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February has been black history month for decades, but earlier this month U.S. President Barack Obama made a special proclamation for February as “National African American History Month.” As part of the observance -the U.S. Embassy today flew in noted researcher, author, and African scholar Anthony Browder. He will speak on this month’s theme: “the quest for black citizenship in the Americas.” This is Browder’s fourth trip to Belize but it is only the second time he will be speaking. He discussed the theme and his mission with us today.

Anthony Browder, Scholar, Author, Lecturer
“I am here as a direct result of the proclamation that he issued proclaiming this month as National African American History Month. To my knowledge, no other President has done that before so he has hit the ground running. And so it is very clear that this administration is going to be quite different from the administration’s that preceded it and I can see those differences being beneficial to people of African ancestry, not just in America but in the Americas and throughout the world.”

Keith Swift,
Your lecture will be about the ‘Quest for Black Citizenship in the Americas.’ What will you be discussing?

Anthony Browder,
“Well that theme, the ‘Quest for Black Citizenship in the Americas,’ is the annual black history month or African American History Month theme that was given this year by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the foundation founded in 1913 to discuss issues of African American history and culture. So what I will be looking specifically is how Africans living in the America’s have survived and how we have continually fought for the basic rights of citizenship within this country. So I will looking not just the traditional civil rights movement but as a historian and researcher I will look at what our contributions have been to this country.

They should come to the lecture because I always give informative and educational and exciting presentations. My primary area of research is in ancient Egypt but I always connect the past with the present. So people will have a deeper understanding of African contribution to culture and civilizations, African contribution to American culture and civilization and it does translate to Belizean culture and civilization because many of the challenges that we faced as African people in America have been the same and overcoming those challenges will essentially come from applying the same principles, concepts, and ideas. So it will be a program that students will learn from as well as the adults and hopefully it will encourage them to be actively involved in wanting to know more about their history.

Just come, bring your children. Come with an open mind and be prepared to learn and to grow.”

Browder will speak at the University of Belize in Belmopan on Wednesday afternoon at 2. His second lecture will be part of the UBAD Educational Foundation’s public lecture series. That is scheduled for Wednesday night starting at 6:30 at the Bishop Sylvester Hall on Regent Street.