A University of South Alabama professor instrumental in preserving the history of Mobile’s Africatown community is hoping to take a small group of students to Africa this spring – but the planned trip could use some help from potential sponsors.
Kern Jackson figured prominently in the award-winning Africatown documentary “Descendant,” and not just on-screen: He was credited as a co-writer with director Margaret Brown.
For the short May semester following USA’s spring graduation ceremony, Jackson has outlined an ambitious study-abroad program that will take participants to Benin, Ghana and Togo. The cost is about $5,000 per person, which covers international health insurance, accommodations, in-country transportation, most meals and excursions. (It doesn’t cover the $2,000 or so for air fare, which the students themselves must handle.)
The program title is “USA in West Africa: Dreams of Alabamians in Africa,” which is a full-circle play on the title of a significant historical work on Africatown, Sylviane Diouf’s “Dreams of Africa in Alabama.”
Jackson said most of the students lined up to participate are from Alabama. Most are taking classes in in the African American Studies program he heads, but are majoring in other fields, including science and medical studies.
He said he expects them to reap multiple benefits while doing field work that helps understand “the complex reality of race in the African diaspora.”
“From my own experience as participant in study abroad, it’s a community altering situation because people typically come home from these experiences and engage civically in ways that they hadn’t before,” he said.
“We always talk about creating leaders but very rarely do,” he said. Such trips address that, he said: “We put these students in position where they have to demonstrate leadership. And when they get that experience, they fly, they take off and fly. That’s, that’s been my experience with them. They see themselves differently and they see the potential of their contributions, not being just to this county, they see it being global.”
He said the trip will visit the coastal Ghana town of Keta; Lome, the capital of Togo; and Ouidah, Benin. In 1860, when the Clotilda made its infamous voyage, Ouidah was a slave port that was part of the kingdom of Dahomey. “In addition to visiting where the Clotilda was, our students will be doing some field work in Keta with a collective of drum makers and a collective of weavers,” Jackson said.
The trip is still open to students and non-students, with a mid-March deadline. Jackson said that while donors and sponsors already have made commitments, thousands of dollars are needed to help interested students meet the cost of participating.
Two online channels have been set up for contributions, including one set up by USA at www.givecampus.com. Donations also can be sent via the Society of Clotilda. Anyone wanting more information on the trip can contact Jackson via email at [email protected].