With the coming of a new year and the making of several plans for our future, we have been forced to think about our past too. This is the past not only of the Africa Center – a relatively short past – but also the past legacies that we aim to build upon here at the Africa Center. One of these would be the history of black people in Hong Kong and Asia as a whole. The recording of this history may on the one hand seem like a daunting task because there seems to be limited historical record of our existence here. On the other hand though, many black peoples histories in the city and the continent are quiet young which allows for quite an accurate recording of these personal histories here. There are groups such as The Homegrown Podcast and Spill Stories who are making an active effort to record the existence of black people in Hong Kong which we would like to celebrate.
In an insightful podcast episode by Dr. Edna Bonhomme with guest Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro the powerful point was made that Our Histories Are Not Missing. However, sometimes we need to make an active effort to uncover or rediscover them.