Carolina Woman Visits Sierra Leone with Her Ancestor In Spirit

The road to Dunkegba – a small village on the coast of Sierra Leone – was lined with school children. Dressed in green uniforms, dozens of them welcomed Thomalind Polite with a song:

• Home again, home again

• When shall I see my home?

• When shall I see my native land?

• I shall never forget my home.

Upon arrival in the village, Polite was treated to hours of dancing, singing, drumming and an outpouring of joy that Priscilla had come back home.

The trip to Africa, in the summer of 2005, was the first time that Polite, of Charleston, S.C., had ever been farther than Tennessee. And yet, it was a return home – hence the festive welcome in Dunkegba: Polite is a seventh-generation direct descendant of young girl named Priscilla who had been sold into slavery from West Africa in 1756.

A year before Polite’s visit, an expert on the Sierra Leonean slave trade named Joseph Opala discovered documents from the slave ship that took Priscilla to South Carolina. Through plantation records, Polite’s family had known they were descended from Priscilla. Opala’s discovery, illuminating Priscilla’s journey from Africa, put Polite in a unique position – experts in African-American genealogy say they’re unaware of any other verifiable, documented links between a specific African sold into slavery and a living descendant in the U.S.

Opala, who had organized previous exchanges between Sierra Leone and African-American communities in South Carolina, arranged the weeklong visit for Polite, her husband Antawn, and a small group of accompanying journalists and scholars.

From the moment her plane landed, Polite was treated like a celebrity. The weeklong visit, during which she attended private receptions with then-President Ahmad Kabbah, the vice-president and numerous other prominent Sierra Leoneans, received extensive media coverage, and generated intense enthusiasm throughout the country.

“Nothing could have prepared me for [that] level of excitement,” Polite said. “I just felt like I was talking to my long lost cousins … I had no strangers there.”
Many Sierra Leoneans whom Polite met called her Priscilla – a way of welcoming home the spirit of the girl who’d been taken away long before, Opala said.
In addition to the events in Freetown – Sierra Leone’s capital – and the trip to Dunkegba, Opala led Polite and company on a tour of Bunce Island, the site of former British slave-trading outpost. Opala’s research had shown that The Hare, the ship that took Priscilla in captivity to South Carolina, had stopped at Bunce Island (it is uncertain if Priscilla was sold there or elsewhere along the coast, however). In the remains of the prison enclosure that once held women and children bound for slavery, Polite was overcome with sadness at treatment Priscilla and millions of other Africans endured.

But the homecoming, overall, was a joyful experience for Polite and her hosts alike. A long and brutal civil war in the country had ended only several years earlier, and many Sierra Leoneans viewed Priscilla’s homecoming as a sign that better days were finally ahead. “I was just so overwhelmed and overcome with how excited people were,” Polite said. “All I could do was smile.”

After an intense, emotional week, Polite flew back home. The experience lives on, when she shares the stories with friends and family, receives invitations to speak before other groups and receives phone calls and emails from people she met in Africa.

“People are still keeping that bond going,” Polite said.

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