You know in times like this I don’t even know what to say. Having said that, this whole blogging business may be more challenging than I anticipated. I remember Emily telling me that we needed a way to express ourselves as we traverse the natural and colorful West-African coast. And in a cosmic way this blog will be like a muse in which we paint our experiences on an easel known as the internet.
But aside from all the wonderful, mushy, idealistic plans we have for this blog, I can personally say that my hope is that this collection of writings will show our perspectives and opinions in the raw. Hopefully I can tell my story about traveling to the Motherland and leave out the self-righteous crap that blog readers are generally used to. In all seriousness, I am a Black man and this trip, my homecoming, is something that I have waited for my entire life. But, I am also, maybe more importantly, a human being who loves to learn and share experiences with other human beings.
Since I was a small child I was taught that I was not truly an American in many ways. One way was in my public schooling. In elementary through High school I was taught that my people were once slaves, docile and sheepish beings who may have fought for freedom a few times in the past 200 years but only accomplished to gain a few handouts. Another way was through my father who I would argue is a Black Supremacist. With an iron fist, he taught me the true history of where I came from. “Your not an American Miles, get out of that way of thinking, your are a Black man who happens to live in America." He taught me Afro-centrism, but in a very witty and charismatic way, a way that made me listen. “Your people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge,” my father would say to me. He would hide my allowance in works by various Black authors saying, “If you want to hide something from a Black man, put it in a book!” He would make me read “his books” the ones that they don’t teach Black kids in schools. He made me do reports on Black heroes, in addition to the homework I was already assigned from school! What a hard ass this guy was! By ten I was already familiar with the works of X, Garvey, Douglass, and the Black Israelites. I was a young intellectual with an attitude against America’s unfair history toward my forefathers and mothers. For me, going back to Africa was more than a study, it was an obligation.
Ghana is a frontier for me because of her deep involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Ghana was responsible for over 7.5 million souls that came from her shores throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Bodies of Africans were parceled from the infamous Elmina dungeon castle and countless other castles along the Cape Coast. I can never explain how chilling the feeling is to know that one of those souls maybe my ancestor. I wonder if my stock is Ghanaian, if my great, great, great grand dad was an Asante elitist who had many wives and adorn colorful kente. I wonder how much I’ll stand out in Ghana; will being a Black American, with mixed blood in me, make the natives look at me differently? Will I actually feel like I’m home? What will become of me when I get back to Harlem? Will I be an African? An African American? Would the American media have already changed the name for Black folks to something else by the time I get back? In some crazy way, I’m hoping that feeling fully African can help me to feel fully American, and ultimately make me feel fully human.
To be honest, that’s the reason I decided to go to the College at Brockport in the first place. The Ghana program was my prize and now I and Emily will further discover and dialogue as we embark on this 5 month journey…
Friday, August 7, 2009
A little history...
Hey, everyone! Miles and I thought it would be a great idea to have a blog that our family and friends could follow while we embark on the experience of a life-time, or at least of our lives so far. Enjoy, and if you have any questions, just email us or leave a comment!
So, here we are a couple of days before we’re leaving for the great nation of Ghana. I have learned over the past two months working at Tops that many people either: a) do not know where Ghana is located, b) have never heard of Ghana, or c) have some knowledge of Ghana. In case you fall into one of these three categories, I’ll give you the low-down on the country we will be living in for about five months.
Ghana is a West-African nation that lies along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea.
(The highlighted area is Ghana)
Like nearly every other African nation, Ghana has a history of colonization. First colonized by the Portuguese in the late 1400s, Ghana was put on the map as a prime location to find gold, thus giving Ghana its later name of “Gold Coast” given by the British. Dutch colonizers joined the Portuguese in the late 1500s also in search of gold. By the late 1800s, Ghana was a British colony, exploited for its raw materials and, sadly, human labor. Over time, Ghana became one of the main export locations of slaves. Several ports where slaves were shipped out to sea can still be visited today at sites such as Elmina Castle, where slave exportation was so brutal the presence of the castle itself ensures that no one will forget the misery and inhumane practices of the slave trade. Finally, in 1957, Ghana gained independence, the first Sub-Saharan African nation to do so and create a fully-functioning democratic government in the continent. For the past fifty years or so, Ghana has experienced great stability (which is sometimes hard to come by in African governments), change, growth, and happiness. If you would like to discover a more in-depth history of Ghana, this website offers one that is quite comprehensible.
On a more personal note, it truly is an honor to have this opportunity to travel to a country such as Ghana. Though I have not experienced it yet myself, I have not heard any complaints about the culture, people, or even the food of Ghana, and am very excited to learn as much as I can while I am there. Oh, and school will probably be fun, too….
So, here we are a couple of days before we’re leaving for the great nation of Ghana. I have learned over the past two months working at Tops that many people either: a) do not know where Ghana is located, b) have never heard of Ghana, or c) have some knowledge of Ghana. In case you fall into one of these three categories, I’ll give you the low-down on the country we will be living in for about five months.
Ghana is a West-African nation that lies along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea.
(The highlighted area is Ghana)
Like nearly every other African nation, Ghana has a history of colonization. First colonized by the Portuguese in the late 1400s, Ghana was put on the map as a prime location to find gold, thus giving Ghana its later name of “Gold Coast” given by the British. Dutch colonizers joined the Portuguese in the late 1500s also in search of gold. By the late 1800s, Ghana was a British colony, exploited for its raw materials and, sadly, human labor. Over time, Ghana became one of the main export locations of slaves. Several ports where slaves were shipped out to sea can still be visited today at sites such as Elmina Castle, where slave exportation was so brutal the presence of the castle itself ensures that no one will forget the misery and inhumane practices of the slave trade. Finally, in 1957, Ghana gained independence, the first Sub-Saharan African nation to do so and create a fully-functioning democratic government in the continent. For the past fifty years or so, Ghana has experienced great stability (which is sometimes hard to come by in African governments), change, growth, and happiness. If you would like to discover a more in-depth history of Ghana, this website offers one that is quite comprehensible.
On a more personal note, it truly is an honor to have this opportunity to travel to a country such as Ghana. Though I have not experienced it yet myself, I have not heard any complaints about the culture, people, or even the food of Ghana, and am very excited to learn as much as I can while I am there. Oh, and school will probably be fun, too….
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