Uncle Ho’s contributions to fight against racism highlighted

President Ho Chi Minh’s vision and his important role in struggles for independence of African countries  is highlighted in radio program “The Taylor  Report” hosted by Phil Taylor. - Illustrative image ( VNA file photo)

President Ho Chi Minh’s chronicles about dire circumstances experienced by colored people in all parts of the world, especially in the US, were also reviewed in the program.

According to Taylor, after reading the book entitled "The Black Race by Ho Chi Minh and Selected Works on Systemic Racism” written by Prof. Nguyen Dai Trang, President of the Canada-ASEAN Initiatives, he was extremely surprised to learn that the Vietnamese President had been to Boston, New York, Madagascar, and Paris – experiences that helped Uncle Ho to recognize connections between colonialism and racism.

The information in the book is really valuable and new materials for many Western researchers who want to understand more about the great leader, Taylor said.

The book "The Black Race by Ho Chi Minh and Selected Works on Systemic Racism” made debut in Canada in February with the English and Vietnamese versions.

Trang, who has spent more than 25 years on collecting, studying, and writing about President Ho Chi Minh, told the Vietnam News Agency’s reporter that “The Black Race” was written in French by Ho Chi Minh in 1925, and its Russian version was published in the former Soviet Union (now Russia) in 1928.

Only few people have a chance to read it, Trang said, and not many readers have known about his considerable influence on national liberation movements in Africa, as well as movements protesting against wars and seeking equality for people of African descent in the US.

This has encouraged Trang to gather 20 articles by Ho Chi Minh, including 12 from “The Black Race” and seven others written in the 1922 - 1924 and 1963 - 1966 periods, in this book.

The book has attracted the attention of Canadian scholars in the context of challenges related to racism in the country, where diversity and inclusion are supposed to be the foundation of national identity, she said.