A conversation with the ancestors...

During my recent trip to Cape Town, South Africa (April 21-27, 2014), I believe I had an experience that was spiritual, cultural, and educational. It was an immersion into culture and education that tapped into the deepest part of my spirit. The experience was like no other. One would have to be there to feel it. It was almost as if there was a portal that transcended space and time. It was almost as if the spirit of the ancestors reached out from the bottom of slave ships and spoke to me. They spoke to the most intimate part of my being. They touched my soul.

I visited the Robben Island Museum, the Museum of South Africa, and the Slave Lodge. The Slave Lodge was so powerful that I had to go back a second time. Something was calling me back to that place - to sit, to learn, and to be taught the history of a people long ago subjected to forced labour due to the color of their skin. Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, "None of us is truly free while other remain enslaved. The continuing existence of slavery is one of the greatest tragedies facing our global humanity. Today, we finally have the means and increasingly the conviction to end this scourge and to bring millions of slaves to freedom." Let us never forget and realize that modern day slavery exist in Brazil, Haiti, Niger, Mozambique, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Albania.

In the Slave Lodge, there was an exhibit called the Column of Memory. On the rings of the column were the names of slaves who, as property of the Dutch East India Company, were confined in the dark, damp and prison like spaces of the Slave Lodge. On the wall was inscribed, "in light of memory and remembering, through the streams of our senses, reconnecting, recollecting, WE FIND OUR WAY HOME." I was extremely moved beyond words and in tears. I had a moment of silence and said thank you. 

I realize and recognize that they are not my direct ancestors. However, I feel that African Americans stem from a pool of ancestry that is connected to the heart of Africa. In this pool of ancestry, the grandmothers and the grandfathers spoke to me. They spoke to me of their dream. In their dream they saw me. In this dream they gave me a gift. As they died in the sea of slavery, I was born to freedom. I am REBORN in freedom through this experience. I am reborn to self-knowledge... Man know thyself! I am reborn. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave. I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise! 

An audio voice over played repeatedly a poem called, "Slave Dream." This is what they shared with me:

Slave Dream by Malkia Ndlovu 

If this journey ever ends,

If we ever, 

we will remember these days.

We will not forget these endless days.

Here in the fever of our fears,

The ache of our uncertainties, 

We plead, we plead and pray,

We pray.

All inside us is the light,

In the light of memory and remembering, 

Through the streams of our senses,

Reconnecting, Recollecting,

We find our way home, home.

I am home. I can return.

We return.

Return,

Return.

There is only light inside us,

As we cross this ocean of swallowed bones,

Wash ourselves and each other in tears, rise above the tide of our fears, the tide of our fears. 

We dream, we dream

And in the dream, I see you.

I see you, I feel you. 

Remember me, remember me, dream. 

Remember me, remember, remember.

And in the dream we are free. 

In the dream we are free. 

Walk with me. I know where we can hide, inside the light.

Inside there is light.

Come. Come with me, come.

Come with me.

Come.

Come.

I believe, I see in the dark, I know,

I know from this deep shadowy pool of genes, of ancestry, of spirit, and tongue - a NEW thread in the family is begun.

A new thread in the family has begun, from this pool will come,

Our daughters and our sons,

OUR DAUGHTERS AND OUR SONS.

They will come, they will come.

We are the seed, they are the dream. 

Our dream.

They are our dream.

If, if this journey ever ends,

If ever, if ever we feel the land and still we breath, see the sun,

Still, still the time must come

When we will die and they will be BORN!

Through each other, through each one we will live,

Through each one we will live, our souls retrieved, 

I do believe, will you, will you believe?

Believe me, believe, believe, believe, believe, believe.

We are the human vessel for a spirit that knows no death, 

For a spirit that knows no death. 

Each century continues our breath.

We conquer the seas of sorrow, 

Transcend the boundaries of time. 

Tomorrow, tomorrow our children,yours and mine, will be mirrors.

Tomorrow our children will be mirrors of you and I. 

They will remember you. They will remember you. Remember me. Remember you. Remember me.

Remember, remember, remember, remember, remember.

Where ever this journey ends, theirs begins,

Where ever, theirs begins

We are the seed, they are the dream. 

Our dream. We are the seed. They are our dream. Our dream. Dream. Dream. Dream. Dream. Dream.

Believe. Dream.

- Eugene