Excerpt: AFRICANGLOBE A new GCSE history course, said to teach students that Africans arrived in Britain before the English, has caused uproar among some British academics. The module, which will be offered by the Oxford and Cambridge examination board (OCR) from September, was created with academics from the Black and Asian Studies Association. It will cover new arrivals to the UK from the Romans up to modern day migrants such as those from Syria and eastern Europe and assess the reasons for immigration, the experience of new entrants and the impact on the indigenous population. The course is called Migration To Britain c. 1,000 to c. 2010. Its literature states: This course will enable students to learn how the movement of people European, African, Asian to and from these islands has shaped the story of this nation for thousands of years. The history of migration is the story of Britain: in 1984, Peter Fryer wrote, There were Africans in Britain before the English came.' But V.S. Naipaul, the Booker and Nobel prize-winning novelist, told reporters on Sunday: Once again political correctness is distorting our history and the education of our children. Historian Sir Roy Strong, author of The Story Of Britain, said: This stands history on its head, projecting back on to the past something that isnt true. The only Africans who came here were a few with the Romans who came and then left. I find it disturbing that our children should be taught something that is clearly designed to feed into contemporary problems rather than tell our islands story properly. For More * * * * * * * * * * I'm of mixed thoughts on this. Yes the course's purpose is to tell a little about migration, but it also could be a thinly-veiled stance on pro-immigration for modern times. I hope the course really has nothing to do with an attempt to assuage people of a political stance at the expense of providing just the historical perspective. Tell the students about the people's movement. Leave any propaganda out of it.
It's all a bit confused. Which English? My history lessons told me Britain was inhabited by various groupings after the great migration from Africa. Maybe that's what it means? Anyway there were plenty of British tribes in Britain (and I include all parts of the British Isles) when the Romans rocked up to stay. The English didn't really appear until after the Normans, I think. English the language is - again I think - derived from Frsesian which is now in the northern part of The Netherlands. Well if they came over with the Romans, yes. Because the ancestors of what would be the English didn't arrive until after the Romans went back home. All a bit confusing really. But I do agree with Fryer. The history of humanity is migration.
Ha ha, well technically that is correct, unless Britons are Neanderthals... homo erectus left Africa for Europe thousands of years ago, when the only inhabitants in Europe were still Neanderthals lmao
