Black Americans undergo cleansing from 'slavery stigma' in Africa
theGRIO REPORT - For these 10 African-Americans, the journey to the West African country of Nigeria was nothing less than a spiritual, cultural pilgrimage...
Erasing the stigma of slavery
Researcher Dr. Sidney Davis explains the perception of shame this way: “By virtue of being descendants of slaves, by virtue of being descendants of captive Africans, we have a stigma.”
Davis, the director of the NAGAS International Consortium in Boston, believes that a feeling of stigma makes it difficult for African-Americans to come to terms with their African heritage.
For him, coming face to face with that heritage was crucial for the exploration of his own identity. He began to search his family’s history and underwent a DNA test. He got his first results back about eight years ago and learned that his mitochondrial (which is inherited matrilineally) DNA shares genetic traits with the Igbo people of southwestern Nigeria.
With that genealogical information, he was determined to understand more about the Igbo people and collaborated with Acholonu to develop the Ebo Landing Project.
“This makes this all the more special to me, ” he says. King Eri gave Davis the name Prince Eluemuno Eri.
Inspiration of Ebo Landing Project
The Ebo Landing Project gets its name from Ebo Landing, a historic site in Dunbar Creek along the marshes of Georgia’s St. Simons Island. As the story goes, in 1803 a group of recently- captured Igbo aboard The Schooner York had opted to die rather than submit to a life of slavery in a foreign land. They revolted and walked, together, into Dunbar Creek, where they drowned in a mass suicide. The oral story follows that ever since, the place became known as Ebo (a predecessor of the modern spelling of Igbo) Landing.
Some say as the Igbo walked into the water, they repeated a chant saying, “Orimiri Omambala bu anyia bia. Orimiri Omambala ka anyi ga ejina,” which translates as “The water spirit Omambala brought us here. The water spirit Omambala will carry us home.”
The Omambala River mentioned in the chant refers to a river in southeastern Nigeria known today as the Anambra River. It is in the Anambra River that King Eri performed the ritual ceremony. In that river, the 10 African-Americans were dipped as part of the cleansing.
“It can be a cathartic experience, intellectually and spiritually,” Davis says.
The Ebo Landing story, has been passed down through the generations, with several variations, preserved by the local inhabitants, the Gullah/Geechee people. It’s become part of the African-American folklore tradition, referenced in pop culture, including in the popular children’s story The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton and the highly acclaimed 1991 independent movie Daughters of the Dust.
Haunted by slavery…literally
Residents of the island say the Ebo Landing is haunted by the souls of the perished slaves. Local residents and fishermen tend to avoid the area all together and the some of the ones who do go claim strange incidents.
“All the bait would leave the basket or men would be out there fishing and the boat would start spinning around in the water and they lose control,” says Amy Roberts, a Geechee and a lifelong resident of St. Simons. Roberts is the director of the St. Simons African-American Heritage Coalition and has heard the Ebo Landing tale all her life. She says residents “hear chains at night” in the direction of Dunbar Creek.
Part of the purpose of The Ebo Landing Project was not only to connect participants to Africa, but also to put the souls of those who drowned in Dunbar Creek to rest by bringing African-Americans to the Omambala River (Anambra River) for a baptism.
Some of the 10 participants plan to return to Nigeria for the 2013 Ebo Landing Project, scheduled for December, and many of them, like Pamela Ramsay, a message therapist in New Hampshire, hope to bring along friends and family. For Ramsay, going to Africa gave a new meaning to her identity.
“I’m a black woman in America, but I am an African-American,” she says. “I can say that now without any hesitation because I’ve been there and I’ve seen it.”
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