From Brooklyn to Ghana—Nana Tubman's Global Reach

Nana Harriet Ross Tubman is obviously as active today in the hearts of those who love her and appreciate her legacy as when she was here engaged in her l9th century freedom leadership walks.  On March 10, 1913, after decades of enduring love, liberty leadership, and service, Nana Tubman left this plane for her celestial reward.  On March 10th of this year, thousands of Black women and progressive friends gathered across the nation for the GirlTrek-sponsored "We Are Harriet" Walk.  Brooklyn was, of course, deeply in the uplift-the-legacy mix as the borough walk initiated from Grand Army Plaza right across the street from the Central Library which houses many books on the Tubman contributions.

Few works, however, contain facts on yet another intersection of Brooklyn history with the Tubman legacy.  There was, for example, the auspicious date of August 15, 2005, when Brooklynites joined other New Yorkers and Jerseyites for the Nana Tubman Honor in Ghana journey. On that date her 2000 Enstoolment as a Queen Mother was taken to yet a higher level by a statue being unveiled in her honor in Aburi, Ghana, coupled with a street naming at the compound of Nana Osei Boakye Yiadom II. 

Nana Yiadom, as previously noted, is Ghana's first female Chief (after Nana Yaa Asantewaa) and the officiator at the Tubman Enstoolment in Brooklyn in 2000. She was introduced to the project by John Watusi Branch, Executive Director of Jamaica, Queens' Center for Culture/Afrikan Poetry Theatre.  John had served as co-coordinator of the Nana Tubman Honor in Ghana Project with me, and through the resources, will, and prayers of us storytellers and poets, the project manifested from an artistic dream to a veritable global reality. 

Sometime in the years after the 2000 Enstoolment, I had mustered the nerve to ask Nana Yiadom II if there might be a remote possibility that a street could be named in Ghana after Nana Tubman since she was now one of its queen mothers, albeit posthumously. She graciously replied that she would look into the matter and get back to me.  Several months later, John contacted me to relate that Nana Yiadom had indicated that a street could indeed be named for Nana Tubman but that we would have to come to Ghana for the ceremony.

On August 15th of that year after much blood, sweat, and tears' labor, a group of Tubman travelers, including three Tubman descendants, (Pauline Copes Johnson, Geraldine Daniels and LaBerta Greenlea), were there in Ghana for the momentuous event.   A host of Ghanaian royalty, including queen mothers from varied regions), along with scholars and every day villagers gathered to welcome us and to participate in the ceremony.  A journalist and photographer from upstate New York, on an unrelated assignment, were on hand to record this history for her home region periodicals.  Talented Ghanaian sculptor, Opoku Biney, had created an awe-inspiring statue of Nana Tubman with two liberated children.  John Branch had generously  paid for this statue from his own personal funds.  Quite a fitting tribute from a descendant of the Gullah-Geechee people of South Carolina, hundreds of whom Nana Tubman had freed and served during the slavery era.

Speeches were made by both Ghanaian leaders and Tubman Honor in Ghana Project leaders.  Historical moments abounded as the Tubman legacy was translated into Twi for many there who knew little or nothing about this Ghanaian descendant who had made such a tremendous impact on history.  After the statue, covered in royal kente cloth, was unveiled, African-American and Caribbean travelers danced joyfully with Ghanaians in celebration of this tribute to the beloved. 

Marilyn Herod, a New Brunswick, New Jersey, filmmaker and historian, filmed the entire event and generously donated the work to the Tubman Honor in Ghana Project.  Among the Brooklynites present on the journey was Black Women's Leadership Caucus (BWLC) leader, Elizabeth Rankin Fulcher, a descendant of the famed Rankin family of abolitionists of Ohio, who had aided so many freedomists during the slavery era.  BWLC has been instrumental in seeking a national holiday for Tubman and in the street naming in Brooklyn in her honor.  Rev. Imani Carol Parker and I, during the group tour of Ghana, gave a storytelling presentation on Nana Tubman's life at the W. E. B. DuBois Centre in Accra, the capitol of Ghana.  As we journeyed onward to the ancient land of Kumasi, birthplace of the country's kente weaving industry, Tubman descendants and other Tubman travelers were welcomed by regally clad Asante chiefs and entertained by Akan dancers.

A Ghanaian youth, Kojo (Eric) Manu,  traveled with the group, learning for
the first time about Nana Tubman.  He went on to initiate a Nana Tubman
educational project at his Cape Coast village and to become a reenactor at the
slave dungeons near where the dreaded Middle Passage journeys had begun in his homeland.  He sent photos of himself clad in a colorful outfit decored with
images of Nana Tubman.   A New Jerseyite, Sam Mensah, had traveled from New York with the group.  He later became a chief of his region and motivated his sister, a queen mother, to also create cloth with Nana Tubman's image on it. 

Long after her death the global reach of Nana Tubman's legacy was ever in movement--global movement;   a major project with "miniature money" initiated in Brooklyn in 2000, expanding to Ghana in 2005, and residing in global
hearts--perpetually. 

Images of the Nana Tubman Honor in Ghana Project can be seen at:  http://amasewa.tripod.com/NanaHarrietTubman.index.html. 

A detailed written account of the project can be read in: Afro-Americans in New York Life and History - Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, (Vol. 36. No. 1, January 2012, p. 105. (Published by the Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, Inc. (www.aanylh.com)



---Linda Cousins-Newton

 
copyright (c) L. Cousins-Newton 2013