“I thought you were White,” a Juffureh Slavery Museum employee, in a rather surprising tone, said to me. His comment was the first I heard as I stepped out of the car in front of the museum to check out the installation of the exhibit we created "From These Shores."
He later explained that he based his assumptions on my name, country of origin, and his past experience with those who assisted the museum in Kunta Kinta’s home village.
His revelations affirmed why the Port of Harlem Gambian Education Partnership (POHGEP) exists, that we got it right, and are doing our job.
Since 2002, POHGEP has been creating connections and fills a void as implied by a question that a Gambian friend posed to me in 2001: Why don’t I see any African-American Peace Corps workers or other African-Americans working to develop The Gambia?
My response: Your children will never be able to say that.
Our most ambitious program is well underway, The "Trans-Atlantic Human Trading and The Gambia’s Overflowing Significance" exhibit will replace 11 panels in the museum’s slavery exhibit with 14 new colorful panels and new inclusive and diverse text aiming at tell the story of slavery from the shores of the Smiling Coast of Africa: The Gambia.
Historically, the Gambia has been so important in world history that when the British signed the 1783 Treaties of Versailles recognizing its loss of the 13 American colonies, it included a clause that reasserted British control of The Gambia.
We keep the cost of the exhibit low by, for instance, making the panels the size of a suitcase so we can transport themselves and save the cost of having a private shipper transport them to the peaceful country.
You can join these current donors to make a significant impact in The Gambia, create your own legacy on Africa's Smiling Coast, and help generate more jobs in The Gambia’s tourism sector.
Donation Levels:
***Gold ($1,000)
- Anonymous – Maryland, USA
- Maggie Louise Hearon Young (posthumously) – Indiana, USA
**Ivory ($500)
*Beeswax ($250)
- Isabelle Williams-Brown, Washington, DC
- Ivan Brown, Washington, DC
- Bernadette Champion - Maryland, USA
- Virginia A. Farquharson – New Jersey, USA
- Ronald Lewis, Washington, D.C.
- Michael Ricks – Idaho, USA
- Kathleen Trent – Texas, USA
We named the three donation levels after the commodities that Gambians traded with Europeans, aside from humans. Donors of $250 or more for the exhibit will have their names permanently placed on a panel in the museum. Donations of all amounts are needed and appreciated.
