The African Burial Ground and Its People (Gladys Creppy- Hetherington)

Professor Mack’s lecture made me very sad and also angry. The African Burial Ground story reminds me that there is still injustice and racism in the United States. Our ancestors struggled during slavery days and the last thing they deserved was to have a building built on top of their resting place.

I have not kept up with the news so this is the first time I ever heard about the African Burial Ground. The lecture really informed about the events that had taken place. I was born in Africa where the people there had never experienced slavery. Everyone was pure African so I never knew slavery existed until I moved to the states. Though my family had no personal experience with slavery, I was still affected by Professor Mack’s lecture because I was imagining what all the family members of the buried had to go through. If anything, I know many wanted justice for their ancestors which many did not get.

One thing I did find interesting was how they were able to learn or interpret so much from just analyzing the remains. For example, in the lecture, it was mentioned that the remains that had filed teeth were originally from Africa. I didn’t even know that they filed teeth in Africa and I was born there. I definitely see why Anthropology has been such a huge apart of African American history. It helps us id and learn more about the lives of the loved ones we never had a chance to meet.

Over the lecture was very informational and really got me thinking about how fair the United States really is. All this talk about freedom and equality goes flushing down the toilet every time an event as discriminatory as the African Burial Ground takes place.

As for the “Ancestral Rites of Return” video, it really brought up my spirit. To see how much love and care was put into reburying our ancestors made very proud. I especially loved the personalized crisps and how everyone came together to throw such a monumental home going for the people who truly put America on top.

I especially appreciated the fact that each family member was able to perform their own celebrations for their ancestors. I believe that was a good way for them to have personally acknowledged and said goodbye to their family members.

I am truly appreciative to Howard for participating in this event. I believe that Howard wanted to learn more about the people buried and what their lives may have been like as slave. I also believe that Howard wanted to bring together the many families who had family members buried and didn’t even now it. Howard truly played a role in bringing closure to many of those families and introducing them to the people they probably would have never known about.

As I think about visiting the Burial Ground, I feel that I will probably be very sad due to the hardships the people had to go through and also hatred toward the people that caused those hardships. I will definitely be an eye opener to me because I have read and learned about slavery but have never had such a close encounter to it.

I learned a lot this week from many different sources such as the website provided to us. The vocabulary words had so much meaning behind them and some I had never even heard before such as Nisibidi which was the ancient writing system for Africans and means love and unity.