For the last four years Steven Okeke has been compiling a document entitled "The Wall of Fame." It's a scroll which lists the contributions of blacks to human advancement and modern technology.
Okeke says the misconception that these inventions were the creations of Europeans or their descendants has led to African descendants having low self confidence in intellectual and technological matters. Okeke is trying to erase those misconceptions by presenting the facts within The Wall of Fame.
He believes that his research will be extremely beneficial to the self-esteem and self-perception of young black people.
He stopped by our studio to unveil the scroll.
Reporter
"Tell us about the Wall of Fame and why it's compilation was so important."
Steven Okeke
"It's also as important as it is exciting this is a compilation of inventions by black people we call it The contributions of blacks to global development. What will interest you is that if you go into your office almost 99% of everything you have in your office was in fact and indeed invented by black people. You go to your workplace, you go to your home almost 99% of what you use today that makes life comfortable and convenient that makes work easy to do was invented by black people. So why is it that we have always assumed that they were invented by Europeans it is because the names of the inventors sound european and we have been taught and presented information based on their names, not their looks."
Reporter:
"In doing the research for the compilation for the Wall of Fame did you also investigate the inventions of other races?"
Steven Okeke
"Actually while I did this research over four years, I tried to give credit to others maybe there are things we are using in our everyday life and I must tell you when I looked at what the Chinese invented that we use in our everyday life I found none, like nothing, that we use in our everyday life. A Lot of people when they see these inventions they are like: "I know black people invented some things but not all of this."It's every single thing you use everyday. Now somebody else might modify and manufacture and produce the things we use everyday but that does not make them the originator."
"If you have one of these in your home, in your school, It changes everything. It changes your outlook, It changes your self-perception, It changes your social perception, It changes the way you see yourself in relation to other people, It changes your ambition, It changes your confidence, It changes everything."
"When you are thinking of inventions with this you have that conviction that inventions we use today were made possible by ordinary people not engineers, ordinary people who looked like me and you."
Reporter
"We may have a number of little girls watching, could you for example highlight the story of Katherine Johnson for me?"
Steven Okeke
"I will want to also emphasize that I made sure that women who changed the world, their names were included because when we think of inventions we think of men, that's a misconception again but if you look at like Shirley Jackson the work she did is what makes our international phones. Is what makes most of our office work possible, So when you think of your fax machine, when you think of your cellphone and you have this clarity of call due to fiber optics this one woman made all that possible. Not a man, it's a woman. So when you look at this thing you will see a lot of women that made significant contributions to global development and you could say confidently that women and black people are the unsung heroes of global development."
Okeke is offering the scroll for sale as an education tool. He cane reached at 625-1070.
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