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By Okorie Uguru
It was a postcard setting, perfect for the historic rite of cultural return. Here by the Atlantic Ocean beachfront in Ikegun village, Lagos, Nigeria, daughters of Africa whose ancestors were forcefully shipped to an unknown land in the Americas are being welcomed home. The venue is the beachfront of the village. The seats are arranged facing the fresh water lagoon. The lagoon was calm, except for the occasional pockets of bubbles and ripples.
Behind the gathering is the restless Atlantic Ocean with all the noise and chaos of ocean waves hitting shores and retreating. It was as if the three women kneeling before Queen Aruk 11 for re-absorption into Africa are bidding farewell to the uncertainty due to lack of identity, into the certainty of a shared common ancestry.
The Ipada Initiative is an annual celebration of culture, tourism and arts aimed to reconnect Africans and Africans in the Diaspora to Africa. It has also become a platform for business networking through its Business Usual programme to explore business opportunities in Africa, most especially in this era of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Under Ipada Initiative’s nine-day celebration, there have been carnival, musical shows, business meetings, and so. The current rites of return for the three ladies from the Americas is the climax.
The three daughters of Africa, Ms. Coralita Yard, Ms. Maleena Lawrence and
Mrs. Makysha Tenee Barksdale all knelt before Obonganwan Marie Erete, Queen Aruk 11 of Bukong Asang community in Cross River State.
Just beside the kneeling women are honey, bananas, salt, kolanuts and alligator pepper. Renowned artist and cultural personality, Chief Tunde Odunlade used the items to perform the rites of return explaining what each item would symbolise in their lives going forward.
The regale Queen Aruk 11 who prayed for them, also gave them a new name. For Ms. Maleena Lawrence, the queen named her Asari. Coralita Yard was named Mmeseomachi (the goodness of God in Igbo language), while Mrs. Makysha Barksdale was named Tokunbo, the daughter who returned from the sea in Yoruba language.
Earlier, part the activities for the rite was the tree planting exercise where the returnees planted a tree each to symbolise their reconnection back to their roots.
After the naming ceremony, the Consul General of Antigua and Barbuda, Brigadier General William Wallace. symbolically baptised them in the fresh lagoon water to symbolise the rebirth into Africa and a new beginning.
Tokunbo (Mrs. Makysha Barksdale) was overwhelmed with emotion and could not hold back tears of joy. She said she felt fulfilled connecting to her roots once again.
Mmeseomachi (Coralita Yard) saw her re-integration as a fulfilment of a vision. She shared her experience in Nigeria, having lived in the country for a few months before the reintegration back to Motherland Africa: “ I am from Barbados. I lived in the United States for a number of years, moved back to Barbados. I always knew that I was going to come back. So I had to come one day. One day, I was flying to Bridge Town in Barbados, and I stopped at my girlfriend’s shop. And she said to me, “God said if you do not leave now, you’re going to lose your seat” You have to leave Barbados. That was July 2023. The next week, I was on the plane heading to London. From there to Nigeria. I always knew that I was going to come here, because one of the things I’m here to do is help children.”
The founder of Ipada Initiative, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, has put in place the first five year plan through which Africans and Africans in the diaspora can visit Africa as a single destination, get reintegrated with the continent and also have the opportunity to invest on the continent.
However, for the daughters of Africa recently re-absorded back to their roots, it is the beginning of a new life.
Gradually, as the ceremony was coming to end, the sun behind the ocean was turning golden as it set. For the new daughters of Africa, the day was ending with the closing of a chapter. Tomorrow they would wake up as daughters of Africa, reconnected back to the land of their ancestors.
