Told By Us – Voices of the Diaspora

Honoring Our Stories.

Reclaiming

Our Truth.

A living platform celebrating Black and Brown history, resilience, and culture — through storytelling, scholarship, art, and open dialogue across the diaspora.

40+

Nations of the Diaspora

Untold Stories

1

Unified Voice

Told By Us
Diaspora
Portrait Gallery
Photoshoot coming soon
Uniting the diaspora
Reclaiming Our Narratives  ✦  Honoring Pre-Colonial Traditions  ✦  Celebrating Black Excellence Across the Diaspora  ✦  Told By Us. Owned By Us.  ✦  Reclaiming Our Narratives  ✦  Honoring Pre-Colonial Traditions  ✦  Celebrating Black Excellence Across the Diaspora  ✦  Told By Us. Owned By Us.  ✦ 

Our Platform

What We Create Together

TBU is more than a website — it is a living archive, a roundtable, and a celebration. We exist to fill the gaps in mainstream narratives with truth, beauty, and community.

01

History & True Origins

Deep dives into pre-colonial African civilizations, diaspora timelines, primary source documents, maps, and sociological analysis.

02

Essays & Scholarly Writing

Published pieces by founder and contributing writers exploring identity, culture, politics, and the Black experience across the globe.

03

Art, Culture & Community

Celebrating music, visual art, oral traditions, dance, and language as vessels of ancestral memory and cultural continuity.

04

The Bridge Table Series

Open-discourse town halls, virtual roundtables, and in-person gatherings designed to foster real dialogue across the diaspora.

From the Platform

Featured Essays & Stories

Identity

Journey Towards Justice: Documenting the Movement from the Inside

An evocative documentary essay that immerses readers in the transformative experiences of students, faculty, and community members navigating systems of power — and choosing to resist.

YSR Yanira Sánchez-Rogers May 2025

History

Pre-Colonial Kingdoms: What They Don't Teach in Schools

The empires of Mali, Songhai, and Kush built libraries, trade routes, and governance systems centuries before European contact. Here is what was erased — and why.

Yanira Sánchez-Rogers Read →

Culture

The Language of Diaspora: How We Carry Home in Our Mouths

From Twi to Patois to AAVE — the linguistic threads connecting displaced peoples to their ancestral roots are living, breathing acts of resistance.

Yanira Sánchez-Rogers Read →
Our True Origins

History Across the Diaspora

Before colonization reshaped the world, Black and Brown civilizations built extraordinary societies. We are here to tell those stories — through primary documents, scholarly essays, and community dialogue.

Pre-Colonial Africa · 300 BCE – 1500 CE
The Empire of Mali & the Wealth of Mansa Musa
At its height, the Mali Empire was the wealthiest nation on earth. Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 destabilized the gold market across three continents.
West Africa
Ancient Civilizations · 3100 – 30 BCE
Kemet: The Black Land and Its People
Ancient Egypt — Kemet — was a civilization rooted in African soil and African genius. Exploring its true origins challenges centuries of revisionist history.
Northeast Africa
Diaspora · 1500 – Present
The Atlantic Slave Trade: Numbers, Routes, and Resistance
Primary documents, maps, and firsthand accounts that trace the forced migration of 12.5 million Africans — and the resistance movements that never ceased.
Atlantic World
Caribbean Diaspora · 1700s – Present
Maroon Communities: Freedom Built in Plain Sight
Across Jamaica, Suriname, and Brazil, Maroon communities established free Black societies that predated abolition by centuries. Their governance still shapes culture today.
Caribbean & Americas
Cultural Retention · Ongoing
Spiritual Practices that Survived the Middle Passage
Vodou, Candomblé, Santería — African spiritual traditions that endured enslavement and colonization by adapting, concealing, and persisting across generations.
Global Diaspora
The Bridge Table Series

Where the Community Gathers

Open discourse, radical honesty, and collective healing. Our town halls and roundtables are spaces where all voices are welcome — and all questions are worth asking.

Upcoming Events
Jun 21
Bridge Table: Who Owns Our History?
Open roundtable · 7:00 PM EST
Virtual
Jul 12
Pre-Colonial Africa: A Visual Journey
Community lecture & gallery · Tampa, FL
In Person
Jul 26
Book Club: Monthly Discussion
Members only · 6:30 PM EST
Virtual
Aug 09
Diaspora Portraits: Photoshoot Day
Community participation · Tampa, FL
In Person
TBU Book Club

Reading the World Into Focus

The Mis-Education of the Negro
Carter G. Woodson
Current Read · July 2026
The Mis-Education of the Negro
by Carter G. Woodson

Published in 1933, Woodson's landmark work examines how formal education systems shaped Black Americans to think and act in ways that disadvantaged them — and what it would mean to truly educate a people toward liberation. Nearly a century later, its argument feels more urgent than ever.

Art & Gallery

Beauty of the Diaspora

Our gallery showcases the range, beauty, and unity of the Black diaspora — every hue, every heritage, one people.

View Full Gallery →

🌍 Featured Portrait Photoshoot Coming Soon
Diaspora Portraits
✊🏾 Community
🎨 Cultural Art
📚 Knowledge
🌺 Heritage

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That Matter

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Told By Us
Voices of the Diaspora

"Our stories have always existed. We are simply reclaiming the right to tell them — on our own terms, in our own voice."

© 2025 Told By Us: Voices of the Diaspora. All rights reserved.
Told By Us. Owned By Us.