U.S. Embassy invites entries to Black History Month Essay Contest on “What Can I Do?”
Harare, January 26, 2012: The United States Embassy invites all Upper Six Level students in Zimbabwe to submit entries to the Black History Essay contest. Deadline is February 10, 2012.
To participate in the contest, students must submit a 500 word essay on the topic: “Using inspiration from African and African American achievers, answer this question for yourself and for Zimbabwe…What can I do?” Essays should be submitted to high school authorities who will select two winning essays (one by a girl and one by a boy) for submission to harare@educationusa.info with the subject line “Black History Month Essay Contest.” Alternatively, the winning essays may be delivered physically to the Embassy’s Eastgate offices. Single sex schools may submit two essays from the same gender. Individual winners will receive prizes and certificates, and all participating schools will receive a set of reference books.
The Black History Month essay contest is sponsored by the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Section and is in its third year. In 2011, 27 high schools in seven provinces participated. Ms. Julia Jenjezwa, a Gokomere High School sciences student from Bikita in Masvingo, was the overall winner and has subsequently been awarded a full scholarship to Yale University. Other winners were Tendai Memory Mushoweshiri of Girls High School, Harare; Thabiso Machingura of Regina Mundi High School, Gweru; Muneni Chirinda of St. John’s College in Harare and Clive Pawakwenya of St. Ignatius College in Chishawasha.
The essay contest honors Black History Month, inspired by Carter G. Woodson, a noted scholar and historian, and founder of Negro History Week in 1926. Woodson chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976 when the United States celebrated its bicentennial. At the time, President Gerald Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
