Listening to the Ancestors
Here in Plateau, Alabama,
the group stops at the entrance
of the Africatown Cemetery
and one elder Black woman
shakes her head.
She speaks solemnly:
“Something is not right;
the ancestors are not happy.”
She tells us:
The ancestors are speaking;
they say: “We are calling you.
Listen.”
When elder Black women gather,
magic happens.
They/We
become
a spontaneous combustion
of spirits & wisdom.
Knowledge that only can come from living a long life.
When elder Black women gather,
we ignite each other.
We stand together in unity
of a vision — like the “Redemption Voyage” —
We are a collective of souls and spirit.
When elder Black women gather,
we inspire change,
transform ourselves and others,
reconnect to heal
us & our environment.
What has brought these Black
women here;
who or what has called forth
these global walkers
to this space/place called Africatown?
Redemption Voyage.
STOP.
The ancestors are speaking;
they say:
“We are calling you.
Listen.”
They know this Redemption Voyage
will be a journey like no other.
she shakes off help
moves away
from
supporting arms and hands
that reach out to steady her.
What truths can elder Black women spin
amidst the harsh sounds
of big wheel trucks pounding
a concrete bridge & the clanking of speeding cars?
We must heal…
ourselves…
each other…
the earth…
the ocean…
Redemption Voyage will set sail
from Africatown| Mobile | Alabama —
the site of the last known slavery atrocity.
One elder Black woman
twitches from convulsions;
What truths can elder Black women reveal
as they bow in homage to the ancestors,
touch the hallowed ground of the Africatown cemetery,
call forth blessings in long
forgotten (and newly-learned) tongues
of Yoruba, Swahili, Benin (amidst
the adopted words of Christianity):
Asé & Amen?
The ancestors are speaking;
they say: “We are calling you.
Listen.”
One elder Black woman coughs,
chokes, & clears the phlegm, sediment & pollution
of oppression from the memories of an enslaved past
caught in her throat and infecting the body.
She spits out toxins,
amidst the pouring of libations —
purified water to cleanse,
to offer.
The ancestor spirits
are touching us all.
Tears flow,
more cries emerge
from other elder Black women in the group.
The drummer begins.
He calls forth
the ancestral spirits
that inhabit Africatown.
She chants,
speaking
in forgotten languages
that the ancestors once spoke.
Then reminds us
in the language
these ancestors were forced
to adopt — English:
Hear them calling to us?
We are you.
You are Us.
Pause.
Now.
Listen to our ancestors
emanating from the graves.
their whispers woven
into cemetery silences.
Listen to them speak
of the ship that brought them
from Benin to Mobile.
In the quiet of a graveyard,
sounds of the Africatown past
intertwine with the present,
like the moss entangling itself
on the branches & trunks
of Bama oak trees.
Listen.
None of us will profit
if all you seek is for “I.”
Join together.
Collaborate.
Share.
It is the “We” that must be prioritized.
Some elder Black women
fall
to their knees,
others bend
touching
two hands to the ground.
The drumming continues.
“We are calling you.
Listen.”
There is a symbiosis happening.
This Redemption Voyage
will prove the truth
of the Ancestors’ stories.
We are you.
You are Us.
Learn from our journey of pain.
They caution us —
so many, too many fragments;
all with good intentions The Alabama wind gathers up
the dust
of forgetfulness
and scatters it.
In this moment,
Rememory,
long buried,
explodes.
Redemption Voyage
will heal America.
Africatown/April 14, 2023
©2023 Irma McClaurin
Irma McClaurin (https://linktr.ee/dr.irma) is an activist anthropologist, the Culture and Education Editor for Insight News, a columnist, and occasional radio and television commentator and recently appeared in the PBS American Experience documentary “Zora Neale Hurston: Her Own Way.” She is the CEO and senior consultant for Irma McClaurin Solutions, a past president of Shaw University, and former Associate VP at the University of Minnesota and founding ED of UROC. Recognition includes 2023 Honorary Degree from Grinnell College, 2021 American Anthropological Association’s Engaged Anthropology Award, 2015 “Best in the Nation Columnist” by the Black Press of America, and 2002 “Outstanding Academic Title” for Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis and Poetics. McClaurin is a digital author on Medium and for Ms. Magazine. Her collection, JustSpeak: Reflections on Race, Culture & Politics in America, is forthcoming in 2023, and she is working on a book length manuscript entitled “Lifting Zora Neale Hurston from the Shadows of Anthropology.”
