A Man from Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life by Isaiah Washington Page A
Authors: Isaiah Washington
Tags: BIO002000
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peoples of Bo have a reputation for warmth and determination, and the town is named after its generosity.
An elephant was killed close to what is now known as Bo Parking Ground. People from the surrounding villages came to receive
their share. Because the meat was so large, the hunter spent days distributing it and the words “
bo-lor
” (which in Mende language means “this is yours,” with reference to the meat) was said so much that the elders and visitors
decided to name the place Bo. “
Bo-lor
” in Mende also translates to “this is Bo.” 3
The impact of this quest for excellence left its mark in the United States. Two important examples are Sierra Leoneans Barnabas
Root and Thomas Tucker, who both attended the original Mende Mission School. Root became a powerful pastor for the Congregational
Mission Church for Freedmen in Alabama and later returned to Sierra Leone. Thomas Tucker stayed on in America and along with
Thomas Van Gibbs founded the State Normal College for Colored Students at Tallahassee, Florida, in1877. Thomas Tucker was the first president of the college which grew into the present-day Florida A&M University.
The freedom of the
Amistad
Africans made a further impact on the United States. In 1846, the American Missionary Association was the best organized
abolitionist society in the United States. After the Civil War, the association established more than five hundred schools
and colleges in the South for the education of newly emancipated slaves. Eventually, these schools evolved into universities—Clark,
Atlanta, Howard, Fisk, and Dillard—and Hampton Institute, just to name a few. Thousands of African Americans owe their higher
education to Sengbe Pieh and the
Amistad
case.
I read everything I could get my hands on that was written by Joseph Opala, and I would have the pleasure of meeting him in
person a few years later in 2006. Joe suggested that these institutions educated the young reformers who started the civil
rights movement. Morehouse College was another beneficiary of the
Amistad
case. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Morehouse man. The connection between Sierra Leone and historically black colleges and
universities is direct and the importance for African Americans, all Americans for that matter, is clear.
I also read about the history of diamond mining. It seems the first diamonds were discovered in the riverbeds of India. They
were discovered in Africa in 1866, when a fifteen-year-old boy found a transparent stone on his father’s farm on the south
bank of the Orange River. In the next fifteen years, diamond mining dramatically increased, with Africa producing more diamonds
than India had produced in the previous two thousand years. To this day, diamond mining is one of Africa’s most important
industries.
“Diamond” comes from the Greek word
adamas,
meaningunconquerable. Diamonds are made up of pure carbon and are the hardest natural substance known to man.
Like many cultures around the world, as Americans we think of diamonds as a symbol of wealth, a sign of love and romance.
But at the same time, they also have something of a sinister side and are at the core of one of the darkest periods in my
Africa’s history. Used as capital by rebels to buy weapons, diamonds have funded some of the country’s bloodiest and deadliest
wars including in Angola, the Republic of Congo, and my new homeland, Sierra Leone.
De Beers, a London-based company, is the largest producer of diamonds. You often see De Beers featured in magazine and TV
advertisements, especially around Valentine’s Day and Christmas. The company’s first chairman, Cecil Rhodes, was an Englishman
who founded De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. By 1888, he enjoyed a monopoly over Africa’s diamond production. He formed the
London Diamond Syndicate, a cartel of the largest group of diamond merchants of the time, and essentially controlled both
sides of the diamond market
An elephant was killed close to what is now known as Bo Parking Ground. People from the surrounding villages came to receive
their share. Because the meat was so large, the hunter spent days distributing it and the words “
bo-lor
” (which in Mende language means “this is yours,” with reference to the meat) was said so much that the elders and visitors
decided to name the place Bo. “
Bo-lor
” in Mende also translates to “this is Bo.” 3
The impact of this quest for excellence left its mark in the United States. Two important examples are Sierra Leoneans Barnabas
Root and Thomas Tucker, who both attended the original Mende Mission School. Root became a powerful pastor for the Congregational
Mission Church for Freedmen in Alabama and later returned to Sierra Leone. Thomas Tucker stayed on in America and along with
Thomas Van Gibbs founded the State Normal College for Colored Students at Tallahassee, Florida, in1877. Thomas Tucker was the first president of the college which grew into the present-day Florida A&M University.
The freedom of the
Amistad
Africans made a further impact on the United States. In 1846, the American Missionary Association was the best organized
abolitionist society in the United States. After the Civil War, the association established more than five hundred schools
and colleges in the South for the education of newly emancipated slaves. Eventually, these schools evolved into universities—Clark,
Atlanta, Howard, Fisk, and Dillard—and Hampton Institute, just to name a few. Thousands of African Americans owe their higher
education to Sengbe Pieh and the
Amistad
case.
I read everything I could get my hands on that was written by Joseph Opala, and I would have the pleasure of meeting him in
person a few years later in 2006. Joe suggested that these institutions educated the young reformers who started the civil
rights movement. Morehouse College was another beneficiary of the
Amistad
case. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Morehouse man. The connection between Sierra Leone and historically black colleges and
universities is direct and the importance for African Americans, all Americans for that matter, is clear.
I also read about the history of diamond mining. It seems the first diamonds were discovered in the riverbeds of India. They
were discovered in Africa in 1866, when a fifteen-year-old boy found a transparent stone on his father’s farm on the south
bank of the Orange River. In the next fifteen years, diamond mining dramatically increased, with Africa producing more diamonds
than India had produced in the previous two thousand years. To this day, diamond mining is one of Africa’s most important
industries.
“Diamond” comes from the Greek word
adamas,
meaningunconquerable. Diamonds are made up of pure carbon and are the hardest natural substance known to man.
Like many cultures around the world, as Americans we think of diamonds as a symbol of wealth, a sign of love and romance.
But at the same time, they also have something of a sinister side and are at the core of one of the darkest periods in my
Africa’s history. Used as capital by rebels to buy weapons, diamonds have funded some of the country’s bloodiest and deadliest
wars including in Angola, the Republic of Congo, and my new homeland, Sierra Leone.
De Beers, a London-based company, is the largest producer of diamonds. You often see De Beers featured in magazine and TV
advertisements, especially around Valentine’s Day and Christmas. The company’s first chairman, Cecil Rhodes, was an Englishman
who founded De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. By 1888, he enjoyed a monopoly over Africa’s diamond production. He formed the
London Diamond Syndicate, a cartel of the largest group of diamond merchants of the time, and essentially controlled both
sides of the diamond market
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