After months of planning, the D-Day is finally here. I left Lome-Togo early to cross the border into Benin Republic to pick Gina. It was about 3hrs drive from Lome to Cotonou. Members of my team were already at the Cotonou Airport to recieve cousin Gina.
It was divine and predestinated to meet Gina Corneille, a conscious sister whose objective and fulfilment in life is to one day finally repatriate to continental Africa. She reminds me of Erika Badu. Her consciousness is an aroma. You can smell it, feel it, see it because it's signage is written all over her.
It was a long flight from Bangladesh where she works as a high school English teacher in the American International school. According to her, the flight was long and tiring as she had to board three aeroplanes before she finally arrived at the Beninoise Cotonou Airport.
I arrived at the airport at around 11.20 a.m and Gina's flight was scheduled to arrive by 12.30 p.m. A heroes welcome was planned for her. As she eventually arrived, she smiled at everyone and the joy she felt was unhidden but she looked so exhausted as a result of the long flight that took about two days but the excitement in her eyes could be described as that of a child who has been long separated from her parents.
During the planning stage, she specifically mentioned that her choice of accommodation was a homestead and more worthy is the hope to live with a family.
Her trip to Africa was not for sightseeing, it was a reunion between an enstraged child and her home because her ancestors were forcefully enslaved and taken away from their ancestral town or village hundreds of years ago to an unknown destination during the nefarious enslaved trade era called the triangular trade and today she finally returns to breathe the fresh air of home and meet other family that she had been deprived of.
Some of her friends had visited Ghana but the ancestors wanted her to proceed in the direction of Benin Republic, Togo and Nigeria. At a time, she was in between two choices of where to settle in Africa, either to go to the east or proceed to the west. She visited the great Ethiopia and Senegal, but for her, the energy for Benin Republic, Togo and Nigeria was strong but Benin Republic was stronger. She is a descendant of Toussaint L'Ouveture, yes! the Haitian general.
Although she was born in the United State of America, yet her Haitian root was always up in her face. The first languages she spoke were French and Creole. And when she started school, it became an issue as her class mates wondered where she came from and called her Frenchy. It got into her because she was mocked and she stopped speaking French for a while but she could not stop speaking Creole with her grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins.
She said that "French is the enslavers language and that was one of the reasons why the ancestors created Creole which is the combination of many African languages like Yoruba, Fon, etc. mixed with French.
She used to be very light skinned when she was younger but She would sit under the Sun to get her skin darkened and her mother a times would wonder what's wrong with her as She calls herself the "daughter of the sun".
Her family means so much to her and it was a priviledge for her to have learnt so much from them about Haiti and today she realizes that the knowledge and tutorials were preparing her for a future advent to the motherland "Africa". As a child She would read any book on Africa. And today she buys children books that have black or brown children illustrated on it and donates them to Black children in the South of U.S.A. She want children of African descent to see themselves in books and be proud of who they are. She came with many of such books which she donated to schools in Benin and Togo.
She said "There are so many similarities between how I was raised by my family and how children were raised in West Africa. I am very close to my parents, aunts, uncles and especially my grandmother. I relayed my childhood experiences to my daughter. She seems to learn faster and better than me. It brings joy to my heart. It is true that we are a mirror to our children".
According to Gina, "We were taught to respect everyone who is older than us. I listened to old stories from my grand mother and my parents. I also learnt a lot from my aunties and uncles. It is a great family that kept the Haitian heritage in the U.S.A. This was my foundation and it made a great impression of Africa on me. Despite the ignorance and discouragement that was flying around, my dream was to go to Africa and finally settle there. Here i am."
The energy in Gina is unwavering. It is true that only iron can sharpen iron because the connection between everyone of us, and places visited is unusual. This is not a tourist trip, it is the journey of a child who returns home.
Everywhere I took her to was a dejavu for me. It was real. My eyelids were often swollen with tears. The journey was meant to be because it had taken place in the subconscious, it is for us to accept the energy in the conscious realm. Gina confessed of goosebumps all over her arms as people she have never met will hug her and say to her "bon arrive à la maison" ("welcome home").I am glad to be her tour organizer, historian and tour guide.
Travelling around the different communities had an impression on her. She has felt the pulse of the people, knows their strength as well as where the shoe hurts. Gina met different people and understood the position of culture, played with school children, learnt history, visited homes, sites, and attractions, ate with the people, had discussions, visited schools and she said "I want to contribute to the development of my people. I know who we are. I know what we need". This is the story of an American Haitian who returned home.
Anago James Akeem Osho
Tokoin hopital, Lome, Togo
anago.tourism@gmail.com
It was divine and predestinated to meet Gina Corneille, a conscious sister whose objective and fulfilment in life is to one day finally repatriate to continental Africa. She reminds me of Erika Badu. Her consciousness is an aroma. You can smell it, feel it, see it because it's signage is written all over her.
It was a long flight from Bangladesh where she works as a high school English teacher in the American International school. According to her, the flight was long and tiring as she had to board three aeroplanes before she finally arrived at the Beninoise Cotonou Airport.
I arrived at the airport at around 11.20 a.m and Gina's flight was scheduled to arrive by 12.30 p.m. A heroes welcome was planned for her. As she eventually arrived, she smiled at everyone and the joy she felt was unhidden but she looked so exhausted as a result of the long flight that took about two days but the excitement in her eyes could be described as that of a child who has been long separated from her parents.
During the planning stage, she specifically mentioned that her choice of accommodation was a homestead and more worthy is the hope to live with a family.
Her trip to Africa was not for sightseeing, it was a reunion between an enstraged child and her home because her ancestors were forcefully enslaved and taken away from their ancestral town or village hundreds of years ago to an unknown destination during the nefarious enslaved trade era called the triangular trade and today she finally returns to breathe the fresh air of home and meet other family that she had been deprived of.
Some of her friends had visited Ghana but the ancestors wanted her to proceed in the direction of Benin Republic, Togo and Nigeria. At a time, she was in between two choices of where to settle in Africa, either to go to the east or proceed to the west. She visited the great Ethiopia and Senegal, but for her, the energy for Benin Republic, Togo and Nigeria was strong but Benin Republic was stronger. She is a descendant of Toussaint L'Ouveture, yes! the Haitian general.
Although she was born in the United State of America, yet her Haitian root was always up in her face. The first languages she spoke were French and Creole. And when she started school, it became an issue as her class mates wondered where she came from and called her Frenchy. It got into her because she was mocked and she stopped speaking French for a while but she could not stop speaking Creole with her grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins.
She said that "French is the enslavers language and that was one of the reasons why the ancestors created Creole which is the combination of many African languages like Yoruba, Fon, etc. mixed with French.
She used to be very light skinned when she was younger but She would sit under the Sun to get her skin darkened and her mother a times would wonder what's wrong with her as She calls herself the "daughter of the sun".
Her family means so much to her and it was a priviledge for her to have learnt so much from them about Haiti and today she realizes that the knowledge and tutorials were preparing her for a future advent to the motherland "Africa". As a child She would read any book on Africa. And today she buys children books that have black or brown children illustrated on it and donates them to Black children in the South of U.S.A. She want children of African descent to see themselves in books and be proud of who they are. She came with many of such books which she donated to schools in Benin and Togo.
She said "There are so many similarities between how I was raised by my family and how children were raised in West Africa. I am very close to my parents, aunts, uncles and especially my grandmother. I relayed my childhood experiences to my daughter. She seems to learn faster and better than me. It brings joy to my heart. It is true that we are a mirror to our children".
According to Gina, "We were taught to respect everyone who is older than us. I listened to old stories from my grand mother and my parents. I also learnt a lot from my aunties and uncles. It is a great family that kept the Haitian heritage in the U.S.A. This was my foundation and it made a great impression of Africa on me. Despite the ignorance and discouragement that was flying around, my dream was to go to Africa and finally settle there. Here i am."
The energy in Gina is unwavering. It is true that only iron can sharpen iron because the connection between everyone of us, and places visited is unusual. This is not a tourist trip, it is the journey of a child who returns home.
Everywhere I took her to was a dejavu for me. It was real. My eyelids were often swollen with tears. The journey was meant to be because it had taken place in the subconscious, it is for us to accept the energy in the conscious realm. Gina confessed of goosebumps all over her arms as people she have never met will hug her and say to her "bon arrive à la maison" ("welcome home").I am glad to be her tour organizer, historian and tour guide.
Travelling around the different communities had an impression on her. She has felt the pulse of the people, knows their strength as well as where the shoe hurts. Gina met different people and understood the position of culture, played with school children, learnt history, visited homes, sites, and attractions, ate with the people, had discussions, visited schools and she said "I want to contribute to the development of my people. I know who we are. I know what we need". This is the story of an American Haitian who returned home.
Anago James Akeem Osho
Tokoin hopital, Lome, Togo
anago.tourism@gmail.com
