My question is, why are you teaching him that this is anything to do with him? Don't you see that you're teaching him to think of himself and his value in terms of the colour of his skin? That you're tying his self-esteem to what happened thousands of years ago in Africa when he was born far more recently in America? Do you really think this is the healthiest way for him or any child to think? Again, what is it you want to achieve?

I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't teach him history accurately. When I was a kid I actually did learn about the roots of the number zero in Mesopotamia and India and Egypt. I learned about innovations like the abacus. I learned that the "Pythagorean" theorem was well known long before Pythagoras was born.

But, and this is important, I didn't ever feel as if the colour of these people's skin mattered. And less still that it had anything to do with me. I was top of my class in maths as it happens. In an all white school. I didn't need it to be explained to me through an "African" lens for this to be possible. I didn't care about the skin colour of the people who developed these ideas. I think you do a disservice to anybody you teach to think otherwise.