Boston 21-23 March
After Philadelphia, I travelled to Boston for the NeMLA conference on the overnight train from Philadelphia again – and yes, more snow, but at least it was already stacked up on the side and I didn’t have to fight through it.
I had a taxi driver who tried, as they all did to make me feel guilty, (so that I will feel compelled to give a larger tip – doesn’t work) by declaring how heavy my case was when they picked it up. It was less than the air flight ‘standard’ of 23 kg a – I’ve carried heavier.
But this driver turned out to be a Sierra Leonean – we taled cassava leaves in coconut oil – his favourite, like mine is crain-crain. I was making him feel homesick he said.
There is a Sierra Leonean restaurant in Boston – in Dudley he told me. I asked him how he had ended up in Boston and as I suspected, had left the country because of the civil war – he’d gone to The Gambia first – Umaru was excited that I knew the country – he’d been a dj there in between his Sa Lone and Boston life – his second home he called it and would love to go back. So we parted, friendly, and he even carried my bags to the door of Anthony’s Town House for me – so much different from the experience I’d had at the beginning of the month, when a taxi driver in Boston stated that it wasn’t possible to take my cases out of his trunk because I didn’t have enough cash for a tip.
I spent most of the rest of the day finishing my paper. I had originally wanted and agreed to be on the Black British Women Poets panel and then had decided to also submit an abstract to the Dubois panel too. I read the outline of the proposal – not a sniff of internationalism or Pan Africanism which, if nothing else, is what I knew Dubois to be passionate about – so I sent in an abstract titled :‘Father of Pan Africanism’: The Soul of Dubois is in Ghana, not in America.
They liked it; accepted it – then I had to write it! Thanks to Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford and Akilah Karima whose powerful personal statements and stories helped me to frame my discussion; and thanks to Kwame Dawes too, who reminded me that there were other and earlier ‘fathers’ (mothers too more like, although ‘invisible). I made reference to those too, and referenced Nkrumah calling Dubois this name. Another timely reminder from publisher Woeli Dekutsey who said to me that unless we have literature for young people on our leaders, their work will not be remembered. He has recently written a book for young people on Nkrumah’s life and achievements. He said, “As for DuBois, on your next trip to Accra, just stop the next student in the street and quiz him/her about DuBois and you’ll be shocked!”
I started my paper reading the first half of the poem, “Ghana Calls’ :
Ghana Calls
By W. E. B. Du Bois
(Dedicated to Kwame Nkrumah) Continue reading