There is ongoing debate among migrant African parents in the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. regarding the use of English language instead of individuals’ indigenous languages when talking to children at home. Those who opt to communicate with their children in the English language argue that using parents’ native language interferes with a child’s development of the English language. On the other hand there are those who dispute that a child’s ability to learn the English language is compromised by being spoken to in their parents’ native language when they are in the company of their parents or fellow ‘countrymen’. No extensive and/ or objective study has been carried out yet to provide a body of evidence that supports either argument. Continue reading →

Black skin colour is not simply black among black people. Blackness is differentiated not only for descriptive purposes but rather unfortunately for some kind of aesthetic value, if not status. But when did black people start to categorise their blackness? There are visible physical degrees of variation of blackness and there is a perceptive importance placed on each degree of blackness. The grand question is when did black people start to place their blackness into some kind of a scale, a hierarchy of value? Beauty has to be exceptional to be seen in a darker person! Continue reading →