Still We Rise

Welcome to Still We Rise, a website for the people of the African diaspora. Based in the UK, we welcome contributions from all members of the diaspora, no matter what country you live in.

This is a space for unity, for learning, for business connectivity. Still We Rise was created to build a global network between people of African heritage, wherever in the world they happen to be. Although its creators are based in the UK, we extend our arms in solidarity with all our brothers and sisters across the globe and hope that you will become a part of our dream of building and connecting our global community. One of our aims for 2020 is to provide a FREE online marketplace for black businesses and services, creating an effective link between suppliers and customers, not just in the UK but around the world.

Let us work together. For example, if we in the UK know where your business is when we come to visit the country that you are resident in, we can shop with you, supporting your business and circulating money within our community, enriching both you and ourselves in the process. If you are visiting the UK, you can do the same. This works for every country in the world that people of African heritage are resident in. We build, we become stronger, together.

Please come in, take a look around and get involved (if you want to) by contributing to the Encyclopaedia Africana, sending us your business details, browsing for goods and services in the Marketplace, letting us know about any news and events that would be of interest to your brothers and sisters of the diaspora, reading or sending us posts for the Listening Tree or making a donation.

This is an entirely independent initiative, focused squarely on the growth and development of us as a people. Emerging from the vision of Christiana O’Connor, this initiative requires dedication, commitment and donations in order to grow. We have the dedication and commitment – for us, this website is our labour of love. But we can’t build and grow without you, your knowledge and your donation.

Without your input, nothing happens. Without your support, there is no growth. This is your moment to be part of something the Black community needs; our history written by us from our perspective and a positive resource and asset for all of us and our children, as well as a sustainable source of development for our businesses.

How can you help?

If you run a business and you want to increase your customer base, send us your business details so that we can include you on our website.

With over 3 million Black people living across the UK, there has been very little work done in defining, much less serving, that community. However recent studies from the US have shown Black consumer dollars remaining in Black hands for 6 hours before going back into the wider economy.

Compare this to the Asian American community which manages to circulate its dollar for one whole month! No equivalent figures are available for the UK, but given that there are around 40,000,000 Black people in the U.S.A. and 3,500,000 Black people in the UK (2011 census), it is not hard to imagine that the circulation time is less here.

We can help each other and other members of the diaspora outside the UK, by patronising their businesses when we visit their home countries or ordering from them online, if they deliver to the UK.

Use Still We Rise. It is your website and we built it for you, your children, for all of us.
Tell others about Still We Rise – word of mouth is the best advertising!
Encourage other business owners to check out Still We Rise and send in their business details.
If you like what the site has to offer, please make a donation. Every penny is gratefully received!

How much does it cost?

Nothing. It’s absolutely FREE.

However, if you would like to donate towards the cost of building and maintaining the website and helping Still We Rise in achieving its aims, please click on the DONATE tab at the bottom of the page.

All we ask is that you spread the word to your friends and family. Word of mouth works best. We have WhatsApp, Zoom, Telegram, email, text, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so many tools to get the word out and support each other through our website.

Encyclopaedia Africana

The intention with Encyclopaedia Africana is to create a Wikipedia for people of African heritage. While we would love to be in a position to travel around the world taking pictures of the rich variety of plants, places, people, animals, insects etc. that populate the countries we hail from, we are not in a position to do that.

As parents, we are painfully aware of the lack of resource books available that focus on us as a people and are written by us, for us. Still We Rise wants to change that and build an Encyclopaedia that young and old can learn from and be proud of.

We need your help to build the beautiful resource that Encyclopaedia Africana (EA) will become. Imagine if a child sitting in front of a laptop in Reading, England can access the EA and hear what the birdsong of a Sylviid Warbler in Botswana is like? Or if children could access EA for their Black History Month project and find out about the thousands of unsung heroines and heroes that shaped our path to where we are today?

We all have untapped knowledge, our individual specialist subjects, that we can add to the EA.

For example, do you have photographs of flora, buildings, clothing, fabrics, landmarks or say fruit that you took on a visit to your ancestral country or the country that you live in now?
Do you have old black and white photos of your grandma or grandad in the smart clothing they used to wear back in the day?

Whether it be photographs alone or your own specialist subject, please share your entries/photographs with us and we will write an entry to accompany them (if you’re not the writing type!) or you can write the entry yourself and submit it to Still We Rise through our contact form.

Still We Rise - The Future

Our biggest and most long-term vision at Still We Rise is to create a primary school in London that equips our children with strong formative values, sense of self and our unparalleled and incomparable history so they can successfully navigate their journey into adolescence and adulthood. All funded by the diaspora as a global community.

By placing a strong emphasis on self-knowledge and life skills, underpinned by a commitment to academic excellence, our students will be confident in their ability to sit national exams and achieve the best possible grades, before moving on to the next academic or work phase of their lives as young adults. Here at Still We Rise, it’s our dream to see people of African Descent collectively invest in advancing and securing all of our children’s future.

In time, we would like to see such schools, at the primary and secondary level, all across the UK and in every country where the need for such an education exists and the children are currently being educated from a Eurocentric perspective. We would like to be able to fund scholarships for young people who are unable to accept university places because of a lack of financial resources, pay for children to go to primary and secondary school if their parents cannot afford the fees in countries where fees are a prerequisite to gaining an education and assist young people financially with new business start-ups, as well as providing them with a mentor of African origin who has already made a success of their own business.