THE MOST POWERFUL JOURNEY OF A LIFE TIME FOR THIS AFRICAN IN AMERICA!

I would like to share with you all another personal introspection into the life of an African Slave descendant. I shared with you a brief family and personal history. Family is the most important and motivating factor in my life. When I say family, I do not simply mean immediate family, but my extended family of relatives and ancestors. The birth and life of my daughter has been the most profound and beautiful experience of my life. It is the only event in my life that has truly fulfilled and exceeded my expectations. Her birth, my first child, allowed me to complete the prime directive of life, besides survival, which the creation of progeny to continue the blood and species line.

Prior to the birth of my daughter, however, the most profound and gratifying experience of my life occurred in March of 2001. That is when this descendant of African slaves fulfilled the yearning of his captured ancestors by returning their DNA and progeny back to whence they/it had come….AFRICA.

I had made a promise to myself long ago that I would return to Africa that which was by design still African and that which is the vehicle of my ancestors, which is my flesh. I live because of them and they continue to live because of and through my existence. We are one and inseparable and I live to honor and respect their lives and struggles…as well as my own. Together we are strong.

So in March of 2001, my wife (then fiancé) arrived in Accra Ghana on a British Airways flight from London. I had saved up a long time for this as it was not cheap. When the plane landed on the tarmac and I stepped off the plane into the dark, hot and humid night, I was overcome emotionally. I could not believe I was there…actually back in the land of my ancestors. Tears broke the drought of my dry cry. At that moment, the promised journey had been fulfilled. I had returned my ancestors to their home land. I could have gotten back on the plane and returned back to the US…by choice and not force as my ancestors were taken away.

When we stepped out of the Airport after passing through customers, my wife and I were greeted by a parking lot full of African jittney men and baggage carriers looking to give us a ride to our destination and handle our bags for us. It was a sea of richly melanined dark brown faces all smiling and welcoming “back home” .

We did not go with a tour group or follow the tourist script. We got a hotel then a guest house and made friends quick with a brother name John, who was the concierge at the hotel we first stayed at. He told us that we were spending to much money their and that he could show us some cheaper places. He took us to meet his family in the village on his day off.

It was so strange because it made everything clear seeing the Africans. Looking at them I could see African Americans. The walks, the gestures, the dancing, the looks and features….there was no doubt that this is were we came from…it was like being home away from home…I felt like that is where I belonged…that was family…it was strange in a pleasant sense.

I thought that the people would look male nourished and weak, but to my pleasant surprise those were some of the healthiest and strong looking people that I had ever seen. I went to a fishing village and seen brothers who were just ripped and cut like they had been working out all their lives. However, forget the brother…the sisters…Good God almighty….talk about some grace and beauty…and not to mention that boo…well, you know. I seen some of the finest women that I had seen in my life…lawd help a brother do the right thing.

The Ghanaians were probable the friendliest people that I had ever meet, despite having the least of any people that I had met. Of course, once they knew you were American they befriended you to engage in commerce. However, I watched how they treated and spoke with one and other to gauge my opinion. It was beautiful and I could not help but to juxtapose it with the behavior and attitudes of African Americans. They are who we once were until we were corrupted by the influence of Western civilization and its crimes against ours peoples humanity.

I could go on with more but I will not. I just wanted to share a powerful and emotional experience of my life and recommend that somehow, if you can afford it, go visit the motherland. Make sure you do it the right way as not to have the American tourist experience, but one in which you connect with the locals on a more personal bases. Likely, if you are not a conscious black person in regards to being connected to your ancestors spiritually and to the struggles of your people, likely you should not go to Africa. The reason being is that you will only see what you want to see…which is a reason to be proud and lucky that you do not live there…in other words, you will be thanking that your ancestors were slaves so that you can now enjoy the material wealth of the West…even as a second class citizen. That is a shame, because we have become so blinded in the West by material wealth that we do not realize how poor we are, relative to Africans, in all other aspects of life and happiness.

I am currently making long term plans to buy property in Africa. I want to remain permanently connected and if feasible, have a dual citizenship in a chosen nation that offers such.