| Being the el-cheapo that I am, I must admit that I resisted going to the movie theater and waited for several months before I could watch "Blood diamond" on cable television. I found it to be a remarkable film. The film features Academy Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio -- with an African actor, Djimon Hounsou, nominated for two Oscars, who hails from Benin; and Jennifer Connelly, who plays the role of a reporter -- as his co-stars. The film was shot in the West African nation of Sierra Leone. The storyline is that, in the midst of a civil war, a poor African man -- torn from his family -- is made to do forced labor in the backbreaking work of mining and prospecting for diamonds. His son is taken from him. While laboring, he finds one of the largest diamonds known to man; takes the diamond, hides it and then takes flight from those seeking to take it from him. Mr. DiCaprio and Ms. Connelly befriend Hounsou, help him escape, find his son and bring down the whole corrupt house of cards responsible for all of these crimes against him, and by extension his people as well. As I watched the film, I was reminded of a fellow student, Mrs. Kargbo who I got to know while pursuing my graduate degree in African Studies. Mrs. Kargo hails from Sierra Leone's capital city, Freetown. In a seminar paper replete with experiences from her own family history, she explained how the histories of Sierra Leone and Liberia had ties to the slave trade, Great Britain and the United States. I remember her remarking about how beautiful the countryside was in Sierra Leone. The film, with panoramic vision, documented Sierra Leone's extraordinary natural beauty. While the film highlighted a lot of the economic exploitation and poverty in Sierra Leone, it did not provide much background regarding the nation's rich history and the unique aspects of race and class in Sierra Leone. The capital city, Freetown, was founded shortly after the British outlawed the slave trade in 1807. After profiting from centuries of involvement in the slave trade and related aspects of this heinous trade in human cargo, British naval ships blockaded the West African coast bringing the trafficking to a halt. The African captives that were aboard the ships were "repatriated" back to the continent to a settlement on the coast that, in honor of their newly independent status, was named "Freetown." Similarly, some 13 years later, several forces came together emanating in the founding of the state of Liberia. In 1820, the American Colonization Society and White slave owners were in an uproar as a result of a recent string of slave rebellions. They were upset because they viewed Free Blacks as an anachronism whose presence alone inspired their slaves to resist, flee and revolt. To solve this problem, they came up with the scheme to "repatriate" the Free Blacks back to Africa and this was the genesis of the creation of Liberia. The capital city, Monrovia, was actually named in honor of President James Monroe. One of the complex aspects of the histories of Sierra Leone and Liberia is that the Repatriates and the Creoles, formed from a mixture of Africans stolen from several different societies in West Africa, gradually became the dominant socio-economic and political group in both nations. While these countries have long been shining examples of democracy and pluralism in Africa, at different points in their histories, the elites in them have profited from the exploitation of many of the other indigenous African groups that comprise these nations. The connection to Juneteenth? Like Sierra Leone and Liberia, Juneteenth is directly related to slavery and the freedom of the ex-slaves. It is a celebration of the day (June 19, 1865) that freed the last group of slaves in Galveston, TX as a result of The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln (January 1, 1863). In the African American community where I grew up, we had a Black community festival every summer that we called Harambee -- the Swahili word that translates to a gathering or a coming together that we heard a lot in the early '60s from Jomo Kenyatta and those involved in the Mau Mau revolution in Kenya. My formal introduction to Juneteenth did not occur until I moved to Madison, WI several years ago. Two of the first people I met, Mona and Johnny Winston, worked with several other leaders in the Black community to make this happen. I have witnessed the growth of this "Festival" and have enjoyed it immensely over the years. I applaud this year's timely theme, "At the Cross Roads We Chose Hope Over Despair." In many respects, the countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia, both recently coming out of despair related to protracted strife and civil wars, are at a critical crossroads in terms of which way they will go to promote hope over despair to guarantee and safeguard the lives and welfare of their people. As African Americans in the United States, despairing from years of exploitation, Hurricane Katrina, neglect and elements of nihilistic self-destruction, we, like our Brothers and Sisters in Sierra Leone and Liberia, must find ways to choose hope over despair to pull ourselves together for the sustainable and greater good of our people. Celebrating and supporting Juneteenth collectively, or through Harambee is one good step in the right direction. Thanks to the efforts of activist and poet Fabu Mogaka, we will be blessed this year and our international African connections will be manifested with the presence of Ambassador Julie Endee directly from Liberia. We must remember, in the words of the Kenyan revolutionary Oginga Odinga, that it remains "Not Yet Uhuru" (freedom) for us until ALL of our people are free from oppression. |
| The Literary Divide/Dr. Paul Barrows "Blood diamond," Freetown, and Juneteenth |
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