The Motherland

The “Motherland”
As my time to depart for Ghana draws near I have spoken with many people in my life who have asked me how I feel about my pending departure. Am I excited? Will I miss the people I love the most? Of course I am excited and of course my feelings are mixed. I am so excited to begin my experience, yet I am also sad to say goodbye or "see ya soon" ;).

Many people have spoken to me about going to the “Motherland”. Throughout my life I have heard Africa referred to as the “Motherland”. I have probably used the term my self. But in truth it hasn’t really made an impact on me until my own trip to Ghana became a reality.

As I think about this term, I have wondered more about what it really means. Is “Motherland” just a term some people use or is there more behind it other than the obvious? When I say the obvious I am speaking about the thought of all humanity being birthed from the African continent and therefore making an African woman the mother of us all and creating the term “Motherland”.

I began to think of this more over the last week at two specific points. First I was watching the Travel Channel show “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain. It just so happened in this particular episode the show was in Ghana. It was an amazing episode where the host had the opportunity to see many parts of the country and eat different types of Ghanaian food. One particular segment was interesting to me in relation to my thought about going to the “Motherland”.

The Minister of Tourism of Ghana was speaking to Anthony Bourdain about Ghana’s connection with North America and specifically Black Americans. I am paraphrasing here. He said Ghana lost a large number of people to North America as a result of the slave trade. These were people who were very important to the Ghanaian economy. Many many people who were lost over years of slave trade originating in Ghana.

The minister of tourism expressed the desire of the Ghanaian government to establish connections with Black Americans who are potentially descendants of Ghanaian people taken during the slave trade. Encouraging people of African descent from North America to visit Ghana and create more economic and cultural connections.

As I still considered this idea of going to the “Motherland” I began to fill out the application for my Ghanaian Visa. I had to do this online with the Ghana Consulate General in New Your City. Filling out the application turned into a bit of an ordeal because it confused me at some moments, but that is for another blog.

There was a specific section of the application where I was first asked for my country of origin. Then I was asked for my ethnicity. This is a normal section in most applications we have to fill out but what caught my eye were the choices under ethnicity. These were the available choices:

Ghanaian Born US Citizen
Ghanaian Born Canadian Citizen
Ghanaian Born EU Citizen
An African from West Africa
An African from East Africa
An African from South Africa
An African from North Africa
American born of Ghanaian parent(s)
Canadian born of Ghanaian parent(s)
European born of Ghanaian parent(s)
American born of African ancestry
European born of African ancestry
Canadian born of African ancestry
Carribean born of African ancestry
Jamaican born of African ancestry
Other


What is interesting is all of the choices are either for people of African birth or African Ancestry. If you are of Asian or European Ancestry you would have to choose other and then describe your ancestry further in another box.


It was the first time I had seen an ethnicity section of an application catering to people with an African Ancestry, and it made me further consider this notion of “Motherland” that people have. So I next sent a text to a bunch of friends asking them what the term “Motherland” means to them in relation to Africa.

Many of the answers people gave were about where life began, where humans came from, or where “we” came from. But if Africa is where ALL humans came from, which is spoken about often in science, isn’t it the Motherland for us all? Shouldn’t all humans have this sense of connection with the continent?

I actually don't know what the answer is. I do know I am excited about my adventure and I am open to what ever may happen along the way. I am not put beginning this journey with a lot of expectations. I just want to gain whatever the universe has in store for me. It is going to be an amazing time.

-Austin