The Editor, Sir:

The month of February is here again, and the hullabaloo surrounding it being Black History Month is flowing off many black persons' lips like the river Nile.

This hullabaloo leads me to pose these questions. What is so fascinating about Black History Month when in the middle of this month is one of the most celebrated white days (Valentine's Day)?

Do the mass of Jamaican Negroes understand what it means to be black? If black people really believed in themselves, why are so many of us using various bleaching formulas trying to become white? What is so fundamental about black people or Black History Month if the cream of the crop among us always marry outside of the race?

Are Negroes across the globe aware that only black women can produce children for all other ethnic groups which are identical to such race? Isn't it fair to say black people's pride and dignity fell when slavery began?

It's transparent that black people don't really need a month to prove we are a great generation because we are from everlasting to everlasting, so if you want to know the end, look at the beginning.

Here is a saying from the sage, Marcus Garvey: "Sloth, neglect, indifference caused us to be slaves. Confidence, conviction, action will cause us to be free men today."

I am, etc.,

ALLAN MARTIN

Namibia