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Looking for Africatown
Aug. 4th, 2010 02:12 amAlthough our bus arrived in Mobile, that wasn't our final destination--we rented a car so that we could go all around Mobile Bay. On our first day, though, we did look for something in Mobile: the remains of Africatown.
We learned there was a welcome center, and we went there, arriving at high noon.
Graveyard visible across the street.
It seemed both abandoned and haunted. Abandoned, because there was long grass growing up around the golden commemorative busts and the plaques, and because the building was badly damaged; haunted, because although the door was locked and no one answered when we knocked, we could hear a radio playing inside.
John Henry Smith, former mayor of Prichard, Alabama, who organized a twin-cities relationship between Prichard (north of Mobile) and Ouidah, Benin (Whydah--the city in Africa from which slave ships departed for the New World).
Cudjo Kussola Lewis, last survivor of the slave ship Clothilde. The Encyclopedia of Alabama says, "Zora Neale Hurston filmed him, and he is thus the only known African deported through the slave trade whose moving image exists."
Thomas Azinsou Akodjinou is a filmmaker; Felix Yao Amenyo Enklu owns the Amey entertainment group of companies.
Across the street was a graveyard. In the graveyard was a man, digging a new grave. I went over to ask him if he knew anything about the welcome center. Next to him was a casket, lying on green cloth partway in the the grave. The gravedigger told me he'd been working there since 10 am and hadn't seen anyone enter or leave the building.
... There was something very Southern Gothic about the whole situation.
Two days later, we stumbled upon this plaque in the village of Daphne. We were happy to read about the success of a child of one of the former slaves from the Clothilde, and it kind of made up for not being able to go into the welcome center.
"In this cemetery is buried Russell Dick, whose mother, Lucy, came into Mobile on the last voyage of the slave ship, Clothilde. He is remembered as an outstanding and industrious citizen who acquired much land in the area and once owned all the downtown of Daphne."
We learned there was a welcome center, and we went there, arriving at high noon.
Graveyard visible across the street.
It seemed both abandoned and haunted. Abandoned, because there was long grass growing up around the golden commemorative busts and the plaques, and because the building was badly damaged; haunted, because although the door was locked and no one answered when we knocked, we could hear a radio playing inside.
John Henry Smith, former mayor of Prichard, Alabama, who organized a twin-cities relationship between Prichard (north of Mobile) and Ouidah, Benin (Whydah--the city in Africa from which slave ships departed for the New World).
Cudjo Kussola Lewis, last survivor of the slave ship Clothilde. The Encyclopedia of Alabama says, "Zora Neale Hurston filmed him, and he is thus the only known African deported through the slave trade whose moving image exists."
Thomas Azinsou Akodjinou is a filmmaker; Felix Yao Amenyo Enklu owns the Amey entertainment group of companies.
Across the street was a graveyard. In the graveyard was a man, digging a new grave. I went over to ask him if he knew anything about the welcome center. Next to him was a casket, lying on green cloth partway in the the grave. The gravedigger told me he'd been working there since 10 am and hadn't seen anyone enter or leave the building.
... There was something very Southern Gothic about the whole situation.
Two days later, we stumbled upon this plaque in the village of Daphne. We were happy to read about the success of a child of one of the former slaves from the Clothilde, and it kind of made up for not being able to go into the welcome center.
"In this cemetery is buried Russell Dick, whose mother, Lucy, came into Mobile on the last voyage of the slave ship, Clothilde. He is remembered as an outstanding and industrious citizen who acquired much land in the area and once owned all the downtown of Daphne."
