WASHINGTON, D.C.—The All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP) and International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) would like to announce the launch of the Marcus Garvey Saturday School in Washington, D.C.
It is no secret that the socalled ”education” system fails to equip our children with even the basic skills, yet alone the ability to understand, challenge and address the state of the African community.
The school system is designed with the intention of brainwashing our children from a young age to believe in and embrace an oppressive social structure.
Where this indoctrination reveals its colonial oppression of Africans is when schools merely become a funnel to the prison industrial complex.
The Marcus Garvey Saturday School (MGSS) is AAPDEP and InPDUM’s attempt to deal with this contradiction.
While we recognize that the complete overhaul of this system is necessary in order to realize the true capacity of our young people and that community control of education should be the ultimate goal, providing revolutionary Saturday school programming is an important first step in challenging our youth to think critically and proactively about the world around them.
A central aim of the MGSS is to spark our children’s interest in developing their own neighborhoods, as well as African communities worldwide through practical skill based classes; it also arms them with the political education that they need to understand and address the contradictions in white colonial schools.
Each Saturday is organized around a specific theme and aims to unite the student’s personal experience of these contradictions with the global African dimension.
Themes will include identity, collective responsibility, food, resources, freedom fighters and media.
The children are also being introduced to key African revolutionary figures and events.
The entire curriculum for the program will be made available online so that the program can be replicated elsewhere.
The MGSS is running for six weeks during the summer, with the intention of creating a year round Saturday School programming.
The school is based in Barry Farms in Southeast Washington, D.C., an African neighborhood facing the city's aggressive gentrification campaign.
Students range between the ages of six and thirteen.
Volunteers from both AAPDEP and InPDUM staff the program, as well as other Africans that are willing to share their skills, resources and expertise for the development of our children.
Please show your support for the Marcus Garvey Saturday School and the education of African children by making a donation at developmentforafrica.org.
In addition, if you would like more information please contact Samah@developmentforafrica.org or dc@inpdum.org.
Visit www.developmentforafrica.org and www.inpdum.org to learn more about the organizations behind this program.
The MGSS, which started on Saturday July 2, will happen every Saturday ending with a graduation ceremony on August 6.
