The Centre for British African Caribbean Studies (CBACS) was founded in 2007 as a research and education resource centre with the purpose of applying the knowledge of the ages to the life experience of descendants of enslaved Africans (DoEAs).
The need for CBACS is based on research findings indicating that DoEAs are unconsciously trapped as ‘black’ in a social construction developed during slavery and still containing us today in a dysfunctional reciprocal role relationship with the ‘white’ majority. During my doctoral studies I made the decision to ‘be the change I want to see’ by using my own life-world as the research vehicle for systematically working through the self-liberation process.
The long term vision of CBACS, born through the process of identity integration, is to contribute to liberating human potential in Britain through working with the visible and invisible legacies of slavery. The focus is threefold:
- Identifying the human costs of slavery/colonisation
- Sharing solutions for working through them enabling us as human beings to achieve Dewey’s aim of education to be ‘free within ourselves’;
- Provide ‘cultural’ education that enables us as human beings to finally take back control of our own lives
Initial contributions to this vision can be found in my book: Towards Bicultural Competence: Beyond Black and White.