What's Happening: Spotlight on The Spelmore Institute

Greetings Black Secret Progressives,

As we enter the summer months, we want to share with you some of the wonderful work which our Black Secret Community are engaged in. Many of our strategic partners and individual members are involved in spearheading some truly dynamic and significant projects throughout the diaspora, in the Americas, Europe, the UK and on the African continent. Over the forth coming weeks we will be showcasing some of those projects and initiatives that are taking place within our extended community worldwide. In the spirit of Pan Africanism we wish to raise awareness of what’s going on within our community, so that we can all support one another where we can, and grow in strength together. For it is only through awareness of what's happening, can we support one another, and it is only by supporting each other that we can become stronger as a community and achieve our collective goals far more dynamically. The first of these Institutions we will be highlighting in our newsletters is The Seplmore Institute.

While I was in Ghana earlier this year, I meet up with the founders of the Spelmore Institiute, Brother Nana Kwame and Sister Nana Gayle, an inspired and driven couple. The Spelmore Institute is an independent International School that The Black Secret has sponsored. Set in the beautiful hillside region of Pokuase.

Sister Nana Gayle and Brother Nana Kwame were motivated to build the Spelmore Institiute through their own personal experience of putting their two daughters through different schools in the local Ghanaian education system. Whilst the education their daughters were receiving was of a high calibre and they were attaining good academic results, Nana Kwame and Nana Gayle noticed that their daughters were not being taught much about Africa or really been instilled with a sense of pride about their African heritage. Things came to a head for the couple when one of their daughters came home one day and reported that a teacher had taught them that “Ghanaians walked about naked until the Europeans gave them clothes.” Sadly, this was not the only incident of such a nature that their daughters had experienced. Worse still regardless of the colour of the teacher, this level of ignorance and false believe about Ghana ( and Continental Africa in general ) is common place within the education system. It leads to the false assumption that Ghanaians had nothing and did very little before colonialism, and that everything of value that Ghanaians now benefit from today is due to the generosity and efforts of Europeans including the very shirts they wear on their backs!

Correcting Misperceptions

What is sad is that there is an abundance of clear evidences of the fine and varied traditional clothes that we have worn in Ghana from far antiquity, of flowing gowns infused with silk, wonderful textiles and other woven garments which are still worn today and haven’t changed to date. But when an authority figure who doesn’t know any better such as a teacher, says these things it can have an unfortunate impact on a young and impressionable mind. It can produce a powerful subconscious outlook of feeling lesser than others and thinking you owe a debt to others when none of that is the case.

The truth of the matter is that we had our own fine garments and textiles, and dressed in a manner and style best suited for the climate and environments we found ourselves in. When the Europeans colonised much of Africa, they gave Africans european style clothing which was less suitable for the climate. They then stigmatised Ghanaian and African traditional attire, just like they did much else of indigenous origin. To put things into context and to show the African cultural continuity that exists from far antiquity to the relatively modern period, if you examine closely multiple images of Ancient Egyptian wall paintings and representations for example, you will see that whether you are looking at images of royal personages, nobleman, farmers or common folk, they often preferred to be bear chested or wear other appropriate attire suitable for their climate and conditions. And being bear chested a majority of the time didn’t stop the Ancient Egyptians from building the pyramids or creating a high civilisation that lasted for thousands of years! Also, choosing to be bear chested or wearing ‘relatively less clothing’ didn’t stop Continental Africans from creating many great empires and civilisations either.  

Two dignitaries: One wearing western clothes & Boakye Tenten the King's spokesman on the right wearing traditional clothes 1884. Nobody in this photograph is naked! And there is nothing wrong with either attire.

Taking First Steps

Realising the problem that this could raise with their children’s sense of racial pride and self-esteem, Nana Kwame and Nana Gayle decided to take their daughter’s schooling and education into their own hands, and began to home school their daughters themselves. They became so adept at home schooling, that they soon started to home school the children of a close friend alongside their own daughters, and others soon followed. They taught the core subjects themselves and hired tutors to cover additional subjects. They were so well organised and successful in doing so that when Nana Gayle’s own mother paid them a visit form the UK one year and saw what they doing on a small scale she said to them, “You’re doing a wonderful job with the children, you should build a school”.

This opened their minds to the possibility of taking things a step further. Nana Gayle's mother passed to the ancestors not long after her visit to Ghana. Inspired by her words and ideas in 2015, Nana Kwame with the help of a close friend Ajingho and a single Stone Breaker ( an apprentice to a Stone Mason ), began the process of building with his own hands, brick by brick the school that would become the Spelmore Institute. It took four long years of hard work, determination and perspiration to complete the building. The school was officially opened in 2019, in the beautiful hillside region of Pokuase. The institute runs a diverse curriculum with all the core subjects, including English, Maths, Science, Geography, Desgin & Technology, Music and various Languages as well as many other subjects all taught from an African centred perspective.

From clearing wild bush off the land, to rising the building structure, the interior rooms, to completing the outer entrance wall took around 4 years.

Indeed, while I was there, I was given a tour of the school, I got to experience some delightful singing from pupils in the courtyard, and witness other students taking a vigorous martial arts class. The spirit of both students and the teachers was uplifting and a joy to behold. Another beautiful feature at the school is that each classroom is named after a ‘Historical Black figure’. For example, there is a classroom named after Marcus Garvey, close by to another classroom named after his wife Amy Jaques-Garvey. The classrooms being dedicated to important historical figures like this, helps to create a sense of pride in the young minds of those children who step into those classrooms. It shows them simultaneously, that they can aspire to excellence, that they come from a preeminent legacy and that in fact they also have greatness dwelling within them.  It was a pleasure meeting both the founders Brother Nana Kwame and Sister Nana Gayle as well as many of the other teachers on the day that I visited the Institute, and to see and witness first hand just how far they have come and just how much they have achieved in such a short space of time. They have as a collective all contributed to creating something very special and something that is very much needed in the diaspora, an African centred school with a holistic educational approach that champions global enterprise and innovation.

Due to the effects of the global Lockdown and changes to governmental educational policies, The Spelmore Institute have of late faced many financial challenges. Despite this they currently offer scholarships and bursaries of 75% to their students, as many local parents are struggling to pay the full fees, and the Institute does not wish to turn away any of its students. They are also looking to add a Stem Science Lab to the school which needs funding. As well as this, they need funding to purchase two school buses which will take children safely from their homes to school and back home again at the close of the school day. And critically they also need to have their own supply of fresh running water. Currently there is no piped water in the area, which means that water has to be bought and contained in large storage tanks. For a school of the size of the Spelmore Institute this is growing expense which will greatly be reduced by the drilling and installation of a fresh water supply for the school.

Posing with Bro Nana kwame on my visit

How you can support The Spelmore Institute

You can find out more about the Spelmore Institute and how you can help and support them by watching our video interview with Brother Nana Kwame and our tour of the school. You can also learn more about them by visiting their website, and their ‘Gofundme’ page, which you can find links to below.

Tour of the School & Interview with Bro Nana Kwame

Click here to view the tour

Click here to watch the interview with Nana Kwame

To continue the inspired work they have so passionately began, The Spelmore Institute needs the help of the global collective. Whatever you can contribute whether small or large, financial or otherwise, whether its through donations of materials, books or equipment, it will go a long way to helping the school continue it’s vital work of providing a high quality education to Ghanaian children with an African centred focus.

Check out The Spelmore Institute’s GoFundme page with this link:

https://gofund.me/8afa89bf

The Spelmore website:

https://thespelmoreinstitute.com

Contact: 

[email protected]

In addition, they also offer boarding for International Students, through their African Village which has 8 places for boys between the ages of 11 to 14 years for key Stage 3 and 4. For parents looking to give your children an International education, Spelmore is offering a 10% discount off the admission fees and first term fees when you quote "The Black Secret". again you can check out the website for more information about this. 

"There is nothing that man cannot do if he applies himself rigorously to do it. We are therefore inspiring you to apply yourselves consistently, in season and out of season to what you have decided to do." - Marcus Garvey

Be enlightened, be entertained, be educated.