The Soultown! Volume III: Issue 11 NOVEMBER 2019 | Page 31

THE SANKOFA VOW THE SOULTOWN, USA - The story of Harriet Tubman was never told at great length in any of my history classes. When I was 12, my family relocated to central Iowa. I attended public school and was one of very few African Americans at the junior high school. I do not have a memory of Harriet Tubman being taught there. My 12th-grade year was completed at yet another public high school back in Chicago. We returned to Chicago for my mother to care for her ailing father. During my senior year, I took a Contemporary American History class to satisfy the requirement for graduation - no Harriet there either. My brief knowledge about Harriet Tubman came from fragmented conversations at home, television documentaries and/or books and poems I’ve read. She is one of the most heroic ancestors in African American culture, I mean ‘she freed the slaves’, right? I remember thinking, “Wow ... Did she free ALL of the slaves? If so, how cool.” Once she appeared in my dream. She was there to help me transition from a time in my life where I felt shackled in my professional abilities. In my dream, she was standing in the middle of the road --- in the light -- guiding me to another path on my journey. In reality, I was weighing options that would alter my career path and I was exploring the cost-benefit analysis of the dilemma of my decision. Seeing her in my dream and hearing her voice helped me to make a decision. In the dream, when she reached her hand out to me, I was led out of darkness into the promised land ... metaphorically. I planned a night at the movies to be educated and introduced to the courageous Harriet. I was hoping to connect some dots. However, I left the movie feeling very unsatisfied. I have more questions than I had before the movie started. With Kasi Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard as the director and writer of the screenplay; I had high expectations. At the very least, I expected the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to be told. Guess I had forgotten historically Hollywood’s reputation of altering and/or embellishing the truth to relieve the feeling of guilt left by the oppressors -- when Black historical films are created. Truth or Hollywood? Did Black bounty hunters -- like the one who played the role of the primary antagonist -- in the 1800s exist? Did Harriet’s slave owner save her life from the Black Bounty hunter? Was the scene where the Black bounty hunter brutally killed Maria (The African American woman who was born free who housed the escaped slaves) an embellishment? If yes, have these records been authenticated? What is true … is Harriet Tubman was a slave- Courtesy Photo turned-abolitionist. What is true is that slave records -- that logged names, numbers of siblings, history of the dates when slaves were sold, to whom they were sold to, scars, birth dates -- DID exist. These records are the only connection that we have to our ancestors and to the Motherland. The failure to disclose this information earlier is the broken vein in our Black History. To applaud this film is applauding Hollywood’s continued efforts to feed the Black culture our history teaspoons at a time, instead of by the cup, quart or gallon. Hollywood disappointed me, so did Lemmons and Howard. They directed and wrote the story of Hollywood’s Harriet, NOT our Harriet Tubman. No truth here, just Hollywood. The Sankofa Vow is The Soultown’s promise to our ancestors; to return to the Motherland and retrieve what has been stolen from our ancestry via the trans- Atlantic slave trade. Our forefathers intended to leave seeds for us to return to gather, plant, cultivate and grow. These seeds can be reclaimed and retained by reading, watching, and discussing with our elders and also by traveling to our n a t i v e continent of Africa, the Motherland. I am Chillin’, Innovative Extraordinaire for The Soultown International Magazine. I’d like to thank the real Harriet Tubman for freeing slaves and for having SOUL! , Learn more about the Sankofa Vow at http://www.thesoultown.com/sankofa-vow.html Email me: [email protected] Nov. 2019 • The Soultown International Magazine • Celebrating 2 years • Connecting Our Cultures to Our Cyber & Conscious Communities • thesoultown.com 31