Urban Journeys - Support September Is Black Reading Month 44 - Septembre est le mois de la lecture noire 2

We started SIBRM 44 years ago in our quest for Black Literary independence or self determination. When we started we focused on one language: English. Finally, after many delays, we added French, which is now in our second year. Both are languages of power and education around the world, including, if not notably, in Africa. If you watch any of the foreign news items from Africa, you will find the spokespersons speaking English or French. Over 150 million Africans speak French. More Africans speak French than native French people. How could we be pan-Africanists if we didn't study French. One of our many questions is: Did Marcus Garvey publish his International newspaper, The Negro World, in English and French. In Madagascar, East Africa, their education, political and financial systems are in French, while their young elite are studying English. Moreover, they have a native language, Malagasy, the language of the masses of their people. At the very least they are trilingual.

So it should be obvious to you as it was to us , that learning a second language was no big challenge. Bilingual education should be the rule rather than the exception. The sooner you start, the better. We must exit the echo chamber of one language. We must exit the cave of one language.

Multiple language familiarity helps us expand our cultural insights. For example, the Negritude Movement in France is one we should be acquainted with.

It is the same with literature. We should read several newspapers, the Detroit Smart Pages, The Metro Business Guide, The Telegram and Black Masks Magazine, for a variety of writers and points of view on many subjects. We must do this worldwide on a local basis. We must buy books in English and French from black bookstores in our community. Books carry mental water to irrigate our minds and stimulate our memory and mental health.

We can do this. Nous pouvons le faire.