38 | SATURDAY | 30.04.22 | The Guardian
▼ SCOTLAND JAPANESE
SCHOOL, LIVINGSTON
Below: Hikari, 14 – her
mother is Japanese, her
father Scottish. ‘I really like
the fact that we follow the
same curriculum as schools
in Japan. In the library there
are good manga books. ’
Below, right: Kenji,
eight – both of hisparents are Japanese.
Bottom: Liam, eight; his
mother is Japanese, his
father Australian. ‘I have
been in the Japanese
school for fi ve years. I have
to learn lots of spelling s,
which is very challenging
for me. Break time is the
best. I try to have fun with
my friends’like a ‘l ittle Japan’, a small community where you speak
your own language , even swap h omemade J apanese
foods. There is a great spirit of mutual aid.”
Further south, in High Wycombe, is the Akacia
c omplementary school. The idea of an African school
was revived 25 years ago by Kojo Asare Bonsu. “ As
an A frican parent, I was concerned. Every year I read
that our so-called Black Caribbean children,
especially our boys, weren’t functioning and benefi ting
from the British education system. So fi ve of us decided
that we would restart the Saturday school. The o riginal
school was started here in the UK among Africans who
came out of the British colonies in the 1960s.
G randparents, parents, mothers and fathers were
concerned about the narrative and the biases that
were connected to the whole issue of us, as African
p eople, being able to c omprehend and embrace
high culture .”
Hundreds of primary school -aged children have
passed through Akacia’s doors. They are taught
maths and English, the history of Africa and its people,
alongside “ self-respect, self-esteem and self -worth ”,
says Bonsu. “We have inspirational speakers. In March,
we had a visit from Paul Obinna , the creator of the
African timeline, a poster that presents 8,000 years of
history. In May we’re going to have African board
games , and in June we’re going to have African
s torytelling and then, just before the close of term,
A frican drumming.”
Bonsu is passionate about the work his school isdoing, and my own experiences tell me he is right to
be. It’s been more than 30 years since I left my S aturday
school, and while I didn’t always appreciate being torn
away from the telly on a weekend, the experience
did give me a strong sense of identity. Being around
young women who matched all my cultural, social
and r eligious intersections meant I didn’t feel like an
a nomaly. At times when Islamophobia or racism
ha ve raised their head, I’ve been equipped to deal
with it, and able to diff erentiate between religion
and culture.
The girls from the mosque school have remained a
constant in my life. It was a place of shared experiences,
strong friendships and fi guring out what we wanted,
as muc h as what we d id n’t •