Jak Dodd/Nubian Jak

I tried to address that lack of role models by creating a game which highlighted prominent Black historical figures that the young people could access by playing the game. At that time in Britain, this had never been done before. It is still a world first. So that was the concept which gave birth to Nubian Jak.

I felt that most of the information was already in books and there was evidence to suggest that the information that I had put in my game had not been reaching the people who it could have an impact on. In fact, most Black history was available in particular forms that were preaching to the converted. People were stockpiling more and more of the same things, and the people whom I felt were disaffected were not getting this information.

Unfortunately, there is a reason for this which I am glad to say is becoming less and less so. There is an old adage, if you want to hide something from a Black person, put it in a book. And certainly, these young men and women were not interested in reading books to learn about their history. If anything, they would get their history from listening to rap records. That was their form of education and identification.

They were hungry for role models, because we all need a sense of identification, a sense of self and of self-esteem. Most of the role models they were being given in the media were negative and were stereotypes, and whether they wanted the information or not, I was going to give it to them.