2007-12-04T18:37:00.000-08:00

A Journey Through Afrika Part II

Egypt/Ghana 2007 begins

Let's do this! The anticipation of returning to Ghana and visiting

Egypt for the first time was building right about here. Motherland,

here we come!

Bronze statues of horn blowers stand guard in front of Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra.

Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana and a leading Pan-Africanist.

At the W.E.B. DuBois Memorial Centre for Pan-African

Culture in Ghana. DuBois was an African American civil rights activist,

leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor,

poet and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963

at the age of 95.

Travelers born on Friday take their turn in the African naming

ceremony outside our hotel overlooking the beach in Accra.

Say hotep to Jacque Kofi. Females born on Friday are Afia.

My return visit to Kokrobite Beach was a sweet one. I had to get my feet wet again.

And I just had to return to Calabash Restaurant and say hello to the family I met the year before. It was cool

seeing them again.

As I walked back up the road from Calabash, I looked to the left

and saw this perfect scene unfolding. To me, it spoke of the ancient

Afrikan spirituality that has keyed our survival from the beginning.

My brother Ishmael and yours truly enjoying the music and scenery at the Fihankra land site.

Two of the nice homes built on Fihankra land that is available free

to any descendant of enslaved Afrikans. Go to 2020group.net

This is the scene to the right as you enter the Elmina Slave Castle.

This building inside was a church, believe it or not. This was just

one of several examples of how the human rights criminals kept

their perverted sense of religion close while murder, rape and

torture took place nearby.

Above, Ish and another traveler, Brian, take a

look outside a window at the Elmina Slave Dungeon. Below is

another view from the "Castle.''

Lots of people outside and inside the huge and amazing Cairo Museum, but way too little time to see

everything in it. So much sticks with me though. One, the Afrikan features of the statues, mummies,

hair pieces and army figures is clear. Nubians, Kushites, Egyptians = Afrikans. Two, the huge statues

of Akhenaton, or Amenhotep IV, the king, were in an big area by themselves. And three, there's a

larger-than-life, black granite-like statue of a king that historian Runoko Rashidi showed us had been

moved from the main drag of the museum to a less visible, side location. I cannot remember his name.

But the strong, majestic face and posture was magnificent and, to me, brought a sense of another level

of spirituality that must have existed at that time to build those civilizations, pyramids and obelisks.

Yeah, the Pyramids of Giza are awesome. Period. Each block is huge and ancient. One pyramid we saw retains some of the smoothly layered surface on the cap that I've read all of them once had from top to bottom. At bottom, me and Bro. Ishmael posin' til closin at a pyramid. We even went inside one, a long, narrow passageway to an empty tomb chamber.We had to crouch-walk our way into and out of. Never thought I could be claustrophobic until then. Ha! In all, it was great. Wish we had a lot more time at each pyramid to climb, ponder and take in.

Jacque Kofi photos

back home

Journey Through Afrika II - Egypt-Ghana 2007