Black Buffalo Speaks: An Africana Event

By Betty Jean Grant

Betty Jean Grant

This writer had the absolute pleasure of attending a wonderful event at Buffalo State University Saturday, hosted by the university’s Africana Studies Department. For those of you who went to either Buffalo State College or to its later named, Buffalo State University, you are probably unfamiliar with the program or the class. That is understandable because this new class, African Studies, is a recent addition to the University.

The class is taught by two very talented ‘brothers’, Shango Oya and Dr. Marcus Watson. A little history on these two gentlemen: Professor Oya is the facilitator of The Black Conscientious Workshop, a com munity engagement and educational group that met for years, every Monday evening at the Merriweather Library. Professor Watson just happens to be the son of famed, former Medaille College’s educator, Dr. Uhuru Watson, who was a student at Kent State University during the time of the deaths of four students during a campus massacre and taught me everything I learned about Pan Africanism while I was a student there, at Medaille College, in the 1980s.

It was great to see many of Buffalo’s Eastside legends and leaders who have taught Black and African history, in attendance, to support the two co-convenors of the event; also, the stu dents, many of whom, originated from the NYC areas. Black educators and activists, such as Professor L. Nathan Hare, Modell Gault, Marlo Wright, Cariol Holloman-Horne, Debbie Ransom, Patricia Bozeman, George Baba Eng, Karima Amin, were in attendance. The keynote speaker was Buffalo Mayoral Candidate, Garnell Whitfield Jr.

It was truly refreshing to see the mainly New York City under graduate students sitting side by side the unofficial historians, griots and storytellers of Buffalo’s black community. I was glad to see this event happen, and I am already looking forward to the one that I am sure will happen next. I am elated students from outside Buffalo, some of whom have never visited the Eastside of Buffalo, despite their 4 years attending and graduating from the University.

As many of us, who live on the Eastside know, there is definitely a disconnect between minority students at both the University of Buffalo and Buffalo State University and the Black community. But, thanks to the two progressive professors, Mr. Shango Oya and Dr. Marcus Watson, that road or journey of connecting the black students with our black community has been greatly shortened. I just learned that Dr. Eva M. Doyle was the guest speaker, a few years ago, at a similar event hosted by Dr. Watson. It is good to know that the movement to connect the community and students has been in place for a number of years. Hotep! Harbari Gani and Let’s keep it moving!