Bestseller barracoon. Now we have the pleasure of welcoming an old friend to african town, dr. Natalie s robertson. Towns a friend of african and we count on her very often to come and share the history and all of the knowledge she has gained. She has the pleasure also of introducing our speaker for the hour. So let us welcome dr. Natalie s robertson. Thank you very much and good morning african town. The spirits of our ancestors festival has been seated through our ancestors through the efforts and dedication of the festivals founder and it has taken root like the baobab tree. We are imparting knowledge about africa town to the world. To have served as the festivals inaugural speaker and im equally proud to introduce plant,essor, dr. Deborah the editor of the story of the dr. Deborahargo, is an effort can a studies scholar and literary critic whose special interest is in the life and work of corneal purchase. Dr. Plante created what the New York Times said was a found legacyon his literary and publishing the last account of the africa town cofounder. Barracoon one New York Times bestseller, times magazine best Nonfiction Book but 2018, and amongrk Public Libraries other accolades plant was therumental in Founding Department of afghanistan and the department of this graduate program. She shared the department for five years and was an associate professor of african a studies until her appointment as associate professor. She holds a ba degree in fine arts from southern university, and ma in french from atlanta as well asand an ma phd in english from the university of nebraska. Her published works include works on the doornail hurston and alice walker, a woman for our time. Dr. Plant sides in Tampa Florida and continues to research and write as an independent scholar. Direct descendent, friends and family of africa town, please join me in extending the special africa town welcome to our Kindred Spirit dr. Deborah plant. [applause] one of the things i like to barracoontalked about is to invite the spirits to be the best i can to represent them and express what i think they would like for us to know. I would like to invite you to invoke those ancestral spirits that would be with us today during the event and throughout the festival so we would have their guidance. Is the story of oda odewale. Hurston was able to capture him and he went out into the field back in 1927. Hurston, as many of you might know, was reared in stevensville florida, she was born here in alabama. She went to school and acquired her associate degree and then transferred to Barnard College ande she majored in english after her matriculation studied and camen anthropology to the attention of the father of american anthropology. Time, sheint in learned as much about anthropology as she did about writing and literature. Speaking about her responsibilities and tasks, it was to collect folklore, to do Archival Research on behalf of woodson. Woodson is the father of black history month. To him to thank him for february is black history month, but it started as black history week and grew into black history month. Woodson was also the founder of the association for the study of near history. Association of the and the journal of near History History andot went to alabama to ask him about the story of how he and his andage had been destroyed been forced into enslavement in alabama. And so she did this. She goes and gets this story it wasst africa and how destroyed. Woodson, this back to but she knew that there was more to the story. Your ande came back this time, when she came back, she came back under the patriot and was able to several interviews, fill him and things of that nature. So when she comes to see him, she says the first time she met him was in july of 1927. Came back later in the year in december in the first few months of the year in 1928, this is when she conducts a series of interviews with him. It was summer when i went to talk with to joe. The door was wide open. I know he was somewhere in the house before i entered the yard because i had found the gate unlocked. When he goes into his backfield or away from home, he locks his gait with an ingenious wooden peg of african invention. I held him by his african name as i walked up statue the steps to his porch. Breakfast fromis a round enamel pan. A pan in the fashion of his following. Me, he regarded me and the tears of joy welled up. Oh lord, i knew it was you calling my name. Nobody has called my name across the water but you. You always call me kossola. And so they talked and he knows they want to know about him. He asked them, what is it you want to know . He tells them, i want to know who you are and how you came to be a slave. To what part of africa do you belong and how you have fared as a slave and how you manage as a free man. Bowed his head, and when he lifted his face again he murmured. Thank you, jesus. 70 has come to ask about me. I want to tell somebody who i am, so maybe if they go to africa, somebody there will say yeah, i know kossola. I want you to tell everybody iat im saying, and how come am in america since 1869 and never seen my people. I will call it word by word so it wont be too crooked for me. My name is not lewis. S it is kossola america, he tried calling my name, it was too long. In africa, my mama named me kossola. Story he tells her the about his upbringing in west that the initiations and learning how to hunt, about learning how to throw spears. About the young women in the village. He sees what he likes. In particular he says that when you see her might you be kind to her. Begin to we need to it isto prepare your during this time that everything changes for course lot. This is, as he put it in a predawn raid, the amazon warriors stepped into the village and slaughtered so many. He and so many survive that slaughter. As they did, they were chained or tied together with others and to the capital. As they are held there, they are taken to the barracoon. Word thatis a spanish has its roots in the terms that. Ou see here basically, the words mean hot or shed. Were kind of structures along the african coast. This is where captors word would be held for those who waited for exchange for goods and materials what have you. They would wait there until the ships were docked aired docked. And hision to kossola compatriots, this was at that point in time when William Foster who was the captain of come where head was there to buy captives. And so we see africa there in the green to the right of the screen. Benin in white there. It was there he was taken. That is where William Foster navigated the clotilda. When it goes back, you can see the journey they took through the Middle Passage back to the coast of alabama. Map, my sister made this map. You wont find this map in any book. You see that shape their, my assistant place that symbolize symbolize the to clotilda. It went up to the point where they disembarked in the cane field. After that, you know the story takes thelliam foster boat and then he settles there to try to get rid of the evidence. Lets go to the next one. Timothy mayer and William Foster. I have given a lot of thoughts and almost never has someone asked me about Timothy Mayer and William Foster. But i think we will talk a little bit about them because of what they represent. When we look at timothy who ded the tilde exposition expedition, he was one of three with all kinds of businesses here in alabama. To have those businesses run, they used the labor of African People. And so we want to understand what that means and we want to understand why that is problematic. Theres nothing wrong with wealth. Theres nothing wrong with wanting to do well and be successful, but there is a problem when youre wealth and on theccess depends exploitation of the life force of other people. And this was their means and their method to come to their socalled success. What she learned in her with clotilda, as she learned about the universal nature of greed and glory. This is the face of greed and glory. What is problematic, as i said, is when there is no end. When you think that access is and access is what you acquire because of your expectation of other people, then that is a problem. That is the greed aspect of it. The glory aspect of it is that for people like timothy, the idea was that that was his right to do that. Man, itis right as a was his right as a white man. It was his right, as he believed, because as he and 70 others at that point in time and today, he believed it was his right because he believed that white was superior. Supremacy is white part of his whole idea of glory. As a white man, he had the right to build an empire on the backside of black people. This was his glory and this was his right. It is this kind of arrogance this kind of conceit and selfrighteousness that becomes an ideology that allows people to exploit anyone and everyone for their own benefit. Its the problem we have to attend to because it is not all right. About greed and glory is it is not particular to any group of people. The thing about timothy and William Foster was that they could not do what they did that the support and the facilitation of people like the amazonians and army that sat back. So when we look at greed, greed comes in many colors and we have term member that. We get caught up with superficiality about who is supporting us and who is not. Thatve to Pay Attention to , and of course we have to look for that within ourselves. Where is the greed and glory in me . Where am i thriving for something that is not my right. Who my taking advantage of to get to that point . It is just another indication of the arrogance of men. Bet says that i can within in a shipload of africans and force them into servitude and nobody would be hanged for it. This was important. Nobody behind for. Whys that a concern . Well, the u. S. Constitution 1807 that International Trafficking was to be banned. Going to africa and bargaining with people, bring them back and forcing them into servitude was no longer practice the United States would partake in. So, it was a legal. Was 1807. Still, from that point until were others who continue this illegal practice. That ban was put in place, it had not really been. Nforced so in order to enforce it, the constitution was amended several more times. By 1820, in addition to andlties and monetary fines funding expeditions buildings, outfitting for that purpose. In addition to that fine they added the penalty of bit branding you a pirate. This act of piracy, then you were to be hanged. But in over 50 years, only one man was ever hanged for all of the socalled illegal trafficking that was done in america. Then, he said he had not done anything wrong. We hear that a lot. Timothy and foster, they took them to court. Timothys case was dismissed. William fosters case didnt make it, it was thrown out. Arrogant men who believe they are above the law. We see why this is a problem and why we have to look at it because this is not new. We hear it today, but it is not new. The idea that you can do whatever you want to whomever you want. The fact is that they get away with it. [applause] this is part of our American Heritage that we have to do something about. This is not the america we want. This was the kind of constitutional act that bans trafficking. He did not adhere to, did not want to. The thing about it that the enforcement of the law is so peoplelt because so many saw it just like Timothy Mayer. The customs officers, senators and judges saw it just like. There is so much in terms of this ideology. Like, this is what people learn. This is what people heard in church. This is what people heard in their social gatherings and groups. This is what the scientists are saying, that there is a master class, it is white people, and they are superior. Is inferiore according to a hierarchy with africans at the bottom. And so it is their right to exploit, dominate. We see how problematic it is. We see the destruction it has brought. Supremacy iswhite like the bottom line, the foundational problem out of which came the civil war. And that breach is still a breach we have to heal today. The idea of White Supremacy is an idea itself that is inferior. We have to do something about that. William foster the captain was equally arrogant. And conceited very much a white supremacist. He wrote an essay his wife that basically detailed the whole journey, the whole thing from to the westest coast of africa and back. Thisld how they took all money, all of these things. He laid it out in this letter. Why does he write the letter . He had heard that some other had said that someone some other captain had said that someone else had drawn the last cargo to america. So he sent the letter to make sure that people knew he had done it. It was a point of pride, to defy the government. Government. Both of them were pirates. They were criminals. It doesnt look like it in the state of alabama, but they were criminals. It doesnt matter that it got thrown out. Thing about it in 1861, alabama succeeds from the union but this was done in 1860. This was before that. Next one, please . Notion thatf that African People could be used as something called chattel, that is they could use us as though we were cows or horses, what have you. The idea that they could just go and africa and bargain bring us over here to work and worked and produce wealth for them. It resulted in so much suffering. Kossola shared this with hurston. He puts it this way. He tells her in detail. Daybreak if the forks that sleep wake with the noise, im not woke yet. I am still in bed. I hear the gate when they break in. I hear the yellow from soldiers when they chop at the gate. Therefore, i jump out of bed. I see a great many soldiers with guns in the hands at midnight. They run with the big knife and make noise. And saw theirple neck like this with a knife. They twist the heads off and it comes off the neck. Ive seen people get killed so fast. The old ones try to run from the house but they stand by the door and the women soldiers cut their heads to. When i think about those times, i try not to cry anymore. My eyes are not crying but the tears run inside me all the time. I called my mothers name. I dont know where she is. I dont see my family. I begged the men to let me go find the folks. The soldiers told me they had no ears for crying. And so we see the disruption and the chaos in the trauma that people experienced. And when you look at what he experienced, you multiply that over experience over several centuries and you get the sense of the weight of the pain that black people have in their very bones even to this day. Grief, itand this means to be uprooted, to be taken away from everything that you know. He was calling for his mother. I want my mother. See is not what we ,nly did he leave his mother when they put him in the barracoon he lost his motherland. And after six or seven years in. Labama so i like to remind people as they are reading barracoon, thats one of the reasons the book was not published. The publicist said we want your write but we want you to it in language rather than dialect. Now that means a lot of things and we dont have that kind of time, suffice it to say that, when they say we wanted in language, they are talking about what they call standard english. But it is really the language of the establishment. And they dont want to hear it in his language. But it is his story. Why should it be in another language . The thing about it that i like to remind people is this , andage that he wrote in hurston transcribed it the way that he spoke. That sheupposed to do was an ethnographer. Thathnographer snow language is an identifying feature of a person in a group and a people. Language,hange the you change everything. But when clotilda kossola was taken, he was 19 years old. He spoke the form of europe. So the question comes how is winding up in alabama speaking a black vernacular with a alabama at accent. With an alabama accent . They did not speak this in west africa. So this is now the language that he speaks and everything that happens to him is encoded in that language. This is why the publishers did not want to publish that or to be forced to read something that was not what they were used to hearing. They wanted to change it so that they could access it rather than changing themselves to access was talking about. As one of the descendents who spoke earlier today talked about. He looks at barracoon as a wounding, and then he shows us the medicine for that wounding. The wounding is this grief, this pain, this loss. Is everything that she would that that he would never again be able to see or experience. The loneliness. He lost so much when he was uprooted from the continent but also here in alabama. This was the wounding. And as he told to hurston, he is grieving, full of grief still. She had to leave him there and let him walk out and just be with his memories. They were so potent. Like he was looking at the same actions that had occurred when he was on the continent. This deep grief is also part of our heritage. But as walker puts it, along , he also showsng us the medicine. What is the medicine . Next slide. The medicine. It is the fact that we are here. Not every ship across the Middle Passage made it. Everybody aboard those ships made it. Not everybody who experienced enslavement made it out assignment. Not everybody survived. So just surviving is a huge matter. We are here. The fact that we could survive we are strong. Mentally and emotionally, but it does not mean that we dont have things to deal with. And is part of the wounding these are also things we have to look at. Is thatg about kossola when he is upset when he feels hurt and his pain comes up, he lets you know. He cried. We dont do that. We are like, how are you doing . Im fine. Your line. Youre lying. [laughter] we are not taught to deal with the emotion that comes up when we are hurt. That wounding. When he is talking to that person, that is therapy, but some of us are afraid of that there. Because that is part of the medicine. Its when we dont talk, when we dont allow the emotions to move that we begin to have problems. Sometimes, youre sad and you dont even know why. Thats all it is. That is all it is. Feeling some kind of way. We are here, and even though we have survived that physical and all that have had to go through, we are still here. We are able to continue. This is what the people of africa town were able to do, to continue. Now, when we look at the all of these people who survived and actually , we have tois area be touched and inspired because they came in here with nothing, literally. Verse that says naked you come into the world and make it you will go out. That, kossolat literally came here naked. What he had his country people were used to wearing, they took it from them. They brought him here with nothing. How can you come to a place with nothing and build a town. Town . Ld a this is the medicine. Because even though they didnt have anything physical, they came with knowledge of traditional africa, cultural africa. They brought that with them. Me, he talks about what the society did and didnt do with criminals, with people who should or shouldnt do things, he talked about the elders, he talked about the women, and there was social structure. The initiation rites for this and that. They were society just running around like something you see on cartoons. Orderad harmony, they had , they had balance in their society. That was abundant. But it did not and them. So they use that to build on. They drew on the traditional african cultural heritage. You get a sense of that when he is talking about his daughter. He said that is the first time death was on my door. What he is talking about is the fact that death is a part of life. This is a traditional african worldview. Its not like this is something bad or wrong, but a part of life. He says when we laid the foundation for the Baptist Church, cleared the land on the way. This is the circle of life. Your board, you go through your initiation as you grow into adulthood. Andlive to become an elder to be that guidance for your people. When you die, transition into becoming an ancestor. Ancestor, and you then youly guide spiritually guide generations to come. This is then guiding us. Earlier, those ancestors who came earlier, there in with us today with every descendent in here looking at us through those eyes. And this was the power of the ancestors. In america when you are old, go to an old folks home. But they respected age and wisdom. It was an integral part of the life of the people. And someone hurston is talking to him as saying youre telling me this and telling me that, i want to know about you. Says, where is the house where the mouse is the ruler . I have to tell you about my father and my grandfather. And so the circle of life, this worldview, it is part of the medicine. The remembering is part of the medicine. The community and ingenuity. He talks about being open and he. As this pen uses this is part of what he brought. Ver here with him and the most important acts aspect is that of being a human being. Why is that important . , the idea those days was that African People were not quite human. Not only were receiving is not, we were also told that we had no spirit. That god had nothing to do with us. And so what he expresses to us in this narrative is the humanity of African Peoples. That, tole to capture capture his humanity and his identity. His fine essence is in everything that has been created and that does not leave us out. Him is thatn from no matter how brutal he was treated, he still had compassion. Taken fromhat was him, he still had generosity. Pain heatter what the experienced, he was able to love and be kind. He was able to be tender. He says, see that over there . Myrew that, so that when granddaughters, and say they want some sugarcane, i will have it. Children, heo his was kind to his wife. In comparing to those in the community, this was the humanity that he expresses. One other thing, this is in terms of the medicine. In spite of all of the trauma and tragedy, he was still able to laugh. There were stories he would tell to hurston and he would crack himself up laughing. To the point of tears. Its not only that we cry when we are said, but we can also cry tears of joy. That was also part of his life. He was not just somebody that was so radically violated and was neverll he was he just someone taken and forced into servitude but always a complete and whole human being. And so, yes. We are going to run through these and then bring it to a close. Town, people found the town, welcome a Community Called africa town. But it could have been a town, because everything they needed they created themselves. We wanted church, we built ourselves a church. Go they had pride. We will have our own and we created our own. They were selfgoverning. They knew how they wanted to live with one another, help one another and support one another. That is community. We have what they founded, they have what they built. Next one. My sister took that picture. I ha before, so i told her to take a picture of that. And then Union Baptist church, susan the place of the old. Andmark Baptist Church that is the bus in front of the it was across the street. You can see that whole circle we were talking about. Says that when we cleared the church, cleared the land for the cemetery. They did not put a six lane highway through and divided both of them. Had to go through so much to get to the other side. Why would they do that in our community . It was like, the last them to the. Ask them to do that. That is still a problem now. There is just so much we have to work for towards in terms of evolving our consciousness, but events like this help us do that. And its what we have to do, because so much of what we do we do unconsciously. It means basically that we keep repeating the past. And if we want a different future, we have to bring conscious awareness to what we do. These are just some of the things going on today that signify that we are moving into a different kind of consciousness. This is a door of no return. And apparently, we do return. Benin have been here to apologize. Their consciousness has been raised by these issues. They know that we have to be responsible and acknowledge what we have done. Its not to attack or and this is how we help to heal these wounds. Here andrs can come perform rituals to appease the spirits of their ancestors. And people in alabama can do the same thing. And this is a bird that is basically a simple of looking back to get what you missed, or what you take or what you have taken, or what you overlooked, it is looking back to retrieve what you have lost so you get the wisdom of it into your present environment. Is turned backwards and the feet are headed forward. See you get back you go back to get what you need to move forward. This brings us to a close. We still have to learn in this country that all of us here are human beings. Set,s Martin Luther king injustice anywhere is a threat and allce everywhere, those treating anyone inhumanely anywhere is a threat to our humanity everywhere. We have to be mindful of that, as we go forward. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] dr. Plant, thank you, thank you, thank you. [indiscernible] going through it and putting it all together, did you envision what the nation would be going through right now . Dr. Plant no. [laughter] no thought about the impact. I was continuously surprised, and i continue to be surprised. His story iook at and its not like you know theoretically what day a word means,what but that is an abstract. That is academic. And that is very important. Barracoon was her first book. [indiscernible] the is her first work, first work of someone who has school. Quite finished so that will let you know what you can do. She had not finished Barnard College. To her genius as a she was aentist, genius social scientist. I am a descendent of cudjo to let lewis, and want you know how proud i am that you brought truth and authenticity to his life. [indiscernible] importanto know how it was to remain authentic to his truth, for you . Dr. Plant it was very important that i would do that. , before they began godst work i asked for guidance and didnt relation. Ith this i am a black native speaker. That is my native tongue. So i understood that dialect. It wasnt that far for me. And i was glad i was one of the people considered to edit it, because it was important to keep it intact, not just because of the mother tongue. I have researched and taught courses on black dialect, so i know the importance of it. I know what that language means. It was important, i think it was really good i have the background i have in terms of my research with black english, or what people call ebonics, black vernacular, whatever descriptions you want to use. Editing the manuscript, there were several versions. Version thatyped was typed up from longhand, and per process was usually to write out her manuscript tinman manuscripts and longhand, and then she would type. And then she would revise by typing again. And in those different drafts , different drafts, words could get misspelled or left out at those kinds of things. So to know the rhythm of the ideasge and to know her transcriptions of speech, because i studied what she studied. Enter idea about how to spoken words, this is part of her learning as an anthropologist. Process, i know her approach when she took that narrative down, so i can stay but to not only kossola, a, byranscription of kossol knowing the transcription process. And that was very important to me, because this was his words. He said, i want you to tell everyone what i say. And i thought that was my job. What relationship was [indiscernible] well, they were friends until they werent. [laughter] [indiscernible] written to Langston Hughes that she had found a man called cudjo. [indiscernible] so what was the relationship with langston . Mostlynt there were just friends, and langston for the most part saw him as a younger brother. [indiscernible] sometimes, hurston would take him on her folklore collecting expeditions, so she saw him as a colleague, a younger brother, and to someone who was standing up for the folks. Langston hughes wrote in dialect as well, and part of his work capture the folk spirit, the folk eat those in the work in the work they produced. A placewere working at where things would arise, and there was a lot of confusion, but the long and short of that hethat hurston felt like trade her in working with someone else and giving her credit. They had a fallout, they tried to repair the relationship, but it didnt quite get back together the way it was. That describes their relationship. Thank you. [indiscernible] to africatown. Name is andy the hill, hill, and i wonder if you have found any of the families of the founders of andca town africantown, whether you are getting stories of their loved ones or the capture of their loved ones. Dr. Plant that is a good question. I would do for question to my associate. She actually went there, she is one of the scholars who detail,y, detail by town by town, went to africa to track down these stories. She knows that part of this story. You want to answer that . But iveent been, been trying to get my tickets. [laughter] theve got to go where people are that you have been writing about. Thank you, dr. Plant. [laughter] one of the important aspects , families andture communities, is that they tend to stay intact over many generations. So you do have individuals who associated some of ,he descendents on this side although we dont know who all those associations are. , you could of cudjo find people in the southwestern region of nigeria that know life in that part of nigeria. Nigeria is huge. People inmillions of nigeria, and there is a lot of Cultural Diversity in nigeria. My researchto that, documents some of that history inway of the individuals that family. He was captured on a royal farm and that royal farm still exists , that region of nigeria still part of what keeps are thetory alive historians connected to the royal town. So while it is not always individuals who you doectly descended, have individuals that know the history of a particular community, of a particular way of local historians in various african communities. Some of my research captured their voices. Ofalso capture the voices some of the royal individuals of the area, and it captures voices of the descendents of the cudjotraders, who sold and his shipmates into slavery. Of claude tilde loti the case a and africantown is very rare, because we have the opportunity to trace the descendents on that side of the atlantic thank you for the question. [indiscernible] were one of the founders that kept our last name. Would need to be easy that would it be easy to track that name in africa . Name,n i first heard the i suspected he came from an area called kepi hills, in the northern region, north of the capturedhich cudjo was. And reports say the clotilda cargo was a very diverse cargo, and you had slave raids being conducted all over the region. Even though i was not able to establish with specificity that he indeed came from the kepi hills region, what my research does show it that many of the names of the clotilda africans were not personal ones, especially the africans that came from central nigeria. Those names were not personal ones, they were from places from which they hailed. In although kepi is not nigeria, i was caught by the connection between that name at hillsricans in the kepi of west africa. [applause] plant anotherdr. Round of applause for a wonderful reputation for a wonderful presentation. We are blessed to have her in our community to enlighten us. 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