| Commission on Research in Black Education |
Reflections on St. Simon Working Colloquium
Although I had studied the "Gullah dialect" in my Eurocentrized university linguistics classes in the 1970s in Ottawa, Canada, I did not feel a connection to the language, culture, history or people, other than seeing "syntactic" and "morphological" similarities between the "Jamaican Creole" of my family and "Gullah Dialect". Then in the 1990s, I read Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall, in which the phrase above is a refrain throughout the story. In this novel, Avey Tatum (like some of us in St. Simon) was transformed through an ancient ritual experience. At the end of the book we learn, "Her body was in a Tatem but her mind, her mind was long gone with the Ibos." A few months later, I saw the brilliantly researched "ethnographic" film, Daughters of the dust by Julie Dash. Aaah! Then I understood the psychohistorical importance of Ibo Landing and the significance of the Sea Islands in the historico-cultural memory of Africans in the Americas. Even more intensely did I experience it first hand this past weekend (June 30-July 2.) After returning from the colloquium, "Framing a Transformative Research and Action Agenda for the New Millennium," I thought it so appropriate that we were trying to map out an agenda in such a historical and sacred place-- this "Ellis island for Africans" a place where people chose to die or return home (depending on which version of the story one espouses). I went back and read for the first time since 1992, Daughters of the dust, the making of an African American woman's film by Julie Dash. Interestingly, 10 years of research went into the film not including the fact that the Dash family came from the Sea Islands. Dash tells a number of variations on the theme of the story of Ibo landing--the place where our ancestors chose death over captivity. Moreover, she discovered in her research that just about every Sea Island claims an inlet said to be "Ibo landing". Dash explains, "So I learned that myth is very important in the struggle to maintain a sense of self and to move forward into the future."
We spent an extraordinarily intense weekend,--all of us flung together, a wide range of ages, dispositions, political and cultural backgrounds, but centered on the polycentric theme of transforming "Black education." It is a long-term task that necessarily and circumstantially has to be multi-layered and non-linear-- and we saw much of that-- which for some might have been disconcerting. Again, I am reminded of Dash describing the making of her film and the intensely focused drive needed to sustain her vision. For she experienced many things that one might expect to experience in any critically important project-- sabotage from many of her team members, (including African Americans), public confrontations by "diva-type" project participants, lack of financial support, difficulty in finding people to share or even understand a unique and unusual project. (Not to mention the difficulties of a Black woman making a film on African American women-- Mon dieu!)
I have been trying to suggest that our work is critical, and cannot be rushed, although it is urgent. It will have some rough, difficult moments along the way. But we must keep focused. It was a wonderful and unique opportunity for us to meet in such a sacred and historical place that reminds us of the important work we must do. It also reminds us that, like out ancestors, we will have to make some courageous choices on behalf of African American education.
It was a personal privilege to spend a weekend with such wonderful scholars and activists who are committed to political, social, economic educational and spiritual transformation. Indeed, we concluded Sunday morning by enumerating ways in which we must continue the work. I look forward to our continued project to transform the Black educational agenda.
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