{"id":546744,"date":"2025-11-03T18:21:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T18:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/546744\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T18:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T18:21:32","slug":"stories-of-identity-shine-at-nu-londons-black-union-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/546744\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories of Identity Shine at NU London\u2019s Black Union Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Kaylee Burkett and Malaika Okelo-Odongo had a shared vision when they established the African, Black and Caribbean Union.<\/p>\n

But Okelo-Odongo wants it known that it is not the fact they are Black that brings the two London-based Northeastern University students together. It is because they wanted somewhere they could represent their differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we tend to homogenize all Black people,\u201d says Okelo-Odongo, a third-year student who grew up in South Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old says she takes the view that \u201cit is OK to be different\u201d. She wants the Black community to celebrate its vibrancy, making room for what it is to be Black in America, Britain, Africa and elsewhere, rather than attempt to \u201coversimplify\u201d it into a single culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we share the same struggles,\u201d says Okelo-Odongo. \u201cI guess by recognizing that we\u2019re different, we\u2019re able to be more connected.<\/p>\n

Okelo-Odongo was born to a Kenyan American father and a Cameroonian mother in the U.S. before moving to Johannesburg when she was 4 years old. Burkett, a second-year student, grew up in Chicago but today calls Washington, D.C. home. Her maternal grandmother migrated from Ghana to America in 1973 with a child already in tow as she went <\/strong>in search of better educational opportunities for her growing family.<\/p>\n

Burkett, says the purpose of the ABC Union<\/a> is to allow Black people from different backgrounds to share their perspectives in a single \u201csafe and dedicated space,\u201d where people of all ethnicities are welcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what Malaika is speaking to is the importance of acknowledging those differences,\u201d the 19-year-old says, \u201cand working together to make sure that all of those different narratives and experiences are highlighted in a way that is unifying but also supportive of the fact that they\u2019re different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A10\/29\/25- LONDON, UK. \u2013 Scenes during the Night at the Museum event held on Northeastern\u2019s London campus on Oct. 29, 2025. The event was for Black History Month. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Three10\/29\/25- LONDON, UK. \u2013 Scenes during the Night at the Museum event held on Northeastern\u2019s London campus on Oct. 29, 2025. The event was for Black History Month. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Four10\/29\/25- LONDON, UK. \u2013 Scenes during the Night at the Museum event held on Northeastern\u2019s London campus on Oct. 29, 2025. The event was for Black History Month. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Audience10\/29\/25- LONDON, UK. \u2013 Scenes during the Night at the Museum event held on Northeastern\u2019s London campus on Oct. 29, 2025. The event was for Black History Month. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University
\nThe Night at the Museum was arranged by the student-led African, Black and Caribbean Union. Photos by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

That diversity of perspective was on full show at ABC\u2019s first major event, \u201cNight at the Museum\u201d, on Oct. 29. The event\u2019s opening panel discussion on the London campus brought together a journalist, a researcher digging into British Black history stretching back to the 15th century and an American historian specializing in unearthing eugenic atrocities against her countrymen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the talk, guests were treated to an array of exhibitions, videos and stalls where they could speak to the panelists afterwards, while food was supplied by Black-owned catering businesses.<\/p>\n

The evening was arranged to coincide with the U.K.\u2019s Black History Month in October and followed Northeastern\u2019s theme of \u201ccelebrating black brilliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Burkett and Okelo-Odongo, both studying politics and international relations, say they wanted to mark the ABC\u2019s founding, having only been set up in April, with a \u201ccapstone\u201d event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really did want it to be like a celebration, where people leave and they feel like they learned something or really enjoyed themselves,\u201d says Burkett. \u201cIt was less that learning about Black history or Black stories is a chore or something that\u2019s a part of your coursework, but instead something that can be really exciting and done creatively and as a social space as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the panel, Nadine White, the U.K.\u2019s first race correspondent to be hired by a major newspaper<\/a> and historian Shantella Sherman joined Renee Landell, project manager of Northeastern\u2019s Mapping Black London research initiative.<\/p>\n

Burkett and Okelo-Odongo, ABC\u2019s co-presidents, chaired the discussion that centered around storytelling.<\/p>\n

\"A10\/29\/25- LONDON, UK. \u2013 Scenes during the Night at the Museum event held on Northeastern\u2019s London campus on Oct. 29, 2025. The event was for Black History Month. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"A10\/29\/25- LONDON, UK. \u2013 Scenes during the Night at the Museum event held on Northeastern\u2019s London campus on Oct. 29, 2025. The event was for Black History Month. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Several10\/29\/25- LONDON, UK. \u2013 Scenes during the Night at the Museum event held on Northeastern\u2019s London campus on Oct. 29, 2025. The event was for Black History Month. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University
\nThe panel discussion at the Night of the Museum opened the event before guests were invited to enjoy immersive cultural displays and presentations. Photos by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

Landell told the audience that Mapping Black London<\/a> project, which involves using public records to uncover the lives of black Londoners in history, was helping to counter the threat of \u201chistorical amnesia\u201d in a time of anti-migrant sentiment<\/a> in Britain.<\/p>\n

She pointed to the example of the Windrush Generation<\/a>, when people from the Caribbean were invited to the U.K. to help rebuild the country after World War II.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to ask yourself,\u201d Landell continued, \u201cwhat happened in between being invited to come here to help because they recognized that we have expertise that this country needs, to thinking that now we are disposable.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is why, said Landell, the work of Mapping Black London is \u201cso important\u201d as it is raising awareness of contributions made by \u201cthese really incredible early black Britons and recognizing that we\u2019ve been here for a very long time \u2014 centuries, in fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

White, who has founded her own news organization, Black Current News<\/a>, said she is driven to \u201camplify marginalized perspectives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the panel discussion, visitors were able to engage with presentations on Mapping Black London and watch a trailer for White\u2019s documentary, \u201cBarrel Children: The Families Windrush Left Behind,\u201d which focuses on the accounts of children left behind in the Caribbean when their parents emigrated to Britain for work in the middle of the 20th century.<\/p>\n