As we celebrate Black History Month 2024, we are encouraged to control the telling of our own stories so they do not get lost to history.
Young people in British schools are taught very little about the history of Black people in the UK. And what they are taught about Black history is typically restricted to the enslavement of African people and the American Civil Rights movement.
They are also taught next to nothing about managing personal finances and absolutely zero about how, because of prejudice by banks and lenders at the time, Caribbean people had to turn to the communal financial system they used back home after they arrived in the UK from the late 1940’s onwards.
Today’s youth may not be aware that their Millenial/Gen-X parents and Windrush Generation grandparents used the pardna system to overcome the everyday financial hurdles life threw at them. Or how their parents and grandparents were respected elders in the community and ran large pardna groups. Or of the many inspirational stories about how it enabled people to buy homes and start businesses.
These Gen-Z kids, eh! Not knowing stuff we don’t tell ’em!
But that’s it – it’s on us older heads to reclaim this narrative. We owe it to our younger people to tell these stories or they will feel disconnected with their cultural history and in the fact that we still participate in Pardna groups to this day.
Who needs Wonga (remember them?) or Klarna, we’ve always had Pardna!
Pardna is just one part of the cultural history of Black Britain, one of the many community stories and personal anecdotes that show our resilience, resistance, sense of community, business nouse and financial acumen. If there was ever a narrative that we do not share these qualities, now is the time to change this narrative for good. Pass down the stories!
By reclaiming and controlling our narratives, we can all learn from the past, take action in the present and have a stake in the future.
Happy Black History Month! ✊🏽