Historical records show British Caribbean planters knew the origins of enslaved Africans and made deliberate, calculated choices.

This analysis examines how planters tracked the specific African origins of enslaved people, contradicting narratives of ignorance or accidental arrival. By reviewing primary sources like letters and parliamentary evidence, we see how slaveholders identified the ports and regions of enslaved individuals, particularly those leading rebellions, yet continued their trade for decades. This video is for history students and researchers looking to understand the mechanics of colonial record-keeping and the harsh reality of systemic exploitation.

We also address the limits of genetic information in reconstructing identity. While modern DNA testing offers insight, it cannot replace the historical certainty found in the written accounts of those who orchestrated the trans-Atlantic slave trade. By looking at these naming systems, we can better understand how colonial powers categorized populations and managed their labor forces through active, conscious decision-making rather than passive oversight.

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Interview with Hakim Jamal, Founder of the Malcolm X Foundation done c. 1968. Jamal discusses the goals of the Foundation and in particular outlines the Foundation's educational efforts by detailing how the schools run by the Foundation are based in part on the educational philosophy of Maria Montessori. History shows us that today, in 2024, we need to do something better for our Black children. They don't only need reading, writing and a love of math, they need to be educated in regaining the love of being from Africa and being a surviving African American in America in 2024.

Maria Montessori was an Italian physician, educator, and innovator, acclaimed for her educational method that builds on the way children learn naturally.

She opened the first Montessori school—the Casa dei Bambini, or Children’s House—in Rome on January 6, 1907. Subsequently, she traveled the world and wrote extensively about her approach to education, attracting many devotees. There are now thousands of Montessori schools in countries worldwide.

Maria Montessori was born on August 31, 1870, in the provincial town of Chiaravalle, Italy. Her father was a financial manager for a state-run industry. Her mother, raised in a family that prized education, was well schooled and an avid reader—unusual for Italian women of that time. The same thirst for knowledge took root in young Maria, and she immersed herself in many fields of study before creating the educational method that bears her name.

Beginning in early childhood, Maria lived in Rome, growing up in a paradise of libraries, museums, and fine schools.

Birth of a Movement
Maria’s early medical practice focused on psychiatry. She later developed an interest in education, attending classes on pedagogy and immersing herself in educational theory. Her studies led her to observe, and call into question, the prevailing methods of teaching children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The opportunity to improve on these methods came in 1900, when she was appointed co-director of a new training institute for special education teachers. Maria approached the task scientifically, carefully observing and experimenting to learn which teaching methods worked best. Many of the children made unexpected gains, and the program was proclaimed a success.

In 1907, Maria accepted a challenge to open a full-day childcare center in San Lorenzo, a poor inner-city district of Rome. The students were under-served youngsters, ages 3 – 7, who were left to their own devices while their parents went out to work. This center, the first of its kind in the nation, and a high-quality learning environment, became the first Casa dei Bambini.

The children were unruly at first, but soon showed great interest in working with puzzles, learning to prepare meals, and manipulating learning materials Maria had designed. She observed how the children absorbed knowledge from their surroundings, essentially teaching themselves.

Using scientific observation and experience gained from her earlier work with young children, Maria designed learning materials and a classroom environment that fostered the children’s natural desire to learn and provided freedom for them to choose their own materials.

To the surprise of many, the children in Maria’s programs thrived, exhibiting concentration, attention, and spontaneous self-discipline. The “Montessori Method” began to attract the attention of prominent educators, journalists, and public figures. By 1910, Montessori schools could be found throughout Western Europe and were being established around the world, including in the United States where the first Montessori school opened in Tarrytown, NY, in 1911.

Experience palmwine and highlife music live with the Legon Palmwine Band at Alliance Française, Accra.
This full concert captures the sound, groove, and communal spirit of Ghanaian palmwine music.

Recorded live at Alliance Française Accra, this performance brings together classic palmwine sensibilities, highlife guitar language, vocal storytelling, and a collective groove.

The Legon Palmwine Band draws on Ghana’s palmwine tradition while engaging contemporary performance spaces and audiences, presenting palmwine as a living performance practice and as heritage.

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Chapters
00:00 Opening welcome groove
00:40 Akukɔ mbɔn (Agya Koo Nimo)
02:40 Tahinta (folktale)
04:00 Nkitinkitinkiti (folktale)
05:20 Wɔgb jɛkɛ (Amandzeba)
08:12 ɔtonkrowa (Legon Palmwine Band)
11:00 yɛrefrɛfrɛ
12:00 Ashikele (George Jara)
15:00 No woman no (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
18:50 Me ne woara (Legon Palmwine Band)
22:20 Bosoe (Joe Mensah)
24:05 Substitute (Gregory Isaacs)
25:38 Celebration (Osibisa)
26:44 Krohinkro (Kontihene)
28:40 Diamonds on the soles of her shoes (Paul Simons)
30:34 I and my shody are one (Praye)
32:15 Bisa (Pat Thomas)
34:32 Obi ne jɔle (Diplomats)
36:16 ɛtoɔ (Legon Palmwine Band)
39:50 Police abaa
40:50 Very soon (Fameye)
45:25 Encore for the road oo
45:40 ɔsɔbrɔkyrɛ (Dr Paa Bobo)
48:40 Do the dance (Eddie Khae)
50:05 ZormiZor (DopeNation)
50:40 Seke seke
51:32 Wo maame baako, Wo papa bebre (Oboy CJ)
52:00 Thank you(so much)

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Palmwine music, highlife music, Ghanaian popular music, live band Ghana, palmwine guitar, Alliance Française Accra, Legon Palmwine Band, Ghana live concert

Arguably, this is one of the very first socially conscious tracks ever done in Hip Hop. It was originally released in 1980, but reissued in 1985 by 4th & Broadway Records. Using Cheryl Lynn's "Got to Be Real" as a sampled backdrop, Brother D with The Collective Effort brings the art of socially addressing issues that speak to the inner cities and impoverished areas (reform my ass :P)and asks this simple question in the title song. I'm taking you waaaaaaay back peoples. Can you dig it?

Cheikh Anta Diop translated (Business Insider Visuals)

• Paul Goss
Dr. Paul Goss, founder and president of NEW BODY PRODUCTS, was the 8th child of 10 born to Sam and Annie Goss in Canton, Georgia. He grew up in a small company town, Alcoa, Tennessee.
In this rural setting he received the basis for an international education. Not in the poorly funded segregated school, but from two of his neighborhood’s African elders. Mitchell, known as the “Root Doctor” and Ms. Bellamy, known to some as “The Herb Lady”. They were the local “root workers”. They knew the healing value of herbs and plants and how to prepare them as cures. Dr. Goss interest in holistic cures began when they recognized his potential and began instructing him in ancient cures that were passed on to them in much the same way.
Dr. Goss continued his education at historic Stillman College in Alabama, where he received a masters in biochemistry. His real thirst for knowledge, however, simply could not be filled in a traditional college environment.
He went on to become an organic chemist for a large company. Through self-study, he continued to increase his knowledge in holistic healing. Building on his modest beginnings as apprentice to “Doc” Mitchell and Ms. Bellamy, he started to develop his skills as a holistic health practitioner.
By 1965, he had begun to share his largely self-taught knowledge of herbs and holistic healing with a growing number of clients. In 1976, he established NEW BODY PRODUCTS in Compton, California. His holistic knowledge had by now earned him the formal title of Naturopathic Doctor.
Using iridology for diagnosis along with herbal remedied and vegetarian diets for treatment, Dr. Goss helped people achieve the NEW BODY they needed or wanted through his unique application of the ancient art of holistic healing.
Dr. Goss has lectured on holistic topics in nearly every US state and 17 foreign countries including Mexico, Jamaica, Africa and Europe. He has written four books, “Forever Young”, “The Natural Way”, “The Rebirth of Gods”, and “The Eyes of Forever Young” used in many universities today.

⁣Sankofa Journey Interest Meeting March 29, 2026