arrival at bunce island
December 29, 2019
With 50-odd African Americans, six British representing an affiliate of the BBC, South Carolina Educational TV film crew we landed on Bunce Island for Day One of a historic visit to Sierra Leone.
A Sweetgrass Basket Maker from Mount Pleasant, SC visits a remote village in Sierra Leone where such coiled baskets are made
In Kenema, the Gongoli masquerade has a word for Fambul Tik's Amadu Massally.
Taking a photo shot with the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs are a group of Gullah Geechees and some of their Sierra Leonean hosts
Mary Moran and her great-grandson share a special moment. Priceless!
Old Fourah Bay College which was the first institute of tertiary education in Sub-Saharan Africa
The teacher and the student. In this work, Amadu Massally has learned a lot from Joe Opala. This was Amadu's very first visit to Bunce Island in 2010.
Nakia Wigfall and the first Transatlantic Sweetgrass Basket. It was started in Rogbonko, Sierra Leone, and completed in Mt. Pleasant, SC. #originalidea
Ha! The Gorboi, a masquerade in Mende tradition, is a prized cultural item. This was in Senehun Ngola where the returning relatives were more than warmly welcomed. Got links to Africa?
The Gullah Geechee people are so remarkable the US Federal government carved a portion out for them and called it the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
This was Sierra Leone at one time. It now has (four) more districts. as of 2022.
In Conway, SC, Nakia Wigfall and the man who took her to that village pose for a photo with the first Transatlantic Sweetgrass basket.
Gullah Geechees perform in their own "Extravaganza" in Sierra Leone. This was the first time Gullah Geechees were performing in a formal way for a Sierra Leonean audience. And teaching Sierra Leoneans their culture as they did so.
Gullah Geechee's performed at the Sierra Lighthouse event in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Gullah Geechees were invited by the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs to a feast on the grounds of the Sierra Leone National Museum.
In Taiama (pronounced Tah-ya-ma), a Gullah Geechee woman gets crowned Paramount Chief. "Mahei Jiagie" Anita Singleton-Prather is crowned.
The Relafords; originating from Riceboro Georgia are also related to the Mends song that Amelia Dawley sang for Lorenzo Turner in the 1930s. There they were in the village they are connected to. Senehun Ngola.
Gullah Geechee ladies pose for a shot in Senehun Ngola. The current Executive Director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission (before she was that), Victoria Smalls features. Along with Marcia Relaford-Walker and Cynthia Relaford.
Neighboring villages around Senehun Ngola joined in to give the visitors, especially their long-lost relatives, a special welcome.
Gloria Jackson, Sheila Walker, and Natasha Robinson in Senehun Ngola where the song that links Georgia to Sierra Leone, or vice versa, originated from.
Wilson Moran, who was carried to the court barre on a royal hammock reserved for dignitaries, shows an expression of sobriety in the village where his mother's ancestors hail from.
When an African American goes home with the language he cries in, the family back home in Sierra Leone remembers him and treats him as royalty.
See Veronica Gerald feeling quite at home among her cousins in a village in Sierra Leone. Spot her?
Fambul Tik's logo. A heritage experience organization that works tirelessly to repair breaches that took place during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The lone canon at the end of the jetty at Bunce Island. This jetty was the last place Africans set foot on in Africa before being taken away...
Thomalind Polite! With links to Sierra Leone via an unbroken paper trail that started in Sierra Leone to Charles Towne, a 10-year-old-girl survived the Middle Passage and left behind an unforgettable legacy.
The original Carolina Gold? Victoria Smalls could not be happier as she holds a bouquet of rice just cut from their stalk. "Follow the rice" some would say. It is central ti the Sierra Leone-Gullah Connection.
The Daise Family: Ron, Natalie, Sara, and Simeon. They earned the title "First Family" during the unforgettable homecoming trip in 2019.
This scene is from the film the Language You Cry In where these Mende women illustrate a peculiar ceremony to send off the dead.
What in the world? This scene is from the documentary film "Family Across the Sea!" A Sierra Leonean lady, Kadiatu, is puzzled at the story that the basket she holds was made by someone in America.
Joseph Opala, the man behind the Sierra Leone-Gullah Connection, and Fambul Tik Partner, Tamba Lamin, hang heads.