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SOURCE: usatoday.com
As a child, Djimon Hounsou played soccer on the beaches of his native Benin, a small country in West Africa. He didn’t know then that those same beaches had been a “path of no return” for those led centuries ago to waiting slave ships.
It wasn’t until the award-winning actor starred in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad,” a 1997 movie about a rebellion on a slave ship, that he fully understood the tragic history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its lasting impact.
“It really opened my mind about who I am … the history of my continent and the history of the diaspora,” Hounsou told USA TODAY in a recent interview. “We are very cut off from our past.”
Today, Hounsou is on a mission to make sure others know the history that forever connects the United States and Europe to African nations, including his homeland of Benin.
As part of that mission, the Djimon Hounsou Foundation will host its fourth Run Richmond, Sept. 27 in Richmond, Virginia to preserve and promote Black history. Its 16.19 km distance (10.6 miles) is a nod to the year 1619, when a slave ship from Angola arrived in the English colonies.
A shorter 6.19K (3.85 mile) walk/run will take place the same day. Along the route, participants can listen via an app to a tour of Black historic sites narrated by Hounsou.
Hounsou hopes the event will become a pilgrimage for African Americans and others eager to learn more.
“It’s time for Afro descendants to know where they come from and to know who they are and how powerful their history is and how powerful they are as people,” he said.
Remembering the history of slavery
Run Richmond began in 2019, the year that marked 400 years since a ship carrying “20 and odd’’ Angolans arrived in Hampton, Virginia.
In August, Hounsou joined others at African Landing Day in Hampton to commemorate the ship’s arrival at Fort Monroe. Groups, including Project 1619, the William Tucker 1624 Society and the Fort Monroe Authority, hosted a weekend of events.
His foundation, Hounsou told the crowd, “was meant to bring about reconciliation, remembrance and healing.”
Those efforts and the foundation’s run are even more important, Hounsou told USA TODAY later, as the teaching of unvarnished Black history comes under threat in schools and in institutions, including museums.
But Hounsou said efforts to erase Black history won’t work.
“It’s our obligation as people of the land … to keep that history alive in whatever ways possible,” he said.
Inviting the diaspora home
Hounsou, who has starred in other movies, including “Blood Diamonds” and “A Quiet Place: Day One,” also hopes to draw more attention to efforts to recognize the historical connection to Africa.
Like several African nations, Benin hopes to encourage African Americans and others from the diaspora to visit and learn more about their connection to the country.
Last year, Benin adopted a law opening the door to citizenship for descendants with connections to the country, including through DNA testing, and who were forced to leave through the slave trade. It launched an online application platform “My Afro Origins” in July.
Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, Benin’s minister of Foreign Affairs, said in a speech at the United Nations last year that descendants should find their way back.
“It is high time to heal these wounds to rebuild this sacred link with those who albeit physically far away carry Africa in their hearts,’’ he said. “People of African descent are not just distant relatives of our family … We say to them, ‘You have never ceased belonging to this land. Africa is your home and we are waiting for you with open arms.’”
A memorial to slavery in Benin has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The West African country, population 13 million, was also in the spotlight recently when R&B singer Ciara was granted citizenship and Filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, an author, were named ambassadors for African Americans.
“This is a step toward reconciliation with the diaspora,” said Hounsou, who visited Benin last December.
For centuries, Africa has been the target of insults and criticism, he said. It’s important ‘’to change this defamation of character of the continent.’’
“It would be very powerful to know a thing or two about the continent,’’ Hounsou said. “That can only empower you.”
