Atinuke on her story-telling workshop:

"History can explain why our ancestors moved away from the place of their birth and how they met and mingled with other peoples. History can explain how each one of us came to be who and where we are now with all our mixed ancestries. This is what Class 6 and I explored in my workshop on Black History Month.

I shared with them stories from the African Diaspora. Stories which started in Africa and which travelled and changed as black people travelled and changed in the West.

We played the World Game where children migrated from one part of the world (room) to another because of war, famine, congest, adventure until they became thoroughly confused about where they had started (come from) or where they belonged. We ended this game singing :

"We are our grandmothers prayers.
We are our grandfathers dreamings.
We are the breath of ancestors.
We are the spirit of God
We are our ..." by sweet honey in the rock.

The workshop ended with each child writing a short piece about an imaginary or real ancestor of theirs who came from somewhere different to them. You can find these on the griots.net website.

I hope the children (who were all white bar one) went away with more empathy and compassion towards Black people in Britain and others whose origins and ancestry are obviously different to that of the white majority." Written by Atinuke, a Nigerian storyteller who now lives in Wales.