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This Woman Is Using Instagram To Teach People About Black History

This Woman Is Using Instagram To Teach People About Black History

The artist and writer is illustrating Black people dating back to before Windrush, along with a brief profile of their importance in history

Emma Rosemurgey

Emma Rosemurgey

A young woman is using her Instagram to educate people during Black History Month.

Varaidzo has been sharing her illustrations of relatively unknown black people, along with brief profile about their history and contribution to British society.

"I started this series because I had been researching the 1930s for something I was writing and I was surprised to find enter networks of Black people who had been living, working, and studying in Britain," she told Metro.

"They didn't seem to be living these harsh, miserable lives totally defined by racism, which is sometimes the impression I get when I think of Black people from British history."

The artist and writer was taken aback when she noticed all these Black people who were activists, entertainers and other prominent figures in history, yet were rarely shown in history books or mentioned in schools.

"Most of Black British history focuses on the Windrush era, their descendants, and the Black communities that migrated after," she continued.

"But Black people have always been here. We're not a new demographic on this island. Considering the British empire was built off the slave labour of Black people, you can't actually separate British history from Black people."

Varaidzo noted how she'd never heard of the communities that existed before Windrush, so figured a lot of other people wouldn't have either.

After researching as many pre-Windrush Black people as possible, she created illustrations of them, along with a short profile detailing their significance in history.

"The illustrations are quick doodles so they take between 10-30 minutes, however, the research is the difficult bit," she explained.

"Most of the people I've focused on haven't had their lives of achievements well-recorded and they haven't been written into our modern digital history. It just contributes to their erasure."

Featured Image Credit: Instagram

Topics: Life News, Real