Diana Buntajova
Black History Month is being celebrated all around City, University of London this month. The UK is one of five nations that celebrate African-American history every October.
City has always prided itself on the diversity across its ranks. So, we asked some black members of the City community to share their experiences in commemoration of Black History Month. Here are their stories.
Coral James O’Connor, Luton
Journalism Lecturer
Journalism wasn’t my first thought as a career. My mum wanted me to be a lawyer. I wanted to be a teacher when I was young and then as I got older I just kind of… I wrote a letter to a TV company and I got a letter back and that inspired me. That was my ‘in’. I saw not many people that look like me in the industry, so it was a difficult thing.
My mum said: “You are not doing that because there’s no one like you. Be a lawyer.” It was a tricky decision, but I felt like I had a personality for it. And suddenly, it was the only thing I wanted to do.
I loved radio. That’s where I started. I worked for a small radio station in Dunstable and, after that, thought: “I love radio, but I want to learn more about TV.” I just felt like I can do so much more with pictures. And then the Internet came about. That’s when I thought: “I want to do more in media. I want to work online.” I have a passion for everything, that’s genuinely how I’m made.
Being resilient, being tenacious, is the most valuable lesson I have learnt. Don’t worry about who’s doing what. Only think about your journey, just follow your path. Don’t look left or right of you.
For me, it’s about always being kind, knowing the medium that you’re working in, and understanding that you are a storyteller. People want to tell you their stories. They are entrusting you with their stories, and it’s about you making sure you don’t betray that trust.
It has been a really rocky road. My mum was one of these people that said to me: “You have to be twice as good as anyone else because you will be knocked down so many times. You have to get up and you have to keep going.” When I speak to any black friend of mine, their parents said the same thing to them. It’s almost like they gave birth to us and said: “Be twice as good as anyone else.”
I did feel that in the industry. But I was rewarded. People can see my worth and because of that, they rewarded me for it. Sometimes I got people that wanted to stand on my shoulders to get where they wanted to go. Most of the time, they rewarded me for it. But the discrimination I’ve had has been constant. It never stops and it continues even through academia as well.
There is nothing more wonderful than being a black person for me. Because I am, and there is nothing more amazing than the colour of my skin.
I have an eight-year-old son and I say this to him every day. “You are beautiful.” I say that to him every day because I want him to know just how wonderful it is. Our race and our culture are so rich and it is so wonderful. But yes, there will always be people that will want to take away your shine and I refuse for my shine to be taken away, so I would always celebrate who I am.
Kelly Evbuomwan, 21, Netherlands
Electrical Engineering Student, Year 2
I’m what you would call a disciple for Victory Youth Group. My job is to work with them to help youths overcome problems in lives. So right now I’m basically in charge of a group of 22. With these youths, we talk to them and help them see what problems they’re facing. It’s basically like counselling, but I just help them with the general stuff. Other people deal with the counselling and that’s it.
Victory Youth Group is a Christian youth group, but anyone can still join regardless of your faith or belief. In this youth group, we show people a different way of life. For example, the main youths we deal with have serious issues, from depression, broken homes or in gangs, all lots. We take them in, we show them a different way of life and then we just help them.
On Sundays, we have this meeting called Sunday Life and that’s where we have dance battles, singing competitions, rapping, spoken words, all of that stuff. On Wednesdays at 6 pm, we have this session called Real Talk. Essentially, we get youths from all over the place and we talk about certain topics ranging from either love life to depression, to how you have to be in terms of faith or friendships or family. We just discuss it and that’s it.
I don’t really have many black people that I look up to. The people I look up to are more like black conservatives. I like the viewpoint that they have when it comes to Black History Month. They don’t want to be bound by that “Oh, you’re black your family must have been through the slavery”. They’re more like: “I’m a black individual. My past, even though it did affect the entire generation in some way, it doesn’t define me.” They just recognise that the past was there, but they don’t hang on to it. I don’t have specific people that I look up to, but people with those views — that they have to do things on their own. That’s who I look up to.
Mauro Cesar, 21, Angola
Management Student, Year 3
I don’t really miss home. I’m very happy to be here because I can do all I want to do. I just miss my family and my friends from back home, but I’m very happy to be here.
[Studying management] was a very intuitive choice. I didn’t really have to think about it and make a decision with regards to what subjects I wanted to choose. At A levels I did Economics, Accounting and Maths, then I did Business Law and Social Sciences, so it was just a natural choice.
During my second year at City, I ran for the presidential elections for the Students Union. Now I’m a Student Ambassador and I’m trying to get involved in the university as much as possible.
We had an open day event here on Saturday. I was trying to help out people who don’t know if they wan to come to university or not, trying to represent City as best as possible. Now, since it’s October and we’re in Black History Month, I am setting a display, the one you can see in the Pavilion. I created a series, for each day there is a specific character who was significant in Black History Month. Throughout the year, I want to keep organising events and keep representing the University as best as possible.
Black History Month allows people from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures, who may not be too aware of the issues and the people who fought hard for them, to try and bring about positive change to society. I think it’s very important to spread out the message that, regardless of what you are going through, if you believe in something you should fight for it and you should try to represent that cause in the best way possible. That is something very noble. It’s something that, regardless of your background and race, we should all strive for.
Israel Campos, 19, Angola
Journalism student, Year 1
I decided to study journalism because I started working as a presenter for the National Radio of Angola when I was 14 years old. Then, I moved into the newspaper industry in Angola. Since then, I’ve been working for both the radio and the newspaper, and I really enjoy it. That’s why I decided to come to City: to get some qualification.
I didn’t want to be a presenter when I first went to the radio. I went to the radio for an invitation because when I was twelve, I wrote a book for children. They invited me to go and to talk about the book. Then the producer of the show liked the interview I gave them. He invited me to go back to the radio as a presenter, and since then, I’ve just been enjoying doing what I do.
I’ve had many challenges because I was very young and trying to get interviews, trying to get stories is much more difficult. For example, for the sources, people usually will give the top stories to well-known journalists. They won’t give it to a young journalist who is just starting now. I’ve had many challenges but I’ve managed. Now I can say that many people in my country already know me, which makes my job much easier.
I’ve been living in the UK for two years now and I’ve been working as a correspondent covering stories of Angolans living in the UK for OPAIS, an online magazine and newspaper. Everything that has to do with the Angolan community in the UK, I send it back to Angola and the publish it in the newspaper and on the online version as well.
I was studying at college in Brighton when I entered this national competition for my college. My essay was on racism still being an issue in today’s society. I called it “We’re here because you were there”. Since I came to the UK, unfortunately, I’ve been having some awful experiences. I’ve been told ‘go back home’; ‘you don’t deserve to be here.’ Really rude stuff. I wanted to write an essay that could express the way I feel facing those challenges here.
I came to the UK when I was seventeen, by myself, my parents did not come with me. I’ve had some really hard times living here and going through these experiences, so I wrote about it and the essay won first prize in the Arts and Humanity category.
I also won an award for my job in radio in 2018, for the best children’s presenter of the country. I worked for a children’s show talking about education, sports… things that young people and children could be interested in.