Dear Editor,

The continent of Africa comprises 55 countries with about 1.35 billion people (16.72 per cent of the global population) calling it home.

May 25 has been designated Africa Day. According to a circular sent out by the Ministry of Education (MOE), schools will be required to select one of the following countries for their focused activity:

1) Ghana and Nigeria (the source of most of the Africans captured and transported to Jamaica)

2) South Africa (in light of our strong relationship with this country, including our contribution to the release of Nelson Mandela)

3) Ethiopia (by virtue of its relationship with the Rastafari community)

While I welcome the celebration of Africa Day, the MOE seemed to have limited the scope of focused activities, especially to Nigeria and Ghana, based on conjecture rather than updated research.

Modern Nigeria dates from 1914, when the British protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria were joined. Modern-day Ghana does not include the areas from the ancient Empire of Ghana that were located in western Africa in the present-day countries of Mauritania, Senegal, and Mali. Ancient Ghana was just south of the Sahara Desert and made up of mostly savanna grasslands. The Gambia, Senegal, and Niger were the major rivers of the region.

Therefore, to be a bit pedantic, it’s a little confusing to describe both Ghana and Nigeria as “a source of most of the Africans …” It would be clearer if the MOE had said, “one of the sources of the many Africans…”

We ought to note that many of the enslaved Africans lived further inland in territories such as Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Angola, Uganda, Liberia, and as far east as Kenya, but were captured and transported to the coast. Several of the major slave ports were in modern-day Ghana or Nigeria, but the enslaved came from the wide region of sub-Saharan West Africa.

Here in Jamaica, our people are descendants of all the countries mentioned above. Some of those who came from the Congo/Guinea region settled in the Wakefield area of Trelawny, because the ponds reminded them of their homeland, and Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland.

We should also acknowledge that free Africans also came to Jamaica in 1841. It was these workers, the Kru men from West Africa, who came as indentured labourers from Sierra Leone and built the Morant Point Lighthouse located at the most eastern point of Jamaica. It is the oldest lighthouse on the island, and is strongly linked with Africa.

Many of the Kru settled in the area around Morant Bay, which is now known for retaining many African influences in its customs, language, religion, and settlement patterns.

On January 1, 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement came into force. 54 countries had signed the agreement in December 2020, while 34 countries had deposited their instruments of ratification, according to Wamkele Mene, the AfCFTA Secretary General.

Africa Day ought to be about knowing the greatness (history) and cultural and economic potential of the continent and how such knowledge can strengthen our identity and trade pacts to boost both local and regional income.

Dudley C McLean II

Mandeville, Manchester

dm15094@gmail.com