Moved by the messages on the wall at Slave River written to the ancestors of returning African American and Caribbean people leads me to wonder about their Return. What does returning bring up, give, take? I also wonder about my Dutch, English and German forbears. Would they be surprised that a descendant of theirs has found truth and beauty in Ghana? That she yearns for equity, justice and repair in the US where patterns of dominance and oppression persist?
Messages from descendants of the African Diaspora at the site of The Slave River
“Ghana won’t have true independence until all of Africa is liberated” echoes what we hear across the Atlantic - that all lives won’t matter until Black lives matter.
One of the messages at Slave River reads “Thank you for your sacrifice. Hope to make you proud.”
The shore and pooling waters at The Slave River
What ancestral qualities are at work in my work, I wonder?
Liz in front of the message wall
Traveling from Kumasi to Koforidua yesterday through lush vegetation, steep, jagged hills, past dusty, rusty-roofed towns, sellers’ stalls, towers of clay pots, wooden mortars, baskets of produce, charcoal-making, palm oil making operations, weavers, orange groves, I am loving this land and her people. I dance with a lady who sells me avocados. And then I realize another injustice - that a white American, in love with Ghana, is feeling “Africa being born in her” while America won’t let herself be born in so many of her black and brown children - who I would love to call my brothers and sisters.
A farewell gesture from the avocado vendor and dance partner on the way to Koforidua
–Liz Updike Cobblah