The sound of drums served as a heartbeat throughout the African Landing Day commemoration at Fort Monroe.
The event has become a community staple in Hampton, acknowledging and memorializing the first African people forcibly taken from their homelands and shipped across the Atlantic before landing at Old Point Comfort – and those who died on the way.
“It’s about remembering our ancestors,” said Larry Gibson, board member of Project 1619, Inc. “Not just those that came to the shores, or the water’s edge here.”
The day started with song, prayer and contemplation, as well as acknowledgement of the indigenous peoples of Virginia and remarks from Walter “Red Hawk” Brown, chief of the Cheroenhaka or Nottaway Tribe of Southampton.
Virginia Sen. Mamie Locke reflected on the cultural, social and political significance Old Point Comfort has, and the sense of place that’s been cultivated at the landing site.
“The lives of Black people changed on these very shores,” she said. “Involuntary servitude found its way into the laws, culture and societal norms of American society… It is also here that the atrocities of slavery began to unravel with General Butler's contraband decision in 1861.”
“That makes this place sacred beyond significance in the history of America and African American history.”
This year’s commemoration coincided with Hampton’s pending sister city relationship with Malanje Province in Angola. A delegation of Angolan citizens, including Minister of Culture Filipe Silvino de Pina Zau and Angola Ambassador to the U.S. Agostino Van-Dunem, attended.
“It’s been a great weekend to reconnect and really talk about the future and how we will continue working together,” said Vice Mayor Jimmy Gray, who visited Angola in June.
Zau, with the help of translators, delivered his speech in three languages: English; Portuguese, Angola’s official language; and Kimbundu, the language the first Angolan people taken to English-speaking North America spoke.
Zau spoke on the destructive impact of colonialism on African people and nations, and the new possibilities and partnerships ahead for Angola.
“Culture unites a nation,” he said. “It also unites peoples through their aspects that are common among them, that our new getting-together [which is] based on our shared history will constitute the embryo of a fruitful future cooperation between our peoples and countries.”
Wanda Tucker spoke prior to a ceremonial blending of soil from Fort Monroe, Angola, numerous historic Black cemeteries around Hampton and dozens more additions brought by residents and guests. The Tucker family traces its lineage to two of the first Angolan people taken to Virginia: Antoney and Isabella, and their son William.
Tucker shared what she’s learned of her family’s history, starting in 1619, and all they endured to allow her and her relatives the lives they have today. Speaking to her ancestors, she told them a lot has changed in 405 years.
“We have become a great people on this land, grandmother and grandfather,” Tucker said. “We have lived long enough, bound not by shackles but by blood, your blood that continues to run through our veins.”
The Tuckers have made multiple trips to Angola over the years, and Tucker remarked on the importance of bringing people from Angola to see one place their kin were taken centuries ago.
“We’ve had a wonderful weekend of coming together as family,” Tucker said. “The Angolans and the African Americans have come together. We are better together, and we’re going to continue to move forward in the spirit of Isabella and Antoney.”
The sentiment was echoed by visitors from Angola like Afonso Vita. Vita called it a historical day for Angola.
“We’re finding family and we feel that we’re starting now to look [differently at] our history,” Vita said. “We are building a bridge between Angola – between Africa in general – and the United States.”
Fellow Angola countryman Tchijica Henriques came away with a message of unity.
“It’s just a moment to recognize our humanity and just portray and show how we can build a better world if we are united together,” Henriques said.
