Sankofa: A Pilgrimage Back to Afrika
Sankofa: A Pilgrimage Back to Afrika
Sankofa: A Pilgrimage Back to Afrika
Sankofa: A Pilgrimage Back to Afrika
Sankofa: A Pilgrimage Back to Afrika
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Sankofa: A Pilgrimage Back to Afrika
Sankofa is a word in the Twi language of Ghana meaning “Go back and get it.” This campaign embodies the meaning of Sankofa, as I have an intention to raise money to fund my travel to Afrika, our Motherland.
I am a descendant of enslaved Afrikaans. I am only four generations from my enslaved ancestors. I am able to trace my ancestry back to my great great great great maternal grandmother who was a child during the emancipation of Black people from chattel slavery in the United States. My family and I do not know my ancestor’s country of origin in Africa.
My maternal grandmother was a science teacher in the South during the segregation brought by Jim Crow. My mother expands the legacy of education by being the first person my my family to receive their PhD. She is now a Doctor of Philosophy in Education, Curriculum and Instruction. I will continue to expand this legacy through the mental, spiritual and physical education of our community. My grandmother, mother and I are three strong Black women whose legacy is to cultivate those around us in order to reach higher states of knowing, self-love and self-worth.
I am attending graduate school at the California Institute for Integral studies (CIIS) for somatic counseling psychology with aims to become a marriage and family therapist. I intend to trace the origins of somatic psychotherapy back to Africa so I may cultivate procedures that incorporate African sound and movement into the Western somatic therapeutic process. Traveling to Senegal will contribute to my goal of acknowledging and honoring the ancestors who are the true founders of somatic psychology. I will also be able to begin gaining knowledge on traditional West African Drum and Dance so that I may develop a process for how to utilize the healing art forms in a Western therapeutic setting while honoring and maintaining the integrity of the art form. It is my intention to highlight the importance of ancestral spirituality and ways of embodiment for African Americans and provide the techniques I learn to this population in order to facilitate healing.
During my first year at CIIS, I witnessed and contributed to many conversations regarding the Eurocentric nature of psychology and psychotherapy as well as its racist roots. African Americans are utilizing therapeutic resources at a staggeringly low rate, choosing instead to turn to religious leaders and community members for psychological support. As an African American woman, I am not seeing myself or my way of being represented in the field.
In an attempt to decolonize the field of psychotherapy, I have chosen to contribute to the development of therapeutic practices centering African ways of being through African movement, sound and spirituality, rendering it more inclusive of the African American community.
Descendants of enslaved Africans have a very unique six-hundred-year trauma history, one that generally goes unacknowledged, unaddressed or is deliberately diminished. Joy Degruy released a book in 2005 called Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS). My father, a product of the Jim Crow south, stated, "Reading Joy Degruy's book was the first time I ever had any healing [from racism]."
I am embarking on a journey to Senegal West Africa with the intention of beginning research on the healing affects of African song, drum and dance and its application in the West for addressing intergenerational trauma in African Americans resulting from the Trans-Atlantic slave-trade and institutional racism. While in Senegal, I have the following intentions:
I have been inspired by the Jewish birthright pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I am seeking to be the first member of my family to make the pilgrimage back to Africa to reconnect with the African legacy that my African American ancestors, elders and I were stolen from. I am asking for your financial support to help me complete this mission in identifying and reconnecting with my ancestral legacy so that I may maintain the knowledge and pass it down to generations to come.
My West African Drum and Dance Story:
In 2013 I moved to Santa Cruz, California. I attended my first ever West African dance class taught by Oumou Faye, a master dancer from Senegal West Africa. During that class I experience a purging, an opening and a healing that I had never experienced in my life. The djimbe and the dununs pounded and opened my heart, as my body awakened to their vibration and the movements of my teacher. From that day forward I have been engaged in Senegalese and Guinea West African drum and dance and have since attended a West African Dance camp three years in a row. I am committed to continuing to build my knowledge and expertise in West African drum and dance and the healing that it evokes.
“How can I contribute,” you ask?
By donating an amount that calls to you
and
sharing my campaign throughout your network.
Those who contribute to and follow my campaign will be updated on the results of my DNA swab. You will also gain access to new insights of mine regarding my family tree, my travels and my ancestral knowledge. You will gain access to posts regarding my intentions for my travels and the knowledge and experiences I gain. Finally, I will post music videos and more as I embark on this journey. Stay tuned!
Help me be the first member of my family to return back to Africa since enslavement by contributing monetarily and sharing my campaign with those who will support my mission.
Thank you for your time and support!