LUTON SANKOFA UK
We are a non-profit, African-Caribbean group in Luton, formed in 2016 to organise the annual commemoration of those who endured the Transatlantic African Enslavement which coincides with the United Nations (UN) date of 25th March, to 'Remember Slavery' and 'Honour our Ancestors'.
2022 saw Luton Sankofa UK return to the Luton Council Chambers with the local community, for our 6th Annual Civic Commemoration with the theme "What's In a Name?". Mr Martin Hanson, a fellow Lutonion of Osagyefo Theatre company drummed our march into the Council Chambers and also performed the libation ritual at the opening and close of our events.
In attendance was the Deputy Mayor of Luton amongst other local dignitaries. It was a long awaited reunion with the community after the Covid19 restrictions of the previous year.
It was a successful event with Keynote Speaker Paul Crooks of Ancestry Talks, returning to us again to enlighten us on the significance of the names of our ancestors and how they have survived through the centuries to the present day.
We aired a special video interview held in Ghana by the Vice Chair of Luton Sankofa UK, Diana Marquis-Solomon with Mr Samuel Lokko who is the Founder and Artistic Director of Gye Nyame African Cultural Troupe-Ghana and Founder and Executive Director of Strategic Change for Africa Foundation (NGO). The topic was regarding the traditional Naming ceremonies in Ghana and the deep meanings and influence African names have on individual lives and why they are so important from a historical and cultural perspective. We also explored how the traditions have also changed over the years due to Christian influences.
SDA Cantaré Choir graced us once again with their delectable voices and Osagyefo Drummers and Dancer performed in traditional Ghanaian style, thrilling the audience and giving us a glimpse of African traditional ceremonial entertainment.
Local children read excerpts from the lives of former captured Africans who were enslaved during the Maafa. In reading out their names and ages and informing where they were taken from and brought to within
the Caribbean, made them more than a statistic but very much humanised them, thus culminating in a fittingly honourable remembrance. "By saying my name you keep my memory alive" was the poignant quote that moved the audience.
Our wreath in honour of our ancestors was fittingly laid by Mr Paul Crooks who has worked for many years in discovering our African Ancestry. Pastor Cox from New Testamet Church of God lead the closing prayer.
All who attended were able to network with local African and Caribbean stall holders and were able to purchase books and crafts as well as network with local businesses. All were treated to a meal provided by local Caribbean caterer Panzy who always provides a sumptuous Caribbean menu for all our attendees.
The wonderful thing about our event is that it leaves our community feeling recharged and uplifted, enlightened and refreshed and looking forward in a very positive and optimistic way. It serves to confirm that in re-educating our community with the truth of our history, helping the community to understand the great African heritage we have only serves to uplift and unite us. Having a positive outlook going forwards after establishing the great history many of us come from improves community relations all round. This year saw many new faces from outside of Luton attend the event, as far as London, Nottingham, Birmingham and Bedford. The impact of Luton Sankofa UK is being felt and appreciated far and wide.
Images by Jonathan Trotman Photography
Paul Crooks pioneered research into African Caribbean genealogy during the 1990s. He traced his family history from London, back 6 generations, to ancestors captured of the West African coast and enslaved on a sugar plantation in Jamaica.
Paul gained national recognition for his work when his acclaimed historical novel Ancestors (based on the true story of the author's African ancestors) was published in 2002. He appeared on Who Do You Think You Are? (Moira Stuart). His second book A Tree Without Roots is the authentic guide to tracing African, British and Asian Caribbean ancestry.
Paul is credited with inspiring an upsurge in interest in Black and British ancestry. He is also recognised for having spawned an industry in researching African Caribbean genealogy.
Paul Crooks MSc
Ancestry Talks with Paul Crooks
Mob: 0770 828 2972
Email: info@paulcrooksuk.com
Samuel Lokko is a Clergy, African Historian and Artistic Director in indigenous African Music, Drumming, Dancing.
Because of his passion for African culture he founded a performing arts group named Gye Nyame African Cultural Troupe based in Ghana and NGO named Strategic Change For Africa Foundation (STRACFA).
His vision is to promote the indigenous African culture to the world through performing arts, tourism, hospitality, education and entertainment.
He has artistically imparted over thousand (1000) African and Europeans who visit Ghana for the period of 25 years.
Whatsapp: +233(0)272136525
Email: samlokks@gmail.com, stracfa@gmail.com
– By Diana Marquis-Solomon, Vice Chair, Luton Sankofa UK
What’s in a name you say? Names have meaning and significance. My very identity is wrapped up in my name. Names shape you as a person and tell the world who you are, and why you are. This year’s Theme and focus on naming ceremonies in Africa stirs all kinds of emotions as I personally am immediately stung with the fact that when my ancestors were stolen from Africa, their very names and identities were stripped from them, just as painfully as the flesh from their backs were stripped. It was a deliberate effort to make them forget that they were human, dignified people, in order to turn them into slave commodities re-named with their owner’s name branded upon them, like cattle. It was the usual practice for slave owners to commit this dehumanising act to the back, shoulder, abdomen, and even the face of a slave.
In an address in England on September 1, 1846, Frederick Douglass described slave branding: “A person was tied to a post, and his back, or such other part as was to be branded, laid bare; the iron was then delivered red hot (sensation), and applied to the quivering flesh, imprinting upon it the name of the monster who claimed the slave.[1] ”
Although not every slave was branded, very many were subject to it especially if they tried to run away. This branding made the new slave’s identity permanent. By these very atrocities, we as a people became not only physically lost, but psychologically and spiritually lost too. This has been highlighted in studies by Psychiatrist Alvin Francis Poussaint, M. D. (an expert on a wide range of issues involving the black community) and journalist Amy L. Alexander (who focuses on issues affecting African Americans). Dr Joy DeGruy (author and academic researcher) expanded on their hypotheses, and in her doctoral thesis quotes that African Americans “sustained traumatic injury as a direct result of slavery and continue to be injured by traumas caused by the larger society’s policies of inequality”. This is summed up in her book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome as: Multigenerational trauma together with continued oppression and absence of opportunity to access the benefits available in the society.[2]
Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1893)
African American Abolitionist
Dr Joy DeGruy
Author, Lecturer and Researcher
It is one thing to steal you away from your homeland, but quite something else to try to erase your identity and spirituality, deliberately and systematically and force another upon you. Thus there was intent in every action to server ourconnection with Africa / Alkebulan [3]. Also, Christian scriptures were used as part of a process to enslave and dehumanise Africans and many priests and missionaries after converting Africans to Christianity, then turned and enslaved their congregants for financial gain. Fast forward to when the Windrush generation came to the UK in the 50s and 60s, many churches refused to have them as members for several years due to racism. Some Christians believe that the Church should make amends by working to end the legacies of slavery and the racism that still continues to blight church and society.[4] This act of erasing a slave’s identity was captured in the popular 70s television series Roots, where Kunta Kinte was whipped until he denounced his African name and accepted his slave name Toby. It is a scene I watched as a child growing up and I will never forget it. It painfully illustrates the ultimate defeat of the enslaved in accepting their appalling, newly imposed status. What continues the sting is the fact that their slave names followed their generations of offspring.
Even when they were freed centuries later, and no longer branded; having been deprived of their original identities, and in many cases torn from birth from their mothers and fathers, generations of former enslaved Africans still permanently carry the surnames of their former ancestral slave masters. Now that we are more aware and want to know who we are and where we come from, it is pertinent that we embark on that difficult journey of discovery, tracing our roots back to Africa / Alkebulan.
What is insulting is the fact that we must pay for this ourselves when our ancestors were not willing participants in their enslavement. They didn’t ask to be stripped of their names, and
A scene from the 1977 mini-series Roots - Kunta Kinte is being whipped until he accepts Toby as his new slave name
as descendants of those who endured such barbarisms, we should not have to fund our effort to regain the identities that were brutally taken from us. We have a right to find out our relationships to the African families from which we are descended.
Because compensation was paid to all slave owners at the abolition of slavery, which was only recently settled in 2015 with taxpayers money of which we descendants of those who were enslaved as taxpayers have contributed to; and with the question of and demand for reparations still being an ongoing issue - especially since the descendants of the perpetrators are still obtaining and financially benefitting from their forefathers’ enslavement enterprises at the expense and detriment of the descendants of the enslaved; it is only fitting that the very first significant gesture of reparations ought to be to pay for the funding of our efforts to trace our DNA back to our African ancestors, all the way to the very tribes we originate from. To me, that is the very least that the former enslavers (turned colonisers) should do for us as African descendants. If they are serious about making amends for their crimes against us as a people, then for the purpose of all those wishing to trace their roots, there should be a huge, accessible fund set up. With so much talk and confusion about what reparations should look like, in my opinion, that would be a very good place to start.
Naming children in Africa is not a trivial affair, and back then, very clear customs and rituals were adhered to, especially before Christian influences watered down their traditions. Therefore, if we all knew who our ancestors were and can trace back to the tribes we originate from, it is clear that our names would undoubtedly have been different and more meaningful and representative of the families wewere stolen from. To find our true identity would restore our real sense of belonging in this world. Once we know where we come from, our compass would be set for where we ought to be going. There are many who have already embarked on this journey of discovery who attest to its numerous benefits.[5] Rather than continuing to identify with our slave masters via our surnames, and trying to fit into societies that constantly reject us, we would have opportunity to identify with our rightful African names that have significance and meaning; that elevate us to more than just descendants of enslaved individuals, but human beings who had a life and a purpose before our history was rudely interrupted by the Transatlantic African Enslavement (that also led to the colonisation of Africa and the Caribbean Islands). If we can accomplish this journey of ancestral discovery, we would have opportunity to physically find our way home and be well on our way to our psychological and spiritual restoration. AfricanAncestry.com offers us a way to do that. Moreover, I believe our youth have a right to know and that it will have a significant impact on their self-esteem, their behaviour and ultimately how they see and treat one-another. With the rate of mortalities amongst our youth, this can only be a positive step forwards for our people and our communities, and every government who have been complicit in the enslavement of Africans, if they are serious about combating the ills that plague our communities, should seriously consider making the setting up of a fund an obligation as the first major step towards restitution. [END]
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[1] Frederick Douglass, “The Horrors of Slavery andEngland’s Duty to Free the Bondsman: An Address Delivered in Taunton, England,on September 1, 1846.” Somerset County Gazette, September 5, 1846.
[2] PostTraumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy DeGruy
[3] The Concept of Maat – Understanding Alkebulan –Speech by Dr Ben Jochannan; https://www.awaytoafrica.com/know-african-roots
[4] Article: Church of England urged to apologisefor Windrush racism, The Guardian 24 January 2020 – Harriet Sherwood
