Description

Faces-Short

Being selected in 1978 to participate in Operation Crossroads Africa’s program in Ghana, West Africa, out of Los Angeles City College in California, became a highlight of my life. This is where the beauty of ‘Africaness’ shaped my global view of the world. Operation Crossroads Africa, officially founded in 1958 by James Robinson, a graduate of Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, became the template for the Peace Corps and was my introduction to Pan-Africanism.

Our assignment after orientation at Princeton University in New Jersey took us to Boinzan, in Ghana, where sunup’s found us eating a rapid breakfast before we hit the grassy plantation to harvest cocoa. We would work until noon and then return to the village for lunch, chilling and/or recreation. The people of the village were warm and friendly. Our college group consisted of five women and four men.

One day, upon our return, I sat in front of the truck, in full view of all these beautiful faces, full of pride, calm and dignity. After a long day of hard work, there was no anxiety in their energy, just peace, a complete departure from Western living.