100 Black Men of London Conference

October 1^st 2011 was not only the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 51^st birthday it also saw two interesting events at London South Bank University (LSBU) both of which were attended by Proud to be African Clothing

The first was the 100 Black Men of London’s (100BMOL) ‘State of the Black Man’ Conference. 100BMOL is the London branch of an organisation that seeks to confront many of the issues in the black community through proactive engagements such as mentoring, community education, and book clubs and so on. An extremely positive 100% voluntary organisation that does not rely on external sponsors but on the efforts and contributions of members, to put their money where their mouths are by acting out a solution to some of society’s problems rather than just talking about them.

This was the third 100BMOL event I’d attended this year the first being the Book Club which was an excellent event attended by over 150 people again always heart warming to be in a room of people discussing literature, with guest speakers such as Alex Wheatle MBE author of ‘Brixton Rock’ and 6 other titles including his most recent ‘Brenton Brown’ who gave us an impressive preview of his upcoming show ‘Uprising’ which is showing at The Albany Theatre, Deptford this October, also Dr Tommy Smith a former athlete of Mexico 1968 fame.

The second was the family fun day another groovy day, which although held on a rainy day had adults and kids trying out the food and games and generally having a good time.

The state of the Black Man Conference suffered from the opposite problem coming on what will inevitably be the last gloriously sunny weekend this year I think many people voted to attend BBQ’s instead,. Notwithstanding there was a fair turnout of committed interested and interesting people debating various topics such as  fatherhood, criminal justice, leadership, education, money management and entrepreneurship, homophobia, men’s health and mental health to name a few.

100 Black Men of London is an extremely worthy and positive organisation, it epitomises many of the things that Proud to be African does, self sufficiency, self help and positive solutions. I hope to be reporting on more of their upcoming activities