Watoto Uhuru Shule (Children’s Freedom School)

“Only a fool would let an enemy teach his children.” Malcolm X

September 15, 2021

Dear Watoto Uhuru Shule Parents (and Potential Watoto Parents):

Africans on the Move welcomes you to a new school year. We hope everyone is off to a positive and progressive start this new school year. We are happy that you have shown an interest in our free weekend school for children, from ages 2 to 18 years old. (Watoto Uhuru Shule are Swahili words that mean “Children’s Freedom School”.)

As with last year, this year’s Watoto Uhuru Shule is being held virtually due to Covid-19. We are asking parents/guardians to join us on Sunday, September 26, 2021 at 11 a.m. for a 20-minute orientation session.

We think that you agree with Malcolm X’s statement above. Today, many of us have no choice but to send our children to schools that promote the capitalists’ culture and values. However, we know that our children must be engaged in an educational forum such as Watoto Uhuru Shule which helps them to analyze the world in general and African people’s place in the world in particular. Although math, reading, geography, and science skills are reinforced in Watoto Uhuru Shule, they are reinforced through the study of African history and culture as well as current events that affect African people. This type of study is essential, especially since our youths today are being educated more by capitalist mass media, including social media (that glorifies individualism, glamorizes violence, and pushes sex and other destructive behaviors) than by their own teachers and parents.

Our study at Watoto Uhuru Shule reinforces our traditional African values of treating each other the way we wish to be treated (i.e., humanism), of working in a group and doing our share for the benefit of the group (i.e., collectivism), and of giving each—female and male, abled and disabled—an equal opportunity to develop to their fullest (i.e., egalitarianism). African youths are our future. If we don’t guide them to embrace their identity and history, to struggle for our people and against the negative forces that exploit and oppress us, their future is bleak.

Beginning on Sunday, October 10, 2021, Watoto Uhuru Shule will meet bi-weekly and virtually for thirty minutes via the ZOOM social media platform. (See the link below.) These 30-minute sessions will include the following:

An Opening (10 minutes),
Breakout rooms for teaching lessons by age groups (15 minutes) and
A closing (5 minutes).

(The schedule for the school meetings and facts about Watoto Uhuru Shule are attached.)

We hope that you will join us for a progressive year of learning for our children. Remember, Watoto Uhuru Shule is free!