MY TAKE From the Editor and Publisher
WHY BAVUAL? Earl A. Birkett
“ Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” — George Santayana
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This debut issue of BAVUAL: The African Heritage Magazine is the culmination of a dream that has consumed me for 50 years, since I was a lad of 11. As a boy, I dreamed of being a magazine publisher like my mentors: John H. Johnson Jr., founder of Ebony and Jet; Henry R. Luce, who created the Time-Life empire; and the fictional publisher Glenn Howard (played by my role model, Gene Barry) in the 1960s TV series The Name of the Game. It took a while, but I finally did it. So why BAVUAL and not some other type of publication? Simply put, it is filling a void in the magazine world and in the public discourse. To Big Media’s credit, issues and history pertaining to people of African descent are finally being given some of the attention that they need and deserve, such as through their coverage in the landmark “1619 Project” published in The New York Times. However, it is still far from enough. George Santayana’s warning that we ignore history at our peril has never been truer than it is now. I do not fear the past any more than I fear the truth, because both are intertwined. Much like with a bodily or mental disease, in order to heal properly, you must first be expertly diagnosed to identify your exact problem. Likewise, a great nation and a world that seeks to rid itself of division, hate, inequality and ignorance must put its history under a microscope in order to change it. I am now on the verge of 62, and after all I’ve been through in life, I am still an optimist about the human race. My study of human history has taught me one thing: We screw up, but we also have the capacity for greatness, if we try for it. Through its pages, I want BAVUAL to point to what we have done, warts and all, so that we can make the remainder of the 21st century and beyond better than what came before it. That’s the magazine’s mission, nothing more, nothing less. Question is, will you join us? I have faith.
BAVUAL:
The African Heritage Magazine
| Winter 2022
