Maja Antoine-Onikoyi’s Education Project Sends Black-History Books To Help Educate Those Who Can’t Afford To

Maja Antoine-Onikoyi has set up a charity project in order to help struggling people who want to learn more about Black history.

The founder of this amazing project is 20-year-old activist, Maja Antoine-Onikoyi from Watford.

Since the beginning of the project, which bloomed at the start of June, Maja has already given out more than £4,000. books worth of books. The books vary from books on Black History, criminal justice, and non-Black allyship plus fiction and poetry from Black authors.

Her idea flourished when, after the Black Lives Matter activists took to the streets and the viral trend #BlackOutTuesday emerged on Instagram. Maja shared her feelings about the trend on ITV News. “I really don’t like performative activism, so the whole #BlackOutTuesday thing really irritated me, I found that people used it as a cop-out to say they were helping because they posted a black square and an infographic. I wanted to actually DO something, that would encourage other people to actually make a change.” Watch the news segment below.

“I wanted everyone to educate themselves, not keep using Black people to do the heavy lifting and them just posting it,” Antoine-Onikoyi told Dazed. “But a lot of people stressed to me that they couldn’t afford to buy books or resources to do this, so I thought I’d send out a few. Then it escalated into what it is today.”

This project has grown so much that it now also sells books so you can gift it to someone. Check out the official website for the project, where you can either learn more about it, buy a book to educate yourself or a friend, or donate to the inspiring cause.