Me Glad Glad fa Been Deh!

Historical Study Tour of Sierra Leone (#1 of 9)

I ended 2019 and began 2020 in Sierra Leone, West Africa. From December 28 to January 7, I participated in a historical Study Tour entitled The Sierra Leone-Gullah Connection: The Next Step, among a group of 52 attendees, five tour guides, and 14 Sierra Leonean university students.  The tour’s breadth was extensive: it spanned the Western, Southern, Northern, and Eastern Regions and canvassed the Temne, Krio, Mende, Fula, and Limba ethnic groups. The sites were breathtaking, poignant, and reflective of scenes from my childhood in rural St. Helena Island, SC. The awareness of cultural connections was ever-present:  food ways, beliefs, music, dance, language, and joy. My expenses, in part, were funded by a S.C. Arts Commission mini-grant.

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Coordinated by Fambul Tik, an organization of Sierra Leoneans who now live in the United States, the tour marked the fourth Gullah Homecoming event to Sierra Leone.  The first began 30 years earlier in 1989.  I participated in the third event, Priscilla’s Homecoming, in 2005, also as a representative of Brookgreen Gardens.   For my family, it was their first journey to “Lion Mountains” or “Mountains of Lions,” a derivative of the country’s original name given by the Portuguese and later the Spaniards.

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In short, the experience was phenomenal, in large part because it was shared with my family members: wife Natalie, daughter Sara, and son Simeon. Tour coordinator Amadu Massally called us “The First Family,” alluding that we were the first intact Gullah traditional family unit to participate in one of the Gullah Homecomings to Sierra Leone. Being together to commence a new decade in the motherland made us feel like royals, indeed. 

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Natalie and I had been scheduled to represent St. Helena Island during the 1989 “Family Across the Sea” homecoming, but after accepting had learned that we were expecting our firstborn, Sara. That trip was not ours to experience. Earlier in 2019, Simeon had confided, “Dad, let’s go to Africa this year, me and you. Okay?” I’d had no idea at the time that this trip had been in the works.  But, as I learned from my elders, “in due season time, the right things just come together.”

Me glad glad fa been deh! is my Gullah Geechee summation: “I am exceedingly glad to have traveled there!”