Loss of identity is behind many of the problems black Bermudians face, a visiting African history lecturer says.

The condition is not unique to Bermuda -- it is found in nearly every country where those of African ancestry live. And it can only be redressed through an understanding of the contributions Africans have made and continue to make to the world, historian Anthony Browder told more than 300 people at the St. Paul Centennial Hall on Friday night.

For the last 19 years Mr. Browder has operated and managed East Koast Graphics, a design studio, and the Institute of Karmic Guidance, an educational and research enterprise.

He has lectured to more than 10,000 people through the United States, Africa, Europe, Japan and Mexico.

In a two-hour presentation that used slides, personal anecdotes and rhetorical questions, Mr. Browder said that Africans of the Diaspora have been robbed of their history and culture which are two elements that make a people great.

Mr. Browder said he realised he was mis-educated about his own history throughout his entire school and college career. But he has taken steps to right that wrong.

"I began to seek out true knowledge and information for myself and I experienced firsthand the power of mis-education,'' he said.

"A person who has been mis-educated will find his place and he will stay in it. A person who has been mis-educated does not have to be ordered to the back door of any society because they will go without being told. In fact if there is no back door their very nature will demand one.'' Consequently, he said it was vitally important for black Bermudians to reclaim "the history and the culture'' of African people who were the first human beings to walk the planet earth.

"As the first human beings they also developed the first civilisation,'' he continued. "All those things that constitute civilisation; language, writing, architecture, engineering, philosophy, mathematics, medicine were all devised by African people thousands of years before there was a Europe.

"To be honest, this is not African history, this is world history, but it is world history that most people know nothing about.'' Mr. Browder was a guest of the Committee for the Study of African Culture, an organisation of men and women trying to educate themselves about African history and its meaning in the modern world.

He said that every black Bermudian must research and become "actively involved in the process of re-education,'' so that they can learn to understand and appreciate the significance of African contributions to the world stage.

"We must appreciate our heritage, not someone else's interpretation of our heritage,'' he added. "But to know through our own eyes who we are, what we created and what we gave to the world that the world is still using, but is calling it by someone else's name.''