"The Birthplace of Humanity" by Joshua- Zion H

A home where I’ve never lived

My home is in a place to which I’ve never lived
I’ve always felt connected, despite our barrier between Like a mesh screen, obscuring what cannot be seen But it is still my home

It’s not always been a beautiful place
Violence is a beating heart, hatred coursing through its veins Brother versus Brother, how did it come to be this way After the 15 century, it will never be the same
But it is still my home

The scar of imperialism has already done its damage
People tellin’ me to go back to where I came from, but I never have yet But I will soon, or at least that’s what the plan is
To visit my roots in the Savanna grasslands

That’s why I’m proud to say
And I mean this in every way
The birthplace of humanity, Africa
Is my home and in my heart, it will forever stay 

     When I wrote this piece during my sophomore year, I had no idea that I would go to Africa two years later. My late grandfather, grandmother, and mother are from a small West African country called Sierra Leone or as we call it ‘Salone’. I’ve always known that my mother’s side of my family is from there and I can even speak the native tongue called Krio. My grandmother never spoke about her childhood and what it was like to live in Sierra Leone and I would never really ask, so growing up I didn’t know much about Sierra Leone expect the fact that it’s in Africa and I have family out there. One of my grandmother’s closest friends had a husband that recently died and she told my grandmother that she could go with her back home. The rest of the family saw this as an opportunity for us all to visit our homeland, because the last time they tried to go, the airline went out of business a week or so before they were supposed to depart. Fast word 14 years later, I’m on my way to LAX and beginning my journey to the homeland. But getting there was no easy feat, let me tell you that. First starters, my mom almost made us our flight at LAX because she somehow lost both her itinerary and mine so she wanted to print out another set at my grandmother’s house. But neither my aunts or I had any idea that this happened because my mom told us that she needed to get some bags or something. When my aunt finally went inside to see what my mom was doing, she absolutely lost it because we were already running out of time to get to the airport. By some miracle of God, we made it just in time for our flight to Montreal for our layover and we stayed there for about 6 hours before we got on a 12-hour flight to Sierra Leone. Have you ever gone somewhere, when you’ve never been but still feel right at home? That’s exactly how I felt when

we landed. It was so amazing to experience my people’s culture first hand because when I was growing up, all I got to hear were stories. Seeing family members for the first time, interacting with locals, brushing up on my Krio and going to where my ancestors were living were all-powerful things I encountered and I would 100% do it all over again. This whole trip was very important and meaningful to me because I already crossed going to my homeland off my bucket list and when I heard Steve Harvey encouraging all black people to go back to Africa once in their lifetime, I knew for sure that I need to do it as well. So I also encourage African-Americans and other ethnicities as well to go to Africa because not only is it culturally diverse and awesome to experience, it’s also because it’s the birthplace of humanity.