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I remember my first Black History Month. As a group home kid who avoided fights by staying away from the popular television set, I found my entertainment through books. Many of them were about Black inventors, Black scientists, Civil Rights leaders, and Black athletic heroes. When a Black History Month contest was announced over the school loudspeaker, I was very excited to participate, and studied extra hard just to win a prize. It was near lunch recess when they asked the question of the day, “Name the first American to reach the North Pole?” I jumped out of my seat and yelled to the teacher that I knew the answer. I sped down the hallway and up a flight of stairs to reach the contest coordinators. When I reached them, I blurted out, “Matthew A. Henson”. They looked at me, and announced to the entire school that I won the question of the day. What troubled me next was their surprise. They alluded to the fact that they didn’t have my prize, a bag of chips and a discount to Great Adventures because they didn’t think or believe that any student would be able to answer their challenge. When they asked me what grade I was in, I answered. They were further shocked to learn that I was in special education.
Years later, I would tell that same story to countless students attending our nation’s schools, to point out that though others may carry low expectations of them, it is up to them to create their own possibilities with the power of their own knowledge and imagination and drive to push forward. I recently took advantage of an opportunity to visit Shanghai several weeks ago and stayed for six weeks learning quite a bit of Chinese culture and some Mandarin language, but it was my experience with Africans studying and living in China that transformed my relationship with the continent and her people, my belief in the power of Black contribution in American History through Civil Rights leaders and the Civil Rights Movement, and returning to the United States with a renewed interest in Black history and making it known to others the importance of knowing one’s historical struggle and greatness.
I arrived at the foreign student’s dormitory with great expectations and curiosity about the unknown. While fixing up my room, a bus arrived to take elder Chinese to another campus for western New Year’s Celebration. Joining them, we arrived shortly after to a barrage of students. Seeing another dark complexioned individual immediately got my attention, and I quickly introduced myself with the excitement similar to seeing a long lost cousin. The gentleman I met was from the Congo, and asked if I was from Cameroon. I explained that I was an African-American from the United States. His eyes lit up with wonder, and he quickly introduced me to several other Africans from different parts of the continent.
Later on that evening, I met Joshua Mutambi, a Ugandan middle-aged man with a degree and long professional experience in Uganda, attaining another degree along with his wife through Shanghai University. He invited me to his room, his lovely wife introduced herself and offered me tea. I sipped her tea while Joshua; excited that I was from America, asked me how African-Americans viewed Africans. I explained to him that African-Americans vary greatly in knowledge of modern day Africans and most of the Black Community knew very little of Black history as well as American history. He couldn’t see the difference between the two, and then asked why African-Americans don’t invest more in Africa when other nationalities seem to without hesitance. I then explained that eighty to ninety-two percent of American citizens don’t have U.S. passports, and African-Americans constitute an even smaller population of passport holders, and that coupled with poor perceptions developed by inaccurate media depictions, feed disinterest and perhaps negative stigmas that prevent African-Americans from interacting with, learning about, and investing in Africa. However, I did elaborate further that Dr. King and Malcolm X both at the end of their lives desired that African-American society be more global in their outlook and influence. Mutambi asked who Malcolm X was. I was completely taken back. How could an African of any country not know who Malcolm X is? I asked him if he knew who Dr. King was. He had heard of him, but didn’t have any knowledge that he felt was of any worth. My impulses immediately jumped at the chance to share their history, and that took several hours. Nearly two in the morning, Joshua’s eyes were still lit with excitement, while his wife rested peacefully. Joshua asked me if I would share these same stories to friends of his. I accepted, and left for bed.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines a “griot” as being an African storyteller whose role it is to preserve the genealogies and oral traditions of the tribe through stories that maintain the history and culture of the people. I would have never in a million years considered myself a griot, or someone taught and rigorously trained in the art of storytelling, especially to modern people, but in Shanghai I had somehow assumed the possibility of one.
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Kalimah Priforce
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Comments
Young Griot Lazarus Kubasu Nolasco | Apr 8th, 2004
Thanks a lot Kamillah for the courage of sharing your insightful experinces. Indeed your ability to narrate and see the positive side of even negative encounters speaks volumes...wisdom is the ability to abstract good from any experience whether bad or good.. Keep it up and keep on reading hard .
This was an amazing piecee Michael Newton-McLaughlin | Apr 10th, 2004
This was a very good article... you are an excellent writer, and as it sounds, a good orator as well. I am not exactly sure what the American dream is any more... it seems that many people's ideas of an American dream are living oppulently, or at least quite a bit above any kind of subsistence levels. I worry then, if by doing so, we are ignoring many other factors - such as classism- and the fact that if we acheieve a certain amount of wealth, it is at the present moment still at the expense of others.
As the U.S. built this country by taking land through the use of systematic genocide as well as through slave labor... it now continues it's economic growth through imperialism...
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