Foreword: Archbishop Tutu

LAST year Sugar Media invited me to write an introduction to BHM (The Official Guide to Black History Month). This year I am honoured to have been asked again to write a few words on this remarkable event.

It is indeed a time to celebrate the many wonderful exhibitions, lectures, movies and events taking place throughout the UK to recognise both the splendid contributions and terrible sacrifices endured by Black people throughout the centuries. It is also a time for humanity to critically reflect on the connections of the past to the present day struggles.

We have many positive events to celebrate in our collective black history. This is a time to highlight the Black History heroes and heroines; people who fought, pioneered and paved the way for a brighter and better future for all of us.

But this is also a time for us all to look at our not so positive past, for instance the history of the slave trade and how it came to be and how it ended. We must not walk away from such an exhibit merely feeling the sadness or pain from the sins of the past. We must use this opportunity to ask the following critical questions:

• How is this kind of oppression still impacting the lives of our citizens in present time?
• How has this suffering continued into this century?
• Who are the heroes who continue to create daily miracles in the lives of ordinary citizens?
• How do we continue to acknowledge our neighbors as our brothers and sisters and not as “foreigners?”
• How can we continue to challenge the media and the publishers to allow for truth to flourish?
• How do we honour or dishonor the many sacrifices and lives lost to the struggles for freedom and justice and what meaning do these sacrifices have for all of us today?

One way we can honour the sacrifices made so that we and the coming generations may live freely is to continue to be seekers of truth and seekers of peace not only in October, but throughout the year. I believe that the work of the Council of Elders is one of the critical organs of the global world to help humanity begin a process to address the questions posed above.

May God bless all of you richly!

Bishop Desmond Tutu