All of these people you see were landing on African soil for the first time. It happened to be in Sierra Leone; a small country in West Africa with strong links to the Gullah Geechees. December 28th, 2019 about 50-odd African Americans visited.
Echoes From The Atlantic Graveyard
Journey through timeless tales connecting continents, celebrating resilience, and honoring the rich legacy of the Diaspora.
Echoes gathers scenes, faces, and field-notes from journeys between Sierra Leone and the Gullah Geechee corridor—moments of arrival, remembrance, and return. Every card is a small archive: an image, a line, a pulse of memory.
They are descendants of Africans who were taken from West Africa and other parts for their rice-growing skills to work on plantations for the new colonists in the North American Colonies. Some of them were visiting Africa for the very first time.
Re-rooted Remembered Reassembled
The Covenant of Return
The Vow
I vow to tell the truth of the taken, to name people where I can, and never use words that strip them of humanity. I will learn, listen, and lift. I will honor the hush when sacred things ask for quiet.
The Commitment
We enter this work as keepers, not owners. We commit to truthful naming, to cite and credit, and to refuse extractive storytelling. We will consult descendant communities, protect sacred knowledge, and respect permissions for images and sites. We will use our platforms to lift education and preservation. We will use language that restores dignity speaking of enslaved Africans, not erasing terms.
The Promise
We will teach this history as continuity, not ruin skills that crossed water, songs that held breath, prayers that built praise houses. We will return what we can: correct the record, share resources, honor permission, and sustain the places that hold memory. We will measure repair in relationships between Sierra Leone and the Lowcountry,