whole village.“

“Supporting Communities (a major partner with the prison the delivering of BME programs) found themselves unable to resist grabbing a few copies.”

The Black History Month (BHM) Magazine has been, in my work as pastor/chaplain a tool of credible, professionally presented information about “things black”. It has lifted and inspired during the vital if not often contentious work of BHM planning. In particular, I was impressed that the BHM Magazine consistently neglected to display “blackness at the lowest common denominator” but provided food good for the whole village.

My introduction to the BHM Mag came during my tenure as pastor of the Clapham Junction Church of the Nazarene in South London in 2005. I was visiting the Wandsworth Council Offices for a meeting and I picked up a copy of the magazine in the waiting room. The material made an immediate impression on me both for professionalism of display and breath of coverage of material. I used it during a Black History focussed segment in Sunday morning worship; the article on Black inventors was read by two young men, one of whom went on to take responsibility for multimedia presentations for the church.

In 2007 when I joined HMP Lowdham Grange (a private Sector prison run by the SERCO Group) as Free church Chaplain, it was natural that I contacted BHM Mag. Information from the magazine provided an important part of readings by prisoners during the Black History/Cultural Diversity Day. More than 150 prisoners attended. More than one prisoner expressed an interest in writing for the magazine the following year; but prisoners get transferred...

In we ordered 150 copies of BHM Mag. Copies were placed in the prison library. Those displayed during the highlight event of the month were taken by the multi-racial mix of 120+ prisoners who attended. Feedback was unanimously positive. Copies of the magazine were also taken by persons from Churches from Nottingham and Derby who were part of our Chaplaincy Volunteer network. Supporting Communities (a major partner with the prison the delivering of BME programs) found themselves unable to resist grabbing a few copies.
With Barack Obama and family splashed all over the cover; there was a sense that BHM was “almost prophetic!” According to Danny, “it was very informative”, with all the latest and traditional knowledge one should know inside and outside of black history”.
For , the HMP Lowdham Grange/BHM partnership deepens it involvement with BHM with the use of the BHM teacher’s pack as a tool in Black History Month Workshops.

BHM Mag has also been sent to the Caribbean – organisations with which I network in Jamaica sent feedback that this was “wow deep reading”. n

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