“We survived it…We resisted together and we struggled together…and that has made us, all, of us, much more serious about who we are and about our love for each other”

-Assata Shakur

This past April, my siblings and I traveled to Cape Coast and paid homage to our ancestors. My sister snapped this picture at the Cape Coast Slave Dungeons as we discussed neocolonialism, the diaspora and the effects of slavery on the descendants of Africa.

I thought of Harriet,

I remembered Nat,

I greeted Toussaint,

So many more…

Their strength carries all of us. Maya Angelou said ‘I am the dreams and the hopes of the slave’. This truth echoed in my mind throughout the journey.

By the end of the conversation, we didn’t agree on everything, but we did commit to working towards building strong foundations for future generations as our ancestors did for us.