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AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE
By April Loving

Koko Beach was absolutely breathtaking.  Imagine standing at the edge of a cliff, you are speechless, as your virgin eyes take in the sight before you.  This beach is far more interesting than the kid that sat in front of you on your 15-hour flight over!  Now you can truly understand the term, homecoming; a spiritual journey, magical even, for it alone allows you to return to a place that you have never known.

In the distance there is the lap-lapping sound of the water, laughter, soft voices and happiness.  Yet, there is an underlying quiet, peacefulness.  Day turns to night as you sit hugging your knees to your chest, you look up at the stars and out at the black Atlantic Ocean and you wonder if your ancesteros had wished on the same stars. You close your eyes as you listen to the music of the Atlantic Ocean.  You are amazed at the beauty of it all, but saddened by the tragic fact that here you are gazing out at the very dark waters that carried your ancestors away to slavery and scattered your people to the winds, Jamaica, Europe, Haiti, Dominican Republic, North and South America!  And at the moment you begin to wonder-how could something so sweet play such a bitter part in history?

In Ghana I met some Nigerians and one guy from the Gambia.  I learned that just as we have our own prejudices, so do they.  “For we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free…” – Romans 12:13 NIV.  One Nigerian student took pictures of the paved streets and ATM machines just to dispel the myth that Ghanaians still lived in the bush!  Granted Africa is huge, yet it was disturbing to know that as close as Ghana and Nigeria are to each other they knew very little about each other.  A friend of mine was surprised they had e-mail in Africa and another was just messed up when I told her I’d spent my 20th birthday at the beach. "Girl, they got beaches in Africa?" she asked. And some Ghanaians were astonished to see me in Africa.

Of course I had fun trying to blend in, but the game was up once I opened my mouth.  African Americans were offended when we heard someone call, “Hey Obruni.”  There was no offense intended, an Obruni was not only a white person but also any foreigner. As we refused to be called Obruni, we were addressed as Black Americans.  We concluded that the presence of African Americans as visitors to the continent is so rare that there was no native term for us.  Yet, as I talked to my new friends I found that they were also whitewashed. They knew nothing of the black struggle past the capture of our ancestors!  I was told that we, meaning African Americans or those kidnapped and sold into slavery, despite everything we’d been through, we were the lucky ones! 

The four months I spent in Ghana was one of the most important decisions and enriching experiences of my life!  I learned so much about my heritage and about the ploys of this world to keep us from having any Black Pride!  Let’s not wait for someone to define us, let’s find out for ourselves so that we will know more than what we’ve allowed the media to teach us.  Let us seek the truth, and find liberty in that truth! 

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set your free.” – John 8:32 NIV