This the ‘Newham Mosaic – African Diaspora’ website. I’m the editor or webmaster. My name is Gavin Sealey. This is not my website – it is ours. It is about our community.
When I speak of ‘our community’ what do I mean? Some words from a certain film are relevant:
Wakanda will no longer watch from the shadows. We can not. We must not. We will work to be an example of how we, as brothers and sisters on this earth, should treat each other. Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.
Black Panther
The Newham Mosaic is starting with an emphasis on the African Diaspora community – by that I mean people from Africa and people from Africa via the Caribbean and anywhere else. We are already very diverse – we call ourselves ‘Black’ but we come in all shades and are of all shapes and sizes. More, we are of different minds. How can we be ‘one tribe’? And can people who do not at least share our African roots be of this same tribe?
“…in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.”
If the Newham Mosaic project sought to exclude anyone we would be building barriers. Instead we will focus on building bridges, first within the African Diaspora communities and peoples and secondly with other heritage communities and between people of all communities. What makes us one tribe is not where we come from but how we treat one another.
The Newham Mosaic aims to bring together and strengthen the African diaspora communities in Newham through exploring the richness of their cultural heritage and to strengthen the connections between all of Newham’s heritage communities. We will work with people from any and all backgrounds to create ‘one tribe with many faces’
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