The UN designated the International Decade for People of African Descent, from 2015 to 2024, to advertise the popularity, justice, and growth of African descendants worldwide. Via numerous packages, occasions, and consciousness campaigns, the Decade seeks to create a platform for dialogue, understanding, and optimistic change within the lives of individuals within the diaspora. Africa Renewal will spotlight the journeys African Individuals are taking to reconnect with Africa – the continent their ancestors referred to as house. The third piece on this four-part sequence highlights the journey of 1 African American lady who uncovered the true id of Africa whereas researching her personal:
I need to share my tales, my footage and my movies,” she mentioned. “I need to inform everybody in regards to the richness of the tradition and the kindness of the folks. I need to go on every thing I’ve realized.Kennedy S. JohnsonFounder and CEO, Inexperienced Ebook Journey There’s a model of Africa romanticized as a spot with lush landscapes and wealthy assets dominated by kings and queens. African Individuals dream of going there and receiving a heat welcome house.
Then there’s the opposite model.
“I grew up within the period of ‘feed the kids’ campaigns, which confirmed Africa with loads of poverty and blight,” Ms. Kennedy S. Johnson instructed Africa Renewal in an interview. “I wished to go there and see it with my very own eyes.”
When Ms. Johnson positioned her ft on African soil, she knew it will be her first of many adventures on the continent.
A transformational journey to Kenya in East Africa had Ms. Johnson trying to her future whereas analyzing her previous. “As I acquired older and began travelling the world, I wished to know myself and my id.”
Identification was all the time a query for the Detroit native. Her household dynamics had been consistently shifting: she had by no means met her father, and her mom couldn’t look after her. After her grandmother died, she lived with a string of family members earlier than being orphaned.
With 50 nations already stamped in her passport, Ms. Johnson launched into a brand new journey –to uncover her heritage. When she acquired her DNA outcomes from Ancestry.com in 2016, her itinerary — and her life — modified.
“I rerouted my journey to all of the nations that had my ethnicity markers: Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and the Gambia,” mentioned the journey fanatic. “I wished to see the similarities in our traits, customs and traditions.
Honorary title
On considered one of Ms. Johnson’s many journeys, she discovered an early investor to launch her Green Book Travel company, and Forbes acknowledged her on its 2021 Next 1000 listing.
Named after the Negro Motorist Green Book that helped Black travellers discover welcoming companies and lodging in America’s segregated South, her company affords ancestry, birthright and heritage excursions for the African diaspora.
Ms. Johnson’s goal for Inexperienced Ebook Journey was to steer away from the colonial mindset and assist descendants in tracing their ancestral footprints by visiting all of the locations that slave ships docked.
“The transatlantic slave commerce stripped us of our names, our tradition, our traditions and our faith. It minimize us off from our origins,” she mentioned. “By going again, African Individuals can restore their identities.”
Ms. Johnson traced her ancestry to Ghana. There, she acquired her African identify, which got here with a royal title — Queen Zosimli Naa — a distinction bestowed on her by way of the enskinment ceremony the place a candidate sits on an animal pores and skin. Naa Fusheini Bawa, chief of Tamale within the Dagbon Kingdom of Ghana, enskinned Ms. Johnson.
In accordance with the Ghana News Agency, Chief Fusheini Bawa mentioned that he meant the title “to strengthen the bilateral relations [between Ghana and the United States], particularly within the areas of tradition and tourism.”
In her position , Ms. Johnson has supported clear water initiatives, supplied footwear to highschool youngsters and hosted financial growth workshops.
She even employed native expertise and paid them honest wages by way of Social Fabrik, her sustainable trend line with ethically sourced supplies.
Her place, she mentioned, features a cultural custodianship tasked with making public appearances.
Ms. Johnson was noticed in {a photograph} at a royal ceremony for fellow African American journey entrepreneur Diallo Sumbry, who sat on a conventional stool to obtain his new title.
“Sure, she attended my enstoolment. I invited the whole neighborhood,” mentioned Mr. Sumbry, honoured for his work as co-architect of Ghana’s Year of Return and as writer of A Good Ghana Repatriation Information. Mr. Sumbry was named Nkosuohene, fittingly, chief of growth.
Ms. Johnson chuckles when folks ask about her royal roots, which she explains as an honorary distinction reserved for a number of outstanding people all through the diaspora. “The positions assist to reintegrate African Individuals into the African household.”
African ambassador
Via her enterprise ventures, Ms. Johnson has had alternatives to assist others take their very own journeys again to Africa by way of cultural excursions.
She sees herself as a conduit for her American brothers and sisters to return to the continent as vacationers, traders or returnees.
The excursions provide descendants a historic connection, Ms. Johnson mentioned. “I get emotional visiting conventional kingdoms and assembly with the elders, experiencing these locations the place my ancestors took their final bathtub, tracing their footsteps by way of the Door of No Return.”
The Door of No Return refers back to the exit on the dungeons in Cape Coast, Ghana, the place tens of millions of Africans had been detained earlier than being compelled onto ships and offered into slavery. In accordance with the Ghana Tourism Authority, the Cape Coast Fortress is now a UNESCO World Heritage Website and a museum honouring the ancestors.
Experiencing Africa
Via her travels, Ms. Johnson realized, although, that life on the continent might not be a fairy story. “Some areas are thriving and prosperous, whereas others are impoverished and in want of help,” she mentioned of the disparities that mirror her hometown of Detroit.
But, she additionally acknowledged that the truth is much from the unfavorable myths and misconceptions portrayed for years within the media.
In every single place she turns, Ms. Johnson mentioned that the attractive brown pictures in commercials overwhelm her. “On this age of social media, the continent has reimaged itself. Now Africa is on our imaginative and prescient board,” mentioned Ms. Johnson, a self-appointed ambassador for the continent.
“I need to share my tales, my footage and my movies,” she mentioned. “I need to inform everybody in regards to the richness of the tradition and the kindness of the folks. I need to go on every thing I’ve realized.”
Taking the DNA check, Ms. Johnson mentioned, was one of the crucial profound acts of her life. Just lately, it allowed her to share these journey tales with the daddy who by no means knew she existed.
“You will need to return to your roots with the intention to transfer ahead,” Ms. Johnson mentioned. “It’s the idea of Sankofa. What has been misplaced, stripped or taken away from you will be reclaimed, preserved and revived.”
Ms. Beard is a author and educator primarily based in New York.
