Elizabeth Acevedo makes me fall in love with her writing again in this novel, With The Fire On High. With The Fire On High is a coming-of-age story about a third-culture teen of African-American and Puerto Rian descent learning to juggle the responsibilities of teen motherhood while chasing her culinary dreams in Philadelphia.
In Spanish, the title is El Ingrediente Secreto de Emoni Santiago.
Before I get into the content, let’s first marvel over that cover art! If you want to judge a book by its cover, With Fire On High is the book to do it. This story is beautiful both inside and out.
Summary
Emoni Santiago is a talented 17-year-old, intuitive chef who must learn rigid conformity in her culinary class to elevate her cooking. She desires to tour Spain with her class and become a professional chef, but she has a few barriers to opportunities. Her mother passed away during labor (a high statistical probability for African-American women). Although her father is present in her life, he chooses to live in Puerto Rico, leaving his mother to raise Emoni. As such ‘Buela is now raising her third generation of babies (Emoni’s dad, Emoni, and Emoni’s two-year-old daughter Emma).
Emoni is busy going to school, working, being a mother, maintaining friendships, cooking, applying to college, and having a chance at love. She has to sort through motherhood sacrifices and prioritize not only her desires but what will be best for her little girl. The adults in her life support her, but she has until graduation to figure out the best path for her life. She has to act quickly because the fire is on high in her life.
Why I Loved With The Fire On High
I don’t know how she does it, but Elizabeth Acevedo writes compelling characters that you want to root for. The way the author makes the reader invested in the success of the protagonist is a skill writers envy. In this case, you have a perceptive, determined, hardworking teen who has experienced adversity. But you can’t help but hope everything works out for her. You keep reading because you’re genuinely excited to learn which of the bright paths toward her future she might choose.
The way the author addresses multicultural topics through dialogue provides an education that might lessen the strain of multicultural kids.
I grew up during a time when adults pushed the narrative that unmarried pregnancy was the worst thing that could ever happen in hopes of scaring teens, girls in particular, into abstinence. This book takes a more balanced approach. While getting pregnant during your freshman year of high school isn’t ideal, motherhood is still a challenging but rewarding charge. This book explores the hardships with equal clarity as the tenderness and joys.
And then there’s the food. Food, for me, is always a fun topic to read. In the novel, food is the central theme surrounding togetherness, community, connection, history, and healing. Just like in her novel, Clap When You Land, the author sure knows how to write about food in a way that stirs the senses!
Emoni’s story is thought-provoking and relatable to everyone who has gone through that major life transition into adulthood. With The Fire On High tops my praise list. I’ll recommend its lessons and positive messaging to everyone over the age of 17.
That said, this book also mentions themes and topics of:
Descriptive depiction of teenage sex (page 44), mentions immature sexual innuendo amongst teenage conversations, Teen Parenthood, LGBTQ+ issues, Death, Caregiving, Cultural Identity, Community, and mentorship.
I always want to point out a few things that might raise a yellow flag for parents. You can’t always blindly trust that YA fiction is really suitable for young readers (age 13-18).
Clap When You Land was my favorite book of 2020. No! Maybe my favorite book ever. Elizabeth Acevedo knocked Louisa May Alcott off her throne and became my favorite author after this book. By page 12, I was ugly-crying. I continued crying until the very end when I was cheering through my tears when the strength and boldness of Dominican women united (I may or may not have been PMSing while reading this).
Background
In November of 2001, a plane headed to the Dominican Republic crashed. Some 200+ people in the sky and five on the ground perished. Once investigators confirmed it wasn’t another terrorist attack like September, the tragedy faded from the memory of most Americans. But American Airlines flight 587 rocked the New York Dominican community. Everyone in the Dominican in NYC knew someone personally affected by this tragedy. The author, a poet by trade and part of that community, imagined this story and wrote this prose-in-verse fiction about the story that could have been someone’s on board.
I heard Acevedo perform her poem “Hair” years ago. I didn’t realize she was the same poet until I did some post-novel author exploration. Based on our shared relationship to hair politics and her uncanny expression, I already loved Elizabeth Azevedo’s use of words before I picked up her novel. Check out her talk at Summit on Inequality and Opportunity.
The author, Elizabeth Acevedo, got her MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland, a BA in Performing Arts at George Washington University, and taught 8th grade English in PG county. She realized her students were unmoved by books they couldn’t relate to. She considered buying more diverse books but then decided to start writing them, and I’m so glad she did.
Summary
Each chapter of Clap When You Land alternates perspectives from two teenage girls— one from New York, one from the island — who learn their family’s secret when a plane crashes. The death of a parent alters the lives of their children in all cases; the stakes are higher for some than others. The main characters navigate through some pretty heavy situations for young girls to deal with. Clap When You Land is the story of blended families, sisterhood, motherhood, class strife, forgiveness, family, and belonging. What is done in the dark comes out in the light. As this novel reveals, the light is often through births and deaths. The book takes us through a journey of grief, loss, and mourning but also through gains, love, and celebration.
Oh, and there are mentions of LGBTQ experiences. People like knowing that ahead of time for whatever reason, even though it doesn’t play a significant role in the book.
Why I Loved It
Keeping it real, I picked this book to read during Latin American History and Heritage Month because the cover art was stunning. Yes, I select books by the cover, and this time it paid off — the book was just as stunning on the inside as it is on the outside.
It’s warm. Touching. Emotional. Clap When You Land used the most beautiful assemblage of words for depictions of the Caribbean setting. The descriptions of the traditional cuisine introduced me to a delicious traditional Dominican dish and inspired me to cook it. New York Dominican culture and the cultures of the African- Diaspora also found the spotlight in this novel. The way the plot unfolded at the right pace — the way the author wove themes and symbolism throughout was just perfect. The writing style was on point…I just love how the author thinks.
There was a heroic moment where all the women, and their ancestors, show up for each other. They are each the heroes. I can see my mom in the character. Myself. Every woman I know in the characters. I think that’s what usually makes me attached to a book— when I can see myself in it.
James Baldwin once explained how writing can change the world by saying, “The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even but a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.” This book expanded my understanding of the world. It changed how I see flawed men, families, forgiveness, tragedies in the news, people who grow up in challenging conditions, and the conditions that some women have to support themselves. I look forward to some studio grasping ahold of this story and turning this moving tale into a movie. It was so good!
Make Black Girls Must Die Exhausted a Netflix series already! (Or HBO since Netflix wanna be funny about account sharing)
𝑩𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑮𝑰𝑹𝑳𝑺 𝑴𝑼𝑺𝑻 𝑫𝑰𝑬 𝑬𝑿𝑯𝑨𝑼𝑺𝑻𝑬𝑫 is the darling first book of an incomplete trilogy written by Harvard trained attorney and engineer, Jayne Allen. I read the first book via hard copy. I had to listen to the second book,Black Girls Must Be Magic, on audiobook since I can’t be lugging books all around Central America. This post combines both books. I’m so invested in discovering what happens next in the Black Girls Must Die Exhausted series. I can’t wait for the last book to be published! This series focuses on the thirty-three-year-old broadcast news reporter Tabitha “Tabby” Walker.
It’s A Romance, Kinda.
I love a good romance. But this is a millennial love story. So… you know the struggle. Unfortunately, Tabby has a reproductive disorder. So, instead of waiting for her flakey lawyer/Sanford Alum situationship, Marc, to put a ring on it, she decides to put motherhood into her own hands via insemination. Her non-committal dude reminds me of Lawrence from the HBO series “Insecure”… he’s super annoying with all the excuses.
Without giving too much away, there’s one scene in the second book where Tabby’s boyfriend’s mama gets on my nerves. I’m even more annoyed at how gracefully Tabby tolerated what I consider disrespectful. And how her boyfriend sat back and allowed it to happen. If in the same situation, I would have either a) just removed myself from the table without speaking or b) been just as rude back.
Y’all got to read this book and let me know how you would have handled this situation. If you’ve read this book, let me know what you think. I need someone to discuss this with.
While the primary “kinda” love story focuses on a guy who won’t commit, the real love story is Tabby’s bond with her grandmother. “Granny Tab” (who is white) and her Black granddaughter, Tabitha (whom Granny Tab calls “Two”), is warm and endearing. The book series gets its name from an observation Granny Tab makes while having a chat about their different identities and how they move differently in the world.
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted and Black Girls Must Be Magic make light-hearted vacation reads (or listens).
It’s Modern-Day Millennial Life
There are typical millennial work stressors, family obligations, and ride-or-die besties. There’s confidence struggles. Adn of course, some unique professional issues Black women have to navigate. It tells a believable story of what it is like being a young, Black, female professional in the 21st century. And that’s what resonated most with me. I can see parts of my own experiences sprinkled throughout — it’s unique because I’ve never read the story in print before.
We all understand the complexities of “situationships” I’ve had conversations surrounding artificial insemination with friends. One of my friends recently took motherhood into her own hands instead of waiting to see if the universe would make motherhood happen for her in time. And apparently, the author has had those convos too.
Both books can be read as stand-alones. Tabby is a likable, relatable character. Overall, it’s a light-hearted, realistic read that I looked forward to continuing each time I took a break (and honestly, I read both within a day). I’d recommend both for vacation reading.
For similar titles on young Black women navigating professional life, check out The Other Black Girl
I just finished The Other Black Girl last night. With a chapter left to read I was prepared to write a review on how I didn’t really like it. I was seriously ready to question ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏɴᴛʜ’ꜱ judgment on making this a top 5 book. But there was a plot twist I didn’t see coming.
One of my reading pet peeves is when books carry on with extraneous details that don’t move the story along. GET TO IT! I yell at the author in my head. They seemed to talk about hair and hair supplies in ad nauseam. At one point, I started thinking of all the lengthy descriptions that could be deleted to make the text shorter. I WAS WRONG! The details that I thought were negligible came together at the end and were pivotal to it all. And that’s the point. The characters thought the details were insignificant too & didn’t predict the surprise ending.
Storyline to The Other Black Girl
Anyway, Nella is the only Black person at a prestigious NYC publishing firm, Wagner. As a result, she’s isolated and lives with daily microaggressions. And, of course, she’s powerless to say anything, lest her collegues labele her an Angry Black Woman — the professional kiss of death! So, when Hazel shows up at Wagner, Nella is excited to not be the only one anymore. But that’s also when the creepy notes appear: “LEAVE WAGNER. NOW!”
Oh! And it discusses how much Boston sucks due to its insidious hostility toward Black people. It goes in on Boston the same way I would write about the city. The author knows her setting. This contrasts with the book, “ɪᴛ ᴇɴᴅꜱ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴜꜱ” by Colleen Hoover took place in Boson but, with all the characters being white, glossed over Boston’s noted racism.
I’ve read other reviews that criticized the lack of realism. I have to remind readers —it’s non-fiction! Did you also criticize the book about a centipede and a little boy floating in a giant peach? But I thought the most obvious pieces of fantasy were the parts that made you think — The parts that people have said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”
Overall Assessment…
The Other Black Girl is a hot suspense with “Get Out” vibes. This book is a must-read among Black women’s book clubs. I’d love to hear the discussions. A first-time author wrote this novel, so don’t expect a masterpiece. I like the plot. I think the author could have polished the way she told the story. But it did leave me wondering if I were in the main character’s position, which path would I choose?
Definitely read this book with your girlfriends and discuss. I’d like to hear what you have to say in the comments!
I spent the final days of 2022 in quiet reflection of the incredible year of travel I had. I spent the first week of the new year reconnecting with family and sharing our discoveries from our collective end-of-year reflections.
I’m in awe of the year I had.
Seriously, what was this past year?
It was nothing short of a whirlwind of red letters. This year I did exactly what I wanted. I went where I wanted. I got what I wanted.
Usually, I make do. Like…(metaphor time), “Here are the ingredients the universe has handed you; make the most of them.” And I do. The meal turns out good enough.
However, this past year was different. Good enough wasn’t the goal. This year, I knew what I wanted to whip up for myself. This past year, I went to the market. I sourced the exact ingredients I needed to make the meal I wanted to eat. And it was a buffet. And we’re not talking after church, Golden Corral buffet. We’re talking continental smorgasbord. It was everything and more (Charles Dickens reference).
And that’s what’s got me so pumped up. Endorphins flowing. Dopamine surging.
I kept trying to figure out why this particular year differed from the rest. After days of mental back-and-forth, it all boils down to this: This year was the best for me because I chose it. I didn’t settle for it.
The autonomy to make choices for yourself is really something. And I’m not talking about the freedom to settle for the good enough out of the limited options. The ability to choose your own path is so exciting and refreshing. I wish I had taken the helm sooner.
And maybe everyone has already figured it out, and I’m late to the party. I always saw those platitudes about going after what you want, and I was like…” Yeah, yeah, I’m doing it,” without assessing whether I was actually going after my dreams or just settling for good enough. Now the “ah-ha” light has gone off. This is what those motivational quotes have been talking about all along.
Charge For Next Year
I’m serious when I say I hope everyone can feel the way I’m feeling right now. I hope everyone can have a year where they choose what’s best for them and their life.
If you haven’t already, take time for your own end-of-year reflections. You could reflect on whether you are living the life you dreamed of. Maybe your reflection doesn’t involve travel. Maybe your dreams aren’t travel-based. Really assess if you have lost sight of your dreams. And remember that they are still possible. Is your life getting you closer to your dreams? Let me know what 2022 taught you in the comments.
When you’re regularly jet-setting to exciting, new settings, focusing on the career that funds your lifestyle can be a low priority. Being a digital nomad means being able to concentrate and produce quality products from anywhere. When trying to stay productive and focused as a digital nomad, I can share what has helped me.
For the past four months, I’ve joined the 35 million strong digital nomads across the globe. For the bulk of that time, quaint coffee shops in Antigua have served as improvised offices. I’ve taken conference calls from a beachside co-working space in Honduras. Bungalow desks overlooking Mayan jungles in Belize have been my headquarters.
1. GET YOUR MIND RIGHT
It took a while to wrap my head around the concept that, while temporarily living in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, I am not on vacation. I am not a tourist. I’m a woman on an extended business trip. My mindset needed shifting. Yes, I may be steps from an ancient Mayan cultural heritage site. However, I am here to do a job. Once I shifted my mentality, I was better able to stay productive and focused as per usual for all the other (boring) business trips I’ve taken before.
2. SET UP YOUR OFFICE RIGHT AWAY
Before booking a place to stay, I filter my search for places with Wi-Fi. Although not required, I look for places with a dedicated workspace. I also check for the proximity to coffee shops, co-working spaces, libraries, and universities with wi-fi nearby, just in case.
When I touch down in a new place, the first thing I do is check Wi-Fi speeds, service, and the noise level of the area. I unpack my laptop and supplies to get my makeshift “office” set up right away. That way, all I need to do in the morning is sit in the chair and log in. Setting up early provides time to pivot if I need to figure out alternatives.
3. CREATE DAILY ROUTINES
I get it, the point of nomad life is to get away from the ordinary. However, that only applies to your environment. I thrive on structure. When none exists, I create it for myself. The best part of remote life is that I get to determine what makes sense for me instead of trying to conform to other people’s preferences. I’m constantly tweaking the practices that cater to me. Of course, these routines might change based on the atmosphere and the rhythm of the local community.
My morning routine and first 30 minutes at work remain consistent. I’m most productive and focused when I use workflows. My workflow includes tasks that need attention outside of work, too.
Curate structures and experiment with routines until they are perfectly tailored to you.
4. Make Time for Fitness and Food
A well-nourished body is essential to concentration. As part of my routines, I keep a set time for getting outdoors and making sure I eat lunch. Even if my fitness consists of 15-minutes of calisthenics on the hotel balcony, I accomplish it before lunch. It’s easy for me to power through the day without food. By 4 pm I feel starved and beige of chips and banana bread. That’s not the best way to go! Also, be intentional about getting veggies in.
5. Flock to Other Digital Nomads
Honestly, I hated staring at my computer while my new resort buddies went off to enjoy a 4-hour Caribbean reef dive. To avoid feeling left out, find folks who have a similar work-play schedule. Even if your residence has excellent Wi-Fi, now and then, use the local co-working sites — if only for networking. Building a community with groups like Salena Hostel, Remote year, or Noma Collective can help you stay productive and focused as a digital nomad (even when you’re not officially part of the group).
6. Embrace Slow Travel
Ask those who have ever traveled with me — I am known to cram a lot in a day. However, digital nomad life isn’t a vacation —even in a recreation destination. When I’m obligated eight hours a day; leisure mode waits until after 4 pm. That doesn’t yield well for a three-day, mid-week getaway. I’ve found the longer I give myself in a place, the less urgency to do and see things immediately! That takes a lot of pressure off. Give yourself plenty of time to explore a place before jaunting off elsewhere.
When you’re location independent, you exchange traditional office distractions for a new set of challenges. I hope these tips and tricks I’ve shared help you stay productive and focused as a digital nomad. Let me know what works best for you!
I am not the one to come to for budgeting advice. Fortunately, I have people in my life who are money gurus. My mom is the family finance babe and is forever updating budgets for me and my sister to follow (with various levels of success).
Fortunately, I’m a little more motivated to budget for travel than I am for everyday life. Travel is one of my main priorities. And since I travel so frequently, I have to be wise about my spending. This plan is intended for those who travel frequently but of course, works for the occasional traveler. This is what works for me and how I budget for a travel lifestyle
1. Set A Goal.
As with any goal, you got to start with the End in Mind or Begin with your WHY. Budgeting for a travel lifestyle is no different. Start by thinking about what you’re saving for. I have two goal-setting methods.
Method 1 Travel Budget Based On Location
Decide on a vacation. Price out all the expenses for that destination. Then save toward that trip. For example. Perhaps you want to go on a Mediterranean cruise. The cruise itself is all-inclusive and costs $2000. The Flight to the port will cost you $400. Airport parking or transportation to the airport will cost about $150. Then you want to save $1,000 for excursions, additional meals on shore, massages & facials, gifts, and other extraneous purchases. Pet sitting or house sitting during the trip may cost $1,000.
This trip will cost you $4,550
Take your time and start saving. Give yourself as long as it takes to reach your goal. The world isn’t going anywhere (for the most part…I mean climate change and political upheaval can certainly put a wrench in travel plans). There’s no need to rush or put yourself in a financial fix or mental health predicament by overextending yourself over a travel budget.
Save your money for an allotted time, then determine where you will go based on how much you have. The key here is to find the best deal based on the money you have. Perhaps you know you want a birthday trip but not sure where you want to go just yet. Or maybe you want to go somewhere for summer vacation or to ring in the New Year. So your travel dates are 4 months out. Start Saving putting away money and as time grows closer (say, six weeks out), decide where you’ll go based on what you can afford.
With $1K USD, you might travel somewhere in the off-season but that’s enough for a solo belle (or beau) to take a nice trip. You might be limited on how far you can go and how long you can stay but, you can go somewhere. With tour agencies, like G adventures, you can take an 8-day trip around Morocco for as little as $800. With a budget of $2,000 so much of the world opens up to you.
Since I travel internationally multiple times per year, I do both Travel Budget Goal-setting methods.
So now that we have two goal-setting methods to budget for travel let’s figure out how to budget for those methods.
2. Assess How Much Money You Have and Where you Are Spending Your Dollars. Pull out all your bills, bank statements, and receipts (even those sent to your email) to track and account for every penny of your past three months. You’re likely to be surprised when you’re not guessing where you spend the most money. See how much money you have to work with after the bills (including your savings) are paid. See where your frivolous spending adds up ($20 shopping sprees at the Dollar Tree buying…random knickknack anyone? No? Only me? Ok.)
3. Reduce Spending. Figure out where you can cut your expenses. Start with subscriptions. Do you really need both an Audible, Book of the Month, and Scribd subscription? Can you cut one of your movie subscriptions?
If you cut a $15 Audible subscription, $12 Prime subscription, $10 Netflix subscription and put that $37 a month directly into a travel sinking fund — You’ll have $444 in a year. That is a plane ticket for most places within your own hemisphere. Or a month’s stay in a hostel.
Search for free entertainment activities. Don’t center your social events around restaurants. Wait a day or two before you impulse buy nonessential items. Cook what you already have in your pantry.
4.Make More money! Side hustles, second job, make it happen. My best job was working after school program for the YMCA. I had so much fun spending my afternoon with little kids. IT didn’t pay much. But those little $200 checks here and there, that I wouldn’t have been getting otherwise, really added up when applied to a travel saving. There are tons of ways to pinch pennies here and there when you’re focused on a goal.
5. Set up a separate fund dedicated specifically for your travels. Shop around for banks with high-yielding accounts and savings programs. Then automatically deposit a recurring set amount each month or with each paycheck. Of course, you’ll want to travel credit card (compare Chase and AmEx) that works for you.
6. Claim Your Travel Lifestyle. Some people have a sports lifestyle. They buy season tickets; they go to away games. They invest in the big screen, surround sound, host game parties, rent the camper for tailgates, have the outfits…the whole 9 yards (10 yards? 50 yards? Idk, I’m not a sports person). And they don’t get married during football season. And maybe spending a lot of time and money going to art galleries and buying sculptures is not their thing.
If travel is your lifestyle, maybe you’ll do less of everything else so you can travel more. Perhaps you’ll have a smaller home (since you’re hardly there anyway). Perhaps you miss exquisite parties that require a new outfit and hair in favor of an extravagant hotel on the cliff. Maybe, instead of spending money on luxuries at home, you hold off until you can do them abroad (nails, hair, and massages are often cheaper in other countries).
7. Do not neglect your long-term savings & rainy day fund. Travel is not an excuse to dip into your future. Your sinking account for travel is not the same account for long-term savings. You never know when a global pandemic (or other semi-natural disasters) might come along and you’ll need your savings to live.
It might not be fast turnaround but little by little you’ll watch your travel budget grow and have a decent-sized travel fund before you know it.
When I look back at all the disappointments, annoyances, and struggles of 2020, I have to recognize it worked wonders for my bookshelf. All the chaos and social distance made for an outstanding reading year. I decided to do a 2020 Year-end Reading Round-Up to inspire your reading in the new year.
This year, I read about 16 books. That’s a little low for bookstagramers and book bloggers but blows my previous years out of the water. I picked up my first book right around St. Patrick’s day when I realized how few Irish authors I’ve read. Then the country shut down. Then racial, civil turmoil hit a boiling point and chased me to write into the literary embrace of James Baldwin. My favorite writers of the year are Brit Bennet, Elizabeth Acevedo, and James Baldwin, who wrote their tails off and gave us something phenomenal to stick with us.
With no further ado, here’s my GloBelle Affairs recommended reading List for 2020.
I decided to do a 2020 Year-end Reading Round-Up to inspire your reading in the new year.
Dubliners
This is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my roommate was reading the same book in Spanish. All the stories take place around Dublin and have a kind of melancholy, hopelessness to them. Joyce wrote the book leading up to the 1919 War of Independence. Two years after Joyce wrote the collection of stories, the Irish launched an uprising against British Rule. The stories reflect the Irish nationalism and limitations Irish people felt their lives had at the time.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
This1988 novel provided the burst of optimism I needed after reading the Dubliners. It’s not particularly a work of literature with a magical use of words and literary devices. It is, however, more encouraging and light-hearted. Santiago wants more for his life than watching sheep and starts having dreams telling him to go to Egypt.
Everything starts pointing him toward Egypt, so he just does it. He sells his flock (aka all his wealth and security) and leaves Spain for Egypt. Like an alchemist, the journey, like all travel, is transformative. The book encourages everyone to just do it. Seek your calling. I needed to hear this story in 2020—a world’s bestseller.
The Fire Next Time
The thoughts that flow through James Baldwin’s mind are incredible to witness. This book gives us so many discussion-provoking gems that you can sit at a coffee shop with your most intellectual friends to debate or discuss. Most notable is the opening essay, a letter to his nephew, in which he discusses survival in America. In the letter, he summarizes the bottom-line of survival in America, “You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger.”
So long as you don’t adopt the white perspective, you can survive. Maintain the “Double-Consciousness” that W.E.B. Du Bois coins. He also urges survival, “And now you must survive because we love you, and for the sake of your children and your children’s children.”
Baldwin also describes what it is like to be a black military service member in America on page 53, which still remains relevant in 2020. He discusses religion – both Islam and Christianity – which replicates some of the same conversations that Frederick Douglas in the 19th century and what Americans are still talking about in the 2020s.
Some books are best read in pairs.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
I started reading this to find quotes to challenge this new P.R. attempt to cast or re-brand the character, Uncle Tom, as a hero and the term “Uncle Tom” as a compliment. He wasn’t, and it isn’t. When I read this book, what ended up happening was being reminded how little things had changed in America since Beecher Stowe published the epic in 1852. I found myself nodding and thinking, “I’ve experienced this. Oh, this is just like the passage from James Baldwin’s Fire Next Time written a century and a decade later. I’ve seen this happen, and I’ve heard Kentuckians have this exact, ironic conversation concerning their faith in God and the lives of black people in 2020.” It’s still relevant. Get the audiobook if reading 500 pages is too overwhelming.
The Fire This Time
In 1963, James Baldwin wrote, “God gave Noah the Rainbow sign, no more water – fire next time.” Baldwin hinted at a sign of promise for America in 1963, but he warned about the fire that would come to America if the nation did not take heed. In 2020, America is in the fire this time. Inspired by James Baldwin, The Fire This Time was released in 2017 as a collection of essays and poems from multiple black perspectives.
In one essay, Garnette Cadogan discusses the differences between walking while black in Kingston, New Orleans, and New York City and the double consciousness black people must employ while living in America. In his native Kingston, walking as a form of therapy to clear his mind, get exercise, and sunshine. But when he moves to America, walking…with his skin color… walking becomes fraught with dangers. “I recognized that the way I would treat dangerous people when I was growing up in Jamaica was the way people began treating me,” he says. It is a reminder of how simple, everyday actions like walking are shaped by a white person’s perception of one’s blackness. Exercise should not be a death risk, but, as we all know, in 2020, it is. And it’s relatable. All the essays are relatable.
All About Love
One of my favorite media gurus is a YouTube channel called For Harriett, and the creator, Kim, had a “Read More Bell Hooks” campaign. So, amid the chaos that was the Summer of 2020, I picked up her “All about Love Book.” Bell Hooks is an African-American Stanford Alum who hails from Western Kentucky and is a leading voice in Black feminist thought. Since we share some of the same identities, I was already interested in what she has to say.
Hooks starts by discussing how everyone thinks they know love. Based on the teachings of love in our American society, most of us have no idea. We have a lot of unlearning to do. The book’s motivation was that America moved so far from love that it may never find it again. American society just doesn’t model the best definition of love. America’s foundation is characterized by violence, hate, and lack of respect. Each generation continued to hand down those teachings. Love is an action, never a feeling. It is not centered on romance and sexual attraction. Love starts on a strong foundation of respect. Key quotes that I found best captures the author’s thesis:
“An overwhelming majority of us come from dysfunctional families in which we were taught we were not okay, where we were shamed, verbally and/or physically abused, and emotionally neglected even as (we) were taught to believe that we were loved.”
“When we love children, we acknowledge by our every action that they are not property, that they have rights – that we respect and uphold their rights.”
“As one man bragged about the aggressive beatings he had received from his mother, sharing that ‘they had been good for him,’ I interrupted and suggested that he might not be the misogynist woman-hater he is today had he not been so brutally beaten by a woman as a child.”
ABUSE is NOT LOVE!!
I think this is a must-read for people who want to learn to love their children, partners, friends, and humankind, in general, better. The book is also beneficial in helping audiences recognize the often blurry difference between love or abuse. That way audiences can put up healthy boundaries.
Clap When You Land
This was my favorite book of 2020. Elizabeth Acevedo knocked Louisa May Alcott off her throne and became my favorite author after this book. By page 12, I was ugly crying. I continued crying until the very end when I was still crying but cheering on women’s strength when they unit.
In November of 2001, there was a plane crash that most Americans vaguely remember. Some 200 people from the sky and five on the ground, headed to the Dominican Republic died. Once investigators confirmed that it wasn’t another terrorist attack like the one in September, it faded out of memory. But American Airlines flight 587 rocked the New York Dominican community. Everyone within the New York DR community knew someone personally affected by this tragedy. The author, a poet by trade and part of that community, imagined this story and wrote this prose- in-verse fiction about what could have been. Oh, and there are mentions of LGBTQ experiences. People like knowing that ahead of time for whatever reason. It’s not a big part of the book.
This book had beautiful depictions of Caribbean culture, New York Dominican culture, African- Diaspora culture, delicious food, class strife, themes of secrets, forgiveness, family, belonging, and using chess as the symbolism of life and family. I look forward to this story being picked up and turned into a movie. It was so good!
I heard Acevedo perform her poem, “Hair” years ago. I didn’t realize she was the same author I’d fallen in love with until I did some post-novel author exploration. Based on our shared relationship to hair politics and her uncanny way to express it, I already loved Elizabeth Azevedo’s expression before I picked up her novel. To learn more about why Ms. Acevedo appears twice on this Year-End Reading Round-up, check out her talk at Summit on Inequality and Opportunity.
Clap When You Land is hands-down, the best thing I read all year.
Lead from The Outside Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change
Stacy Abrams distinguished herself as the Bellethe 2020 election.She turned Georgia Blue and predicted that Georgia was a swing state several years ago. After the election, I realized that I had never read a single leadership book by a black woman. This is astounding considering all of the formal military leadership education I’ve had. All the leaderships by white men were informative but never took racism or sexism into consideration as obstacles to navigate. Even white women’s leadership books (i.e., Lean In) were tone-deaf to the idea that not all people would get the same results doing the prescribed methods based on how they look. Ms. Abrams addresses those obstacles and how to use them as pathways rather than stumbling blocks. This is a book I’ll continue to reference. I read this for Non-fiction November and think
Leaning leadership lessons from leaders with the same leadership challenges as you is a win!
The Vanishing Half
My Junior League’s book club featured this book to read and discuss in Decemeber. After slavery, this mullato guy built a society for beige-colored mullatos on his daddy’s plantation. For generations, no one married or procreated with dark-skinned people. The story tells the divergent lives of twin sisters. They vanish from town. One passes into white society and lives a privileged life. The other twin returns to the hometown with a very dark child. This child is so dark no one in the beige village has ever seen such a person, and her presence creates a spectacle.
With all else being the same, the proximity to whiteness that the twins chose during Jim crow is used to represent privilege, inter-generational trauma, and intersectional identities. The dynamics of the LGBTQ community layered with bi-racial identities come into play as well as, yet again, the double consciousness between how a person identifies oneself and how that person is identified by society.
The author knows how to weave magic out of words. I found myself captivated all the way through. . Her use of literary devices to set scenes is phenomenal. This is one of the best reads of the year and sets a gold bar for writing. This was a fascinating read that will make a great movie.
This novel will make a great film. A highly discussed novel for any 2020 end of year reading round up.
To Build a Better World
After the election and discussions of American Democracy being threatened by the media spin doctor and fear-mongers, I decided to buy this book. That’s when I realized how non-diverse the leadership and International Affairs section of my personal library was. I also wanted more academic substance to determine if American democracy was at peril. I didn’t get that out of this book by leading scholar-diplomats, Condeleeza Rice and Philip Zelikow. The pair focuses their framework centering Germany and the Soviet Union during the Cold War with a lot of historical analysis but minimal modern reflection (the book was initially published in Sept 2019). It speaks of our divided world in the late 1980s but not much on how divided international politics are now. Overall, it’s a good read, just not what I was hunting for at the moment. It’s graduate-level, international affairs required reading worthy.
I wondered why this wasn’t part of my International Studies Cannon, but it wasn’t written while I was in grad school. It’s a worthy read for all future IR/GA/Policy students.
Democracy
by Condoleezza Rice- Optimistic stance that authoritarian regimes are not more potent than the natural human desire for freedom. She touches on historical examples of fights for democratic principles across the globe. Using her experience as a diplomat and the 66th Sec State, she references the democratic struggles of Russia, Columbia, Kenya, Ukraine, and countries in South West Asia, as well as her experiences growing up in Birmingham during Jim Crow. She even discusses potential outcomes of competing interests and ideas of freedom clash. One can argue that the structures of democracy and the “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” that cause democracies to crumble have been shaken since Rice published this text. I wonder if she maintains her position that considering democracy threatened is alarmist and premature. This text should be part of the Global Affairs/ National Security Studies cannon.
Multiple perspective on democracy need make their way on graduate school reading lists. These books were not planned, but due to current events made their way on the end of year reading round up.
The Poet X
After reading Elizabeth Acevedo’s Clap When You Land, I became obsessed and had to read everything I could by the author. This book comes off as auto-biographical and coming of age. It’s about an Afro-Latino spoken-word poet from Harlem. Some of the themes are sexuality, religion, adjusting to developing bodies. The stories through poems discuss the challenges little girls transforming into womanhood have while navigating this gross society we’ve built for them and the well-intended, poorly executed ways parents call themselves protecting these children. As I said, I stan for Elizabeth Acevedo, so I loved this work.
Key Quotes: “I am the baby fat that settled into D-cups and swinging hips so that the boys who called me a whale in middle school now ask me to send them pictures of myself in a thong.”
“Just because your father’s present, doesn’t mean he isn’t absent.”
“When your body takes up more room than your voice, you are always the target of well-aimed rumors.”
Check Elizabeth’s phenomenal spoken word poem, “Rat Ode” that she dedicated to a professor who told her rats were not noble enough for a poem.
The Black Kids
This Young Adult fiction by Christina Hammonds Reed captures the 1992 Rodney King Riots in L.A. through the eyes of a wealthy black girl named Ashley. As in so many of the books I’ve read this year, this book explores themes of identity and double consciousness. Ashley realizes her community no longer sees her as “one of the girls,” but as “one of the black kids.” That comes with a whole host of implications. No matter the best attempts made by black parents to protect their children from the inescapable trauma that stems from systemic racism, eventually, some event is bound to happen to knock the rose-colored glasses off. There’s a lot I can relate to in this book. It even has a character with my sister’s name – something I’ve never seen in literature considered classics in academia.
“We have to walk around being perfect all the time just to be seen as human. Don’t you ever get tired of being a symbol? Don’t you ever just want to be human?”
The moment a black person in America gets categorized or documented as flawed is the moment abuse and even death becomes justified. And that expectation of perfection is the level of pressure and anxiety black Americans live with daily. That’s what the young protagonist realizes in this book.
My to-Be Red Next Boot Bookstack. Some didn’t make the End of Year Reading round up for 2020 but will definitely be there for 2021.
A Promised Land
The most anticipated release of the year (and pretty pricy) President Obama’s memoir takes 600 pages to cover his presidency up to Bin Laden’s Execution. I have not completed this work. But it needs to be on your bookshelf. I must brag, I got mine for $23 at T.J. Max. I think there was a fold in the book jacket that made it unfit to sell full price. I have to brag on that deal because it’s selling for $30+ at other major retailers.
The most awaited memoire of the past 4 year should be on everyone’s end of year reading round up for 2020.
Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul
Written by Princeton professor, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., is the harsh critique of American Democracy I was somewhat hoping for, but knowing otherwise, when I read the perspectives of Condoleezza Rice. The main idea of the book centers around the “value gap” that is so interwoven in our ‘democratic’ system, as well as the ‘racial habits’ that America does to sustain this gap. It discusses the state-sanctioned terror on Black Americans while providing systemic, unearned value to white Americans. It suggests Black Americans aren’t actually experiencing democracy – at least not in the same way white Americans are. The value gap informs all decisions and actions, including academic major, schools, career-fields, the concept of justice, housing, and policy. The author pinpoints the black political classes as “accomplices in the demise of black America. To the author, it’s the same ol’ democracy, just in black.
I think the professor’s intended primary audience is the politically educated, black academic class. The average reader would need some pre-requisites on history taught from the black perspective, which doesn’t gloss over or whitewash historical events before grasping some concepts or buying off on them. The book takes for granted readers have a baseline understanding.
Multiple perspective on democracy need make their way on graduate school reading lists.
Mexican Gothic
Not my typical genre. It’s mystery, horror, and suspense set in 1950s Mexico. I can’t say I connected or identified with it in the same way I did other books. I have a lot of questions about most of the creative choices the author made. Mostly, during a time of pandemic and thwarted travel, I just didn’t get enough of a sense of place and setting that I was craving. But the cover is stunning, and I get to fit in with all the book nerdy cool kids ’cause this was the most anticipated book drops of the year and on all the influencer’s nightstands. Perhaps it will make a better movie. I just wasn’t moved. Maybe I’ll try to reread it. Idk.
If we’re judging books by the cover, the cover was all this book had going for it.
I think what made me love this reading list was that I found so much of me reflected in the pages. My 2020 reading experience spoke to my experiences in a way that Dickens and Hemmingway never could. That’s why I found them all so engrossing. I haven’t really found the words to describe the novelty of seeing myself written in novels for the first time. Perhaps that word doesn’t exist in English yet.
Alright! That’s all I have. That’s my Year-End Reading Round-up. What books would you recommend? Let me know in the comments or on my Insta (@globelleaffairs) so I can start my 2021 based on your recommendations.
The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI promotes a scholarly examination of the collection of anti-black strategic propaganda produced in the United States. One hateful image repeatedly displayed is the racist stereotype of black people with watermelon. Watermelon has historical significance as a symbol of freedom and economic independence for Americans. What I took away was the power of images and the deranged mental state that would allow a people to become so obsessed with creating them.
The stereotype emerged post-Civil War with a specific political purpose. Some newly liberated Africans chose to grow and sell watermelons as an avenue to economic independence. They “picked themselves up by the bootstraps” following emancipation. Watermelons became a symbol of African liberation.
As a result, whites, threatened by this hard-earned freedom, responded by racializing the fruit. They pathologized the new African-Americans as having an insatiable appetite for watermelon. Instead of a mark of independence, watermelon became the pictogram of uncleanliness, laziness, childishness, and simple-mindedness.
America witnessed resentful former enslavers upset that their livelihoods crashed. The cause of that crash was picking up the pieces and doing something productive with their lives. Of course, The South structured its entire economic system around the institution of slavery. Even if one wasn’t an enslaver, careers like overseers, auctioneers, deliverers, bounty hunters, steamboat industry, construction industry, banking industry, the fashion industry, and railway industry depended on enslavement. Even doctors and lawyers lost work due to abolition. Misery loves company, and if former enslavers we hurting finically, they wanted to ensure the former enslaved were too. The disgrace associated with the produce intended to shame black people from their business enterprises. As a result, it hurt business sales and prevent financial success.
Check out the recipe for this savory, Nigerian-Inspired watermelon dish. Link at the bottom of this history lesson.
In recognizing the historical context of the racist stereotype, we better understand what the trope says about its intended target and those who created the hateful image. We document that liberated Africans farmed and sold crops as honest work to sustain themselves and provide for their families. They continued their hard-working, industrious, resilient character with an entrepreneurial spirit into freedom.
By mocking honest work, resentful former enslavers mocked financial independence. They scorned the very foundation that America claims—freedom. They ridiculed hard work, initiative, and business enterprises.
We can take a scholarly approach in examining the phycology of the creators of the image. The caricature created illustrates how they view people hard at work. The amount of time focused on going out of one’s way to create such a hateful image indicates something peculiar, irrational, obsessive, and debased about their psychological condition.
While these images began during Reconstruction, they continue to propagate a century and a half later. All during President Obama’s presidency, the fruit was used to harass and undermined his qualification. Most notably were the images made in 2014 by the Boston Harald, Kentucky’s Obama and watermelon statue, and a related image circulated by Dean Grose, the Mayor of Los Alamitos, California. Just a few weeks ago in May, a staff member at the Boston Fine Arts Museum told a group of 7th-grade students from Dorchester (code for mostly black with some Latinos sprinkled in) “No food, no drinks, and no watermelon.”
The Destructive properties of the imagery extend beyond insult. Even today, black people are underrepresented watermelon consumers representing only 11% of watermelon consumers (13% would be right on target). I’ve also made a point not to eat watermelon because of the stereotypical depictions. Can you believe that? Something some hateful people began in the 1800s, who are long dead, has influenced the choices of a millennial in the 2000s. I’m not alone. Both Malcolm X and James Baldwin refused to eat watermelon in a mixed company.
Disassociation from watermelon continues to give power and influence to those, now dead enslavers who sought to dehumanize. There is no shame in any symbol of freedom. Freedom is something worth celebrating. By remembering the history and tradition of the entrepreneurship of liberated black farmers and black business owners during Reconstruction, we celebrate the achievement of resilience and hard work. We also draw a spotlight to how the racist depictions began in the first place—from actual lazy, salty, jealous haters.
Celebrate Juneteenth with watermelon dishes served three ways:
Savory watermelon with Nigerian-Inspired Groundnuts (aka peanuts)
Come feel the omnipresent spirit of African Ancestors in Charleston.
When I planned my weekend getaway to Charleston, I fully intended on basking
in all the southern-ness I’d been yearning for while living in Boston. I’d chat
with gracious southerners with incomparable etiquette. I’d dine on delectable
southern cuisine. Most of all, I intended
on giving my ears a break from the harshness of the Bostonian accent to capture
the sweetest of twang. Charleston is,
after all, the crown jewel of the south. Its timeless allure is immortalized in
American folklore and literature. It is where you go when you need a super does
of southern charm. Although I went to
Charleston for its southern-ness, I never expected that I’d be surrounded by
its African-ness as well. All-the-while the city is touted as the epicenter of
quintessential southern gentry, I’ve rarely heard it positioned as a starting
point of Africans in American. Yet, when I visited, I was constantly surrounded
by the works and stories that drew a bridge to my own past.
This history and culture of Charleston is the history of the African majority who built and developed the city from the colonial era onward. It is impossible to separate the history of Charleston from the history of the Africans that populated the city for over 300 years. You don’t have to go looking for the history of Black Americans in South Carolina — it hits you right in the face. The African people of Charleston are not an aside to the city, or a footnote. Charleston was not influenced by Africans, but built by Africans in every way. They were and still are the heart of the city.
My first stop of the weekend was Fort Sumter. Etched into memory from history class, it’s always been on my list of places to see. Being the hyper planner that I am, I arrived as their first customer of the morning. I purchased my ticket for the ferry across the bay but it didn’t leave until another two hours at 11. That gave me time to check out the Old Slave Mart Museum.
While touring the Old Slave Mart, or Ryan’s Mart as it was called in the days of slavery, I learned an estimated 80 percent of African Americans today had at least one ancestor who was kidnapped from the Senegambia region then quarantined at Sullivan Island, often for over a month, before being brought into the city. While I can’t know for sure, it is reasonable to believe, that I have some ancestor, from some branch of the family tree that came through this seaport. Considering that probability, the city became more personalized. This wasn’t just a trendy southern city. I was no longer just a history tourist on the outside looking in at a foreign history. This city provides clues to my family’s potential first steps in America.
The museum is reading intensive and emotional. It’s not recommended for children…especially rambunctious ones.
Initially, Charleston didn’t have a designated spot for the sale of Africans. It was customary for Europeans to buy and sell African people randomly on sidewalks all over town. These spontaneous sales drew inconvenient crowds for pedestrians and carts trying to make their way around town. Ryan’s Mart was built in 1856 to alleviate the sidewalk congestion. Now, Charleston had undergone series of legislation banning the public sale of humans in 1839 as a way of being discrete. That law was overturned a decade later by anti-abolitionists as a way of doubling down on their shamelessness of the institution.
Looking at the cobble stone roads, I wondered if any of
my family members, or people who knew my family were creepily inspected on the
side of the roads to be bought and sold like a used futon prior to the mart’s
construction. Or perhaps someone who
cross paths with my ancestors survived time spent in the barracoon of the slave mart. Could all the trauma and heartbreak contained
in this concrete cell be part of my family’s initial experience in this
country? Through these walls, mamas,
most certainly clinging to their little girls knowing the fate of adolescent
girls being considered the property of ruthless men. Young sweethearts, crazy in love, waited for
the impeding separation, never to see each other again. Mothers never knew what
became of their toddlers and children never knew if they had other brothers and
sisters out there.
According to
displays in the museum, Ryan’s Mart was advertised in newspapers across
the south. Even enslavers in Mobile, AL would know when an auction was scheduled
and pay a dealer to purchase and deliver people who were enslaved. Those people
would be marched in shackles from Charleston to Mobile while the white
deliverer would ride alongside of them.
If you could imagine…that’s a 9-hour drive on the highway today but
walking back then would take weeks. This job illustrates that even individuals that
might not have “owned” African people as property, their livelihood still depended
on the propagation of the slave industry. Being in the Old Slave Mart connected
dots on possible stories of my family’s history. My family has lived an hour’s
drive north of Mobile since the end of the Civil War. While Mobile Bay was a
significant slave port, most of those enslaved African people had been brought
over after being “seasoned” for slave life in the Caribbean. I pondered if my people were part of that
crew or the Charleston set? Or both?
After an hour and a half, the museum stimulated
my curiosity and provided more data to use for research. I dashed back to my
rental parked in two-hour parking right outside the museum then headed back to Fort Sumter National Monument.
The National Parks Department curated a small but impactful
museum in the ferry waiting area that doesn’t gloss over some of the less
touted realities of antebellum life that history books often omit. Founded in
1663, Charleston became predominantly black by the first decade of the
1700s. By 1770, the Charleston harbor
was the nation’s fourth largest port after Boston, New York, and
Philadelphia. At the end of the century,
Charleston distinguished itself as the wealthiest city in British North America
(including the Caribbean). All of its wealth was made possible by its slave
industry. Of America’s major cities, Charleston was the only one with a history
of having the majority of its residents enslaved. In fact, the majority of all South Carolina
residents were enslaved. The irony… South Carolina, a state in America — the
bastion of freedom, enslaved most of its residents. The city stayed
predominately African until the great migration during the industrial
revolution of the early 20th century.
The Fort is free but the 30-minute ferry ride is a small fee. You’re welcome to visit on your own boat if you’d like. Keep your eyes out for dolphins!
Once out on the island fort, the park ranger gave a
spill on the history of Ft Sumter. He was a high energy, charismatic, retired
Marine Colonel who implored the visitors to use our imaginations to put
ourselves in the shoes of the people of Charleston at the start of the Civil
War. Empathy, he contended, was vital to
the study of history and human understanding. Just like current events of
today, that time period had so many perspectives to consider. With that in mind, I considered what I’d be
thinking if I was a young, enlisted soldier doing my daily duties while gearing
up for the impending battle. I measured my priorities if I was the commander of
the fort, knowing supplies were low and the confederates were getting hostile. I
imagined being one of the aristocrats watching the battle from the porch of my
ocean-side home. But what I pondered most was the perspective I’d have if I
were one of the enslaved people who laid the bricks to build the fortress. I
wondered if the hands of one of my ancestors built the bricks that now surrounded
me. I ran my hands across as many as I could just in case.
Use from the Ft Sumter National Monument website.
The prevailing viewpoint is the realization that all the
grandeur of the city of Charleston depended on the wealth made possible by
forced, African labor. With the federal government placing bans on the peculiar
institution, the source of income of southerners would be gone (…with the
wind). That meant no more fashionable
gowns imported from Europe. No more life of leisure, porch sitting. Cultural
developments such as America’s first theater building, Dock Street Theater (1736),
was made possible by the wealth of the slave economy. The city’s first libraries came from slave
money. Every nicety enjoyed by the Charleston elite life came from the work of
the kidnapped and enslaved African majority.
So it’s understandable that people, reluctant to change, would hold on
to the last of their livelihood as long as possible. It’s not unlike folks of
today holding on to fleeting or dangerous economies (Coal. Guns. etc).
Two and half hours
later I was back in the city and starving.
At the recommendation of a friend, a South Carolina native, I ate my
fill of mac & cheese and dirty grits (In Charleston they called the dish shrimp
‘n grits…but once you add the sausage and gravy…they qualify as dirty grits) at Poogin’s Porch. The two sites I’d just visited framed my point
of reference and my approach to absorbing historical Charleston. The cityscape
captured my imagination of what used to be. Roaming the streets, I envisioned some
distant relative once traveled the same path as me. I reckoned they probably
looked at the same exchange building or churches I passed. Gadsden Wharf was the busiest port for the nation’s slave trade capitol. But on this day, I
watched an energetic fitness influencer pose for a photoshoot.
As I wandered the streets, words from Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography came to mind, “We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets,” he wrote. The beautiful, ornamental wrought iron work featured prominently around the city were designed and created by talented African blacksmiths. The sweet grass baskets that Charleston is famous for (and charges a small fortune), are the handicrafts of West Africa. The bricks that line the streets, make up the stately antebellum homes, and hold up Fort Sumter were all made by enslaved Africans. The food culture of Charleston was made famous by African cooks, chefs, and caterers like Nat Fuller and Sally Seymour. The beautiful gowns seen painted in portraits likely designed and stitched by African seamstresses, made out of African cultivated cotton, and all financed through African labor. Any building, church, home, artifact of the period in the town, was either created by the wealth of enslaved African labor or physically built by the Africans themselves. Even modern buildings were likely built from local revenue which continues to profit off of the antebellum history tourism (i.e. plantation weddings and tours). Equiano’s words were omnipresent as I wandered the painstakingly preserved French quarter streets. This nation too, was full of talented African artisans and craftsmen. Every street I turned down I was surrounded by the works of my ancestors.
At this moment, I was carefree, walking in my ancestor’s footsteps
The last stop of my Saturday was the ancestral plantations of the Drayton family at Magnolia Plantation. Just six years ago, the plantation started to acknowledge the overlooked narrative of all the people who lived on this plantation. It offers a “From Slavery to Freedom” tour. I was suspicious of the how the plantation would approach this narrative when I bought my ticket. But my suspicions were alleviated by the tactful docent who led the tour with the dignity and respect the stories deserved. The original slave shacks remaining on the plantation tell the stories of five different time periods. The descendants of enslaved people lived in these cabins and took care of the grounds until the late 1990s when the last passed away. I had been under the impression enslavers didn’t document where the people that they enslaved came from. But they did. In fact, in Charleston, they were very particular about where they seized people. Africans from the Senegambia region were specifically targeted for their rice cultivation skills. Before cotton became king in the south, rice was the cash crop of coastal South Carolina. Charleston enslavers had been primarily familiar with rice farmers until they took hold of Angolan warriors. The warriors were transported over, said, “Oh hell nah,” then killed everybody at Stono Rebellion (also called Cato’s Conspiracy) just a little way outside of Charleston. At the time, 40 percent of Africans in Charleston were kidnapped from the region now recognized as Angola. After the revolt, a decade-long hiatus in abductions from Angola, among other preventative measures, took effect.
These confined shelters that once housed over 10 people per night humbled me.
The Year 2019 marks the 400th year that the ship, White Lion, docked in Virginia carrying the first people who were enslaved in America. Ghana has declared 2019 as “The Year of Return” and invites all people of African descent to visit the West African nation. If visiting your ancestral lands in Africa isn’t an option, Charleston makes a more accessible option. Even if your ancestors didn’t arrive in America this way, Charleston is steeped in the details that you can’t learn from textbooks and still worth the visit. Even after majoring in history, this weekend tourist trip to Charleston willed in so many gaps in the lessons I learned in school. If you’re looking for something more international, but closer than Africa, The Bahamas, Barbados, St. Kitts, Haiti, and Jamaica are other, closer options for a Black History Month getaway with deeply rooted African history that connects the stories of America’s African history as well.
