There are only a couple of ways people typically view the continent of Africa. Depending on your paradigm, you either see it as a place of extreme poverty and misfortune, or you recognize it as a place rich with resources and the birthplace of royalty. If I didn’t have a reason before to adopt the latter view, I do now.
I came face-to-face with royalty when I had lunch with actor and philanthropist Isaiah Washington and Hope Sullivan Masters, president and CEO of the Leon Sullivan Foundation and daughter of the organization’s legendary founder. Both unmistakably confident, Sullivan Masters was statuesque and strikingly radiant and Washington, meticulously groomed and postured as if he could carry the weight of a thousand villages. Together, they presented the perfect picture of strength and grace.
Unfortunately, Americans are overwhelmingly subjected to the images of blacks that are portrayed on TV, those in stark contrast to what I saw in Washington and Masters. How can we allow such powerful imagery to remain hidden? “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. (Luke 11:33-34),” springs to mind. The ship has to be righted.
As we sat and conversed, the two of them bounced off of each other, dropping pearls of wisdom that have the power to revolutionize young black minds when they are widely shared. Most eye-opening was the concept of “motherless” black children.
We’ve been harping — granted justifiably — on the devastating effects that fatherlessness has on the black community, but perhaps even worse, we’ve failed to realize that some black children are also motherless. Washington, had an epiphany to that effect as early as 8-years-old, but he didn’t have the faculties to interpret and embrace it then. Now, he’s on a quest that began with his work in Sierra Leone to bring attention to the fact that struggling mothers need our aid.
Washington has partnered with Masters to build on her father’s legacy of bridging the gap between America and the African diaspora. Fate connected the two through a mutual mission and they are dedicated to using education and service to expose the light that has been hidden from a culture that has been deprived of their royal birthright for so long.
There is more to come from rolling out on this incredible connection, including information on a first ever assembly of powerful African leaders in the Americas through The Africa Policy Forum. –gerald radford
