I crossed 2 things off my bucket list this summer: seeing Beyonce live and going to Africa—Ghana to be exact (because remember, Africa is a continent, not a country). While both were transformative, Ghana really changed me. My dear advisor, mentor, and friend, Dr. Erik McDuffie, told me I would be different because of this trip, and as usual, he was right.
I spent about a week in Ghana as part of the 2023 ASWAD (Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora) Conference, dedicated to bringing Black scholars together just a few short years after the year of return was marked in 2019. I cannot deny the ball of nerves in my belly as I planned the trip. I vacillated between the excitement of finally going, the anxiety of first world fears (I really am glad I did not get that rabies shot), anticipation of the long travel, and overall shock that I was really doing it. When my husband dropped me off at the airport, I felt like I was going on a real adventure.
And yet, after almost 24 hours of travel, I felt so normal in Ghana, like I had been there before. While it reminded me of Haiti in many ways, it also felt unique and yet familiar. To be Black was not to be Other in the same way as it was back home in the States, and yet, I also knew I was American. Maybe that is what the DuBoises felt like, I wondered as I visited the final home of one of my historical baes. The tour guide must have smelled the fangirl on me when he asked me to read out of one of DuBois’ books in his 1000+ collection. Standing in his office, reading his reflections on birthdays (one of our shared life favorites) was one of the many moments that I can mark as life-altering.
So yeah, this trip changed me, in all the ways. Professionally, I was enriched and reminded that I am indeed a scholar! My Illinois family and the other scholars I encountered reminded me that I have an author voice and spirit, so I better get this book done. As an educator, teaching about the transatlantic slave trade will never be the same. Seeing Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle was unbelievable and yet so raw and true; I felt the ancestors in my whole body, head to toe. The ones who survived are in me, carrying the memories of the ones who did not make it past the doors of no return. It is as real today as it was centuries ago. As is the trauma: personally, I reflected on the ways diaspora means connections and disconnections. Things that are lost and gained: family, ancestry, names, histories, cultures. Kinship born out of necessity, as I have seen it function in my own life. This hard healing is needed.
So thank you Ghana and ASWAD….you only beat out Beyonce by a little bit though ;)
