Background

Nubian Link, established in 1995 CE strives to develop and promote the educational, cultural and economic needs of the Afrikan[1] community from an Afrikan-centred perspective. However, the seeds of this organisation began via the innocuous friendship of 3 young-ish Afrikans from Nottingham who were studying at different universities across England over the same period of time 1989-1992 CE.

For all of us, the university experience made us think who we were, why we were there (at university) and what would be outcome of our time at college.

In terms of my experience University of Central England (formerly Birmingham Polytechnic and now Birmingham City University), Brother Beanie Brown from the Pan Afrikan Congress Movement (Birmingham), once addressed the Black Action Group (the political sub-group of the Afrikan-Caribbean Society) and declared, “Who are we?” as his opening to the audience. There was a muted response and he had to rehearse the response (“Afrikans!”) which was repeated over until the responses were loud enough. So now I knew who I was, so why was I here at university?

The why answer would hit me like a Tyson combination (when he could box) during of my attendance at a community speech by the Rev Al Sharpton at the Holte School in Birmingham in the early nineties. Brother Sharpton said in essence that academic qualifications or experience mean nothing unless you put something back into the Afrikan community and that you had to be a positive example to young people and the community at large.

[1] The term Afrikan is inclusive of all people of Afrikan origin and descent and therefore includes people who are described or who self-describe as Afrikan-Caribbean, Afro-Caribbean, Black, Black-British, Mixed-Race, Mixed-Parentage, Afrikan-American etc