by Mama Charlotte Hill O'Neal
Arusha Times July, 2010
As I got off the plane three weeks ago and walked down the ramp at Kilimanjaro International Airport, I paused and took in a deep breath of the cool, night air. The stars were out and I could smell a faint whiff of cattle, diesel, sweat and love. I had been gone for three whole months for this year’s UAACC Heal the Community tour in America and had endured biting cold weather; downpours of rain and snow; lightening and tornado warnings; constant traveling on planes, trains, cars and buses; new food, new landscapes, new hotels in new cities and love. A whole lot of love!
I celebrated my 59th birthday in Kansas City with my children and family
at my sister’s home; I met cousins I didn’t know I had; performed in a
swanky Times Square hotel with Grammy award winner Maya Acuzena and went
to see Langston in Harlem, the best musical I’ve ever experienced, in a
tiny theater off Broadway in New York city. I jammed til three in the
morning with world famous ZAP Mama and renowned jazz pianist Harold
O’Neal at Emmy award winning film maker Lisa Russell’s home and
delighted pre schoolers in the Bronx with demonstrations of how to carry
loads on their heads and babies on their backs. I was a judge at the
Teen Urban Poetry Slam at the Apollo Theater in Harlem; visited Eddie
Conway, one of the longest held political prisoners in America, and the
more than 40 men he has led to experience rehabilitated, anointed lives
inside those prison walls; rode trains through flood waters coming out
of Rhode Island; sang songs from my new album (soon to be released!)
with the Marmalade Band at a Jua Lekunda fundraiser in Seattle for a
school in Babati and participated in a historic panel discussion about
women of the Black Panther Party at the DuSable Museum of African
American History in Chicago. I sang at jazz clubs in Kansas City with an
Afro Latin band; met with committed peace and justice activists in
Massachusetts; went to Washington, DC were I was feted at one of the
oldest freedom schools in America and shared the stage in California
with Tarika Lewis, an accomplished jazz violinist and the first female
member of the Black Panther Party.
Everywhere I went, I shared how I feel so blessed to be a part of my
community in Tanzania but also about how I Almost Lost My Self* when I
first came to live in Africa as a very young woman. Everywhere I went, I
talked about how the spirit of community and sense of responsibility to
the future is so strong among many artists in Tanzania and how the
children in Tanzania are still respectful of their elders and of each
other and how there is a thirst for learning among the youth…things that
are sorely missing in so many communities these days in America.
I talked about how there is still a strong family unit here and how even
the youngest child has some kind of kazi to do whether it is herding
cows or feeding chickens or carrying water or a sibling on their back…
things that would probably be considered almost ‘child abuse’ in
America.
Before every performance I would announce to the audience that ‘this is
how we do it in A.town’ and I jammed hard as if I was at ViaVia or
Arusha Coffee Lodge or other places where Mama C and Dunia Truth
frequently perform in A.town.
During all those months of travel and speaking about our community
outreach projects at UAACC and screening the documentary A Panther in
Africa and speaking my poetry and singing my songs both to university
communities and brothers and sisters in the ‘hood, there was always a
thought in the back of my mind that reminded me of the mantra that
Dorothy (of the Wizard of Oz fame) would constantly mutter…’there’s no
place like home…there’s no place like home…”
It’s true…there is certainly no place like A.town!!
Click here for photos of UAACC Heal the Community tour 2010