Black History Wales launches 'Young People, the Time is Now' celebration

Today marks the start of Black History Month, and to celebrate, Black History Wales held a launch event in Cardiff with the theme 'Young People, the Time is Now'.

The annual event is designed to celebrate the culture, contributions and achievements of black people in the UK and across the world.

This year, Black History Wales are launching Black History 365, which is is a year-long programme aimed at continuing action to help tackle racism and ensure black history is explored and talked about all year round.

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Gabriel Udoh was at the event held at St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff. He said: "It's important to get our words out because not a lot of black people in Wales get heard a lot, so it's nice to have a place where you can all join together and speak as much as you want and finally be you."

He continued: "This year is all about black people finally being heard. I would recommend people should listen to the message that is being said in this wonderful arena [...] come, listen and enjoy and just spread the word."

Katriel Udoh said she felt the event brought people together, adding: "I feel like black young people in Wales need to be heard because they can make a difference in the world and they can change the world."

Jane Hutt MS made a speech at the launch event at St Fagans National Museum of History. Credit: ITV Wales

The Welsh Government's Social Justice Minister, Jane Hutt, made a speech at the event, saying: "we need everyone's help to build an anti-racist Wales. A Wales in which we can be all proud to belong."

On June 7 this year, the Welsh Government published the ‘Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan’ to tackle systemic and institutionalised racism and make Wales an anti-racist nation by 2030.

Jane Hutt MS added: "It's about creating the anti-racist Wales we all want to see, so working together, delivering our anti-racist action plan, building our anti-racist Wales and we said we should build this by 2030, so we have a lot of work to do and I'm so glad that Black History Wales 365 is going to help make it happen."

While its origins can be traced back to the 1920s in the United States, the UK version of Black History Month was launched in 1987 in London, largely as a result of local community activism that challenged racism in British society.