The Akrobortu Leadership Project

01/31/2024

Once again, the Akrobortu Project continues to grow and change, as it should. We continue to perform our work in connecting the Continent to the West African Diaspora, but we are now putting a greater emphasis on reaching the youth, particularly those of Frankadua Ghana,

Additionally, this has become an opportunity to further our objectives by incorporating leadership and management principles via training workshops for all youth of the African Continent and it's Diaspora. The broad idea of this effort is that if the information, skills, and perspective is instilled within the children of those who experienced the Ma'afa, then they will be more greatly empowered to navigate the challenges of Western Civilization and live the abundant lives that allow them to self-determine their destiny.

12/28/2022

Habari Gani? UJIMA: Collective Work & Responsibility.

This morning I awoke to a FB friend posting about the difference between a community and a collective of friends; the idea was that “communities” tend to downplay and dwarf the uniqueness of the individual members for the greater good of the community. For that reason, a collective of friends was perceived as a better choice for the individual posting.

From my vantage, I prefer the community, or village as it were, for one simple reason- it is through the community that we are able to come together as one collective to take on the work and responsibility to build those institutions that benefit us all. Western civilization tells us that individualism is eschewed in traditional indigenous communities, and suggests that we pursue and covet individualism as a high ideal of Self. Such belief is in fact injurious to indigenous communities, because it causes us to forget our ancient teaching that “I Am because We are”; what happens to me affects you and vice-versa.

In the pics below, a community collective came together to prepare the tools to cook the meal, then cook and serve the meal. In doing so, an entire community celebrated its own. This act of love could not have been accomplished by a single solitary person expressing their creativity, but rather, the work was accomplished by a community of responsible people coming together to share their unique talents and abilities.

I thank those communities that have lent to my ability to be present today, for I truly am because we are:

*Palmares de Brazil
*Maroons of Jamaica
*Igbo Landing
*Every Black township that ever existed in America
*Africantown
*Oyotunji Village
*Igbo Village
*The many more whose names we have forgotten, but whose spirit lives on within us. ✊🏿




[email protected]

12/27/2022

12/26/2022

Happy Kwanzaa to you and yours this holiday season! Enjoy your Ancestral reconnections and celebrate together as FAMILY reconnected through the Diaspora and the Continent 👍🏿

11/28/2022

Though DNA has proven to be an incredibly useful tool in identifying family lineages, it remains a tool that is largely misunderstood regarding both capability and functionality. By example, some persons believe that DNA can tell you who IS/IS NOT related to you, when in reality, DNA, regarding the identification of family lineages, only identifies those with whom DNA is shared; just because you don’t share DNA with a given person, does not mean that you are not related, as it is entirely possible to be a blood relative of a person and share little to no verifiable levels of DNA; my mother may share 10cM with a person, and I may share 0cM-3cM with the same person.

Though the above is one example, there are countless others within the Geneology community. As more persons answer the call to identify family lineages, it will prove important that those persons take the time to educate and/or train themselves in the existing academic techniques and technologies available. Doing so will illuminate the data you encounter and increase the efficacy of your genealogical efforts.

Great success to you!!

11/07/2022

A colleague in the Native community just passed the information below on to me. This seems to be an excellent opportunity for young Diasporan leaders to make their voice(s) heard!

Unfortunately today at midnight is the deadline for registration, but it sounds like an extraordinary opportunity. Please pass this on to those whom you think may be most interested in participating!

https://www.state.gov/african-and-diaspora-young-leaders-forum/

11/02/2022

The Taken are Daughters/Sons of the Soil…

Throughout the African Diaspora, there are monuments and markers that exist to identify those places where The Taken endured some aspect of enslavement by European colonial enslavers. While in Ghana, during the time I made my Ancestral Return to visit DNA matched family, I had the fortune to visit Assin Manso https://visitghana.com/attractions/assin-manso-ancestral-slave-river-site/.

There is much to be said about this site, but of all things I choose to say, it is that this location has been chosen to commemorate the spirit of those who have been Taken, by illuminating that The Taken consciously and willfully fought for freedom from bo***ge, and by acknowledging that and are making the journey back home- physically, mentally, and culturally.

At this location, I participated in a Bath of Return, and felt all that a child and descendant of one who has been Taken should feel when bathing in the waters where my Ancestors bathed before being marched the 64 km to the Elmina and Cape Coast enslavement fortresses. What made this experience profound, is not that this gesture addressed a symbolic happening, but rather, as someone who specifically has Kassena and Ewe blood flowing within my veins, this location was most likely a central place by which my personal Ancestors passed.

Ancestral Returns are personal; they are not vacations nor tourist trips. When you return to the soil of your Ancestors, go home as family, as a Daughter/Son of the Soil.

10/29/2022

It is vitally important that our stories be told. In doing so, we control our narrative and provide new perspective & information to the conversation regarding our history, culture, and character. The unequivocal benefit is that the current mythologies regarding Africa & it’s Diaspora will be brought into question, and hopefully dispelled, that the truth of our history may be revealed. It is our voice that becomes weaponized and best used to defend our truth. “Descendant,” is a must watch.

“My only fear is for my peoples story not to be told.”- Descendant of Cudjo Lewis, who was among the 110 enslaved Africans onboard the Clotilda, the last recognized enslavement vessel to the United States.

From the Times: “In 2019, the remains of the last known slave ship, The Clotilda, were discovered by a National Geographic-affiliated team led by archaeologist James Delgado, 159 years after it sunk in Alabama’s Mobile River. Congress had banned the importation of enslaved persons in 1808. But the ship made its trip more than 50 years later, in 1860, so its owner, Timothy Meaher, had it burned to destroy the evidence of the illegal voyage.

Attempts to hide the story of The Clotilda failed, as descendants of the 110 enslaved African captives still live in the Mobile area, preserving their family members’ stories in a neighborhood known as Africatown. They are front and center in Descendant, the Sundance award-winning documentary that hit Netflix on Oct. 21, produced by Participant and released in partnership with President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground and in association with Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter’s Two One Five Entertainment.”

https://time.com/6223809/descendant-netflix-clotilda-history/

10/20/2022

Do you have the courage to search for your Continental relatives via DNA testing? Not countries or ethnicities, but actual people. Ask me how. [email protected] 

10/20/2022

This isn’t a typical post for The Akrobortu Project, but there was a few articulated details that I didn’t previously know, so it seemed important to share, in case others didn’t know some of these details as well. In modern parlance, we say that our hair is our crown, but knowing specifics about the braided patterns suddenly gives those crowns additional meaning! What are YOU telling the world about how you wear YOUR hair?!https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cj52A4yDeXB/?igshid=NDc0ODY0MjQ=