The Joy of Celebrating Freedom

(IP Stanback Museum and Planetarium)


It’s probably a safe bet to say that most families are not sitting around their economically-challenged dinner tables these days discussing celebrations of the Bicentennial of the end of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Pretty much nothing commands our attention spans these days as much as the presidential 2008 election campaign and watching the bouncing ball called Wall Street. And yet in these days when the word “change” can make or break political destiny, it makes sense to pause and acknowledge one of the greatest changes in the history of humanity:

It started when Denmark outlawed international slavery in 1802; Great Britain and the United States kept the ball going in 1808. Sweden joined the party in 1813, The Netherlands in 1814, Spain in 1820, and Mexico in 1829. By 1830, where the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was concerned, it was all over but the shouting. Such a huge revolution in a relatively small window––three decades––of historical time. The extraordinary possibilities now before us in 2008 are intriguing to say the least.

I confess: had it not been for an invitation to participate in Journey from Africa to Gullah exhibition opening at Orangeburg State University’s I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium in South Carolina, I likely would have remained oblivious to the bicentennial celebrations taking place around the world. As it turned out, I was blessed to sign copies of ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love in the presence of paintings and sculpture by some two dozen Gullah-influenced visual artists; the invigorating sounds of jazz and world musicians; the SC UJIMAA Dancers; and more than a thousand jubilant attendees.

The amazing thing was finding myself surrounded by people who live a fair percentage of their lives dedicated specifically to the recognition of cosmically-charged moments exactly like this one. The coordinator and museum director Ellen Zisholtz was one such person; former Penn Center Director Emory Campbell another; historic preservationist Carl Westmoreland made one more; as did Gullah cuisine expert Sallie Ann Robinson and many others. Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon, and Night On the same evening, up in Harlem, New York City, cultural icons like Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka were holding high the very same flame of honor and remembrance.

It was more than a good time to recognize freedom and those (many of whom did not wear military uniforms) who have died for it as a noble human concept. It was instead a splendidly appropriate time––to recognize the world community’s ongoing struggle to preserve freedom, and those who die for it still, as a powerful human reality that no one should ever take for granted.

by Author-Poet Aberjhani

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