Now that it's November, for most institutions, African history will not be of interest until next October.

Thankfully, a few organisations now have an African History Season, which spans further than October. Whilst at least one Council and a university now have year-long African history programmes.

This year, independent history researcher and historical musicologist Kwaku decided to end some twenty years of delivering self-organised events, by organising or co-organising a number of events in October to mark African History Month - mostly in his home ground in the north-west London borough of Brent, but also ventured across the River Thames for a rare screening in the south London borough of Lambeth. On October 10, the Documenting Brent Black Music History event at Willesden Green Library featured the first public screening of the full-length version of his 'Brent Black Music History Project' DVD since 2007.

The panel included Harlesden-raised reggae dancehall artist Big Zeeks, whose 2024 released 'Fresh Prince Of Harlesden' album was included in the Kwaku-curated Brent Reggae Album Covers Exhibition, which was on display at Harlesden library for four months until October 31. On October 13, Kwaku co-organised with Brent Libraries Becoming Brent: Marking Democratic South Africa @ 30 With Talk, Sound & Vision at Willesden Green Library.

The special guests with something to say about 30 years of democracy in South Africa included Brent resident and veteran anti-apartheid activist Suresh Kamath, poet and South African exile Eugene Skeef, and sociologist and South Africa Honorary Consul Prof Chris Mullard. On October 14, Kwaku was back at Harlesden library for the last of his monthly Brent Reggae Album Covers Exhibition curator talks.

This was an opportunity to speak to the exhibits and reggae music in Brent, particularly Harlesden, which is the capital of reggae in Britain. Colin CeeBee Brown also had the opportunity to make a presentation on his UKReggaeHistory.com website.

This session was webcast to audiences from the UK and beyond. Interestingly, the exhibition was the subject of a cover story in Brent Council's Autumn 2024 edition of Your Brent magazine, and a news item on BBC Radio London.

The 80 minute final version of Kwaku's 'British History, Black Music, Racism & The Music Industry: 1507-2020' video mash up documentary was screened on October 15 at Clapham Library. Earlier iterations of the video were screened at music industry conferences via Zoom during the 2020-21 Covid-19 pandemic, as part of investigating the music industry’s EDI (Equality, Diversity, Inclusion) programmes, following the Afriphobic murder of George Floyd.

The post-2024 screening discussion was led by a panel consisting of journalist and former Straight No Chaser publisher Paul Bradshaw and music industry marketing and lecturer Hakeem Stevens and moderated by Kwaku.


Having started his community events in areas such as Harlesden some twenty years ago, Kwaku ended his self-organised events phase at Tavistock Hall by the Harlesden Methodist Church. This is a venue where Kwaku under either the BTWSC or BBM/BMC (BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress) banner, delivered numerous events, from after-school projects, fairs, courses, community award shows, to discussion and networking forums. It also has a rich black music history – one of the first UK reggae bands The Cimarons was formed there.

So it was befitting that this was the venue for the Big Up Harlesden, The One Love, Last Hurrah Community Event, which took place on October 19. There were community stalls, musical performances by reggae veteran Vincent Nap and the Music4Causes Ft Kimba hip-hop edutainment project, disco by DJ Brookie Nighlife and health presentations by Vasco Stevenson and Diane Clement. The event also served as a fundraiser for the Harlesden Salvation Army in the memory of the late Harlesden-based charity worker Dame Asafu-Adjaye.

The rest of the year is the start of a sabbatical, during which Kwaku plans on writing books on British African history. Before getting into his sabbatical, Kwaku delivered the keynote address, supported by Music4Causes Ft Kimba, at Brent Council's Reclaiming Narratives African History Month event at Brent Civic Centre on October 23.

Kwaku is easing himself into his sabbatical by presenting the no-stress Monday 6.30-8.30pm weekly 2024: End Of The Decade Zoom Sessions until December, which cover various history topics as we mark the end of the UN's IDPAD (International Decade for People Of African Descent) 2015-24 initiative.