JOURNEYING BACK TO AFRIKA......RECLAIMING OURSELF?

To us Afrikans in the Diaspora who were forcible removed from the Afrikan continent, we undergoed a long process of dehumanisation, where we were deliberately and brutally disconnected from our self. Our language, culture and religion was/is banned and demonised. Our history was/is suppressed and whitewashed.

On the continent of Afrika, information and customs are handed down generation to generation, and the village structure is mainly matrilinear. Our powerful oral history stretches across thousands of years. Often there is talk about us returning en masse phyically to Afrika, but what will happen when someone asks 'what tribe are you from'? And usually the answer denotes what part you are from, who is your family, what language you speak. The tribe you are from is connected to a lot of things.

Will we be accepted back in the villages when we have been away so long. Embedded in this complex situation is the various manifestations of guilt that Afrikans from the continent feel about allowing fellow Afrikans to be taken away into slavery.

What then is the role of Afrikans in the Diaspora especially in terms of Afrika? Is repartriation to be more on a spiritual level than on a phyical level...or both? Because there are Afrikans that will be able to make a better contribution outside the continent than inside. I don't see masses of Afrikans (who are generally ignorant of self) journeying back physically to Afrika. I see individuals going back and making their contribution. Individuals such as Kwame Ture, George Padmore and also Rite MArley (i believe) have made that journey back.