Inspired Histories
  • Home
  • Why Black History?
  • 2023 Black History Programme
  • Black History Is World History
  • Tracing Your Caribbean Family History
  • Images of Africa
  • Contact
  • Information for Organisations

To find out more about my 2023 Black History Education Programme, Click here 


​Black History in Pictures

A slide show highlighting some positive and some not seen before images of black people from the Ancient Egyptians through to modern times. 

The above slideshow depicts drawings and photographs of ancient Egypt & Egyptians.


Picture
Dreams of Freedom

This book, a mixture of historical and contemporary short stories, is a first collection of short stories written by Linford Sweeney and published in 2016.

It brings to life past events about slaves and slaves masters and captures the spirit and times of the early 1800s during a turbulent period of slavery in Jamaica that had lasted from the 1500s until the mid-1800s.

The stories in this book also covers more recent childhood memories (based on the author's own life in Jamaica), family life, death, love, and even a ghost story thrown in.


​This book was published in 2016 and available from Lulu. Signed copies can be purchased directly from me by email. Click here.

​
Picture
OUR STORIES

An important project that translates the real life stories of pioneering people, the Windrush generation and their children, who came from challenging colonial environments to uncharted waters and 'The Mother Country'.

Hercules Productions, with its inspirational actor and founder Marcus Hercules, created opportunities for a project that involved intergenerational work and produced a film, drama production, and book.

For the book, Linford Sweeney interviewed selected people from two community groups in Manchester, co-edited their stories, and this was published by Hercules Productions in 2015.

​This book is available on Amazon.


​African Ways

European ways are not African ways, 

no respect for the intuition of ancient days, 

Not this logical, restricted, and stagnant flow 

instead a spiritual freedom and creative glow

 

All our history was designed to define us, combine us and refine us.

All their history did was to confine us, consign us and undermine us.

And yet we survived, through all the pain,


and still as strong and dignified people we remain.

 

The sacred laws of Ma'at - Truth, Justice and Harmony, 

Spiritually connected to the divine universal ceremony; 

where each enchanting, distant and pulsating star, 

was admired, celebrated and worshipped from afar

 

In unity there was ubuntu: I am because you are

no need for greed, disunity, strife or war;

where African principles stood boldly to witness

daily dances and celebration of togetherness.

 


There was a great king of Mali, Mansa Musa was his name; 

the world's richest man, even today remains the same.

A man of kindness, dignity and great compassion

Who built a great empire and ruled a unified nation,

where there was thirst for knowledge, and Timbuktu

became the great African learning centre to rise anew.

 

Bless the ancestors, the wise ones, and even the fools,

since upon their backs were written universal rules;

build civilisations that lasted thousands of years.

Today we salute their achievements in joy and tears.

 

©2015 Linford Sweeney


For more poems like this go to: My Poems
Inspiration for Historians
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture


​Black History Matters


​Yesterday's Actions, Today's Stories

Picture


​Windrush Empire Arrivals, 1948

Picture


​Education & Research by Linford Sweeney

Picture
Picture


​Trinidad Carnival, 1959

Picture

​Queen Amina


Lindy Delapenha - footballer

Picture

Three Great African Queens

Black Historians Hall of Fame

Picture
Picture

Runoko Rashidi

Runoko Rashidi was a historian, essayist, author and public lecturer based in Los Angeles, California, and Paris, France. He is the author of Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations] (1993) and the editor of Unchained African Voices, a collection of poetry and prose by Death Row inmates at California's San Quentin maximum-security prison. He also supported the work of controversial scholars like the late Ivan Van Sertima.
​Website: drrunokorashidi

Picture
Picture

J A Rogers

​Joel Augustus Rogers was a Jamaican American author, journalist, and historian who focused on the history of Africa, as well as the African diaspora. After settling in the United States in 1906, he lived in Chicago and then New York City. He became interested in the history of African Americans in the United States.

Picture
Picture

Carter G Woodson

​Carter Godwin Woodson was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora, including African American history.

Picture
Picture

Cheikh Anta Diop

​Cheikh Anta Diop was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. Diop's work is considered foundational to the theory of Afrocentricity, though he himself never described himself as an Afro-centrist.

Picture
Picture

John Henrik Clarke

John Henrik Clarke was an African-American  historian, professor, and pioneer in the creation of Pan-African and Africana studies and professional institutions in academia starting in the late 1960s.​

Picture
Picture

Dr Ben Jochannan

​"Dr Ben" was an American writer and historian. He was considered to be one of the more prominent Afrocentric scholars by some Black Nationalists, while most mainstream scholars, such as Mary Lefkowitz, dismissed him because of the basic historical inaccuracies in his work, as well as disputes about the authenticity of his educational degrees and academic credentials.

Picture
Picture

Dr Joy Degruy Leary

Dr. Joy Angela DeGruy is an author, academic, and researcher, who previously served as assistant professor at the Portland State University School of Social Work. She is current president and CEO of DeGruy Publications, Inc. She is most known for her book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, originally published by UpTone Press in 2005 and revised and republished in 2017 by JDP Inc. DeGruy and her research projects have featured in news and activist coverage of contemporary African-American social issues.

Picture
Picture

Robin Walker

​Robin Walker is a historian considered to be the UK’s most preeminent African scholar. Robin has been teaching and lecturing in African World Studies, Egyptology, and Black History for nearly three decades. He is a best-selling author with over sixteen books to his name, including the critically acclaimed work When We Ruled.

Black Wall Street

Picture


Queen Nzingha

Picture
​


​Queen Nanny

Picture

​The 42 Laws of Ma'at

The 42 Laws of Maat would make this world a better place? It is believed that they were written thousands of years ago and these affirmations and commandments would make any society perfect today.
Ma’at refers to ancient Egyptian laws, philosophy or concepts which promote: order, balance, truth, reciprocity, harmony, righteousness, morality, and justice. 
Picture

African Unity

Picture


Picture
Picture
Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly