Events

November 7 - 9, 2008 – Heritage Days at Penn Center.

Every year at Penn Center, the oldest institution of education for freed slaves in the US, and one of the most significant African American historical and cultural institutions in existence today, holds a festival nicknamed Heritage Days.

The Annual Penn Center Heritage Days Celebration is held every second weekend in November to celebrate and showcase the unique cultural heritage of the Gullah people of the Sea Islands.

September 27, 2008 – Sierra Leoneans turn to host La AMISTAD

2008 marks the 200th year of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the US. It happens that the Amistad Revolt, a historical legacy of Sierra Leone and the United States, is one of the most celebrated cases of slave rebellion. The Amistad story is one of FREEDOM: enslaved Africans were freed and shortly after repatriated back to their country of origin. The legacy of La Amistad has made the following impact in American history:

The American Civil War

The Abolitionist Movement

Precipitated missionary work in Africa

Establishment and expansion of Black higher education

January 26, 2008 -- Kennesaw State University

The Bunce Island mobile exhibit was exhibited at Kennesaw State on January 24, 2008 and they became the first-ever institution to display it. This was the first showing of the Bunce Island exhibit in the United States, or the world, in fact. Again Amadu Massally, founder and chairperson of the organization was there to represent the SLGHA, and he introduced the keynote speaker, Joe Opala.

November 10th to 12th 2006 -- Heritage Days Celebration – South Carolina

The Sierra Leone Gullah Heritage Association (SLGHA) under the auspices of the Penn Center participated in a three-day event at the 24th Annual Heritage Days Celebration that took place from November 11th to 13th 2006 in St. Helena, South Carolina.

Back To Our Roots Symposium: In this symposium that featured a panel that included Joe Opala as keynote speaker, Charleston, SC Gullah native and writer Herb Harris, Gullah leader and Director Emeritus of Penn Center, Emory Campbell (a member of the first group of our Gullah brothers and sisters that visited Sierra Leone), the famous Ron Daise, founder of the popular TV show, Gullah-Gullah Island, the Chairman of the SLGHA, Amadu Massally and many others.

26th Annual Gullah Heritage Days Celebration Features the Bunce Island Exhibit

The project speaks to mobilizing Sierra Leoneans down to the Low Country of Beaufort, SC, where we will have a Sierra Leonean-Gullah reunion. More information on the event can be seen below.

The 26th Annual Heritage Days Celebration, scheduled to take place from November 7th to 9th 2008 in St. Helena, South Carolina, is the largest and most attended of a slew of Gullah events held every year. The Heritage Days Celebration is hosted by the Penn Center ( www.penncenter.com ).

June 3rd to 5th, 2006 -- Rhode Island Celebration with Thomalind Polite

Amadu Massally representing the SLGHA attended an event hosted by the city of Newport, Rhode Island and a slew of other organizations that included the Sierra Leone Descendants of Rhode Island. From June 3-5, 2006, Rhode Islanders hosted Thomalind Martin Polite, the 7th generation descendent of a young African girl taken from her home in Sierra Leone West Africa by a Newport, Rhode Island slave ship, the Hare, and sold into slavery in Charleston, South Carolina in 1756. http://www.projo.com/ri/providence/content/projo_20060604_polite4.8368b8d.html

April 2006 -- Pan-African Conference at Harvard University

Amadu Massally, along with 5 Sierra Leonean youth men and women (Akindele Decker, Zainab Sidique, Jonelle Williams, Kadija Jalloh and Michel Sho-Sawyer), dawning their Sierra Leone-Gullah Heritage Association t-shirts traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts for a life-changing event. Over 200 attendees from across the United States (including student delegates from Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, The College of St. Scholastica, Macalester, Virgina Tech, and more), as well as international delegates from Jamaica, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, and the UK, attended the weekend's activities, including stirring panel discussions with leading experts in Media, Technology, Development & Education and interactive workshops highlighting youth-led initiatives for the advancement of the continent."The SMT operates under the premise that no society can develop without an understanding of its own worth," said Harvard PhD candidate, SMT founder and conference chair, Derrick N. Ashong. "Africa is today facing more than a crisis of leadership, but one of identity. I think our generation has an opportunity and a responsibility to tackle it head on."

April 2006 -- Lecture Forum at Howard University

Joseph Opala, the most renowned source of information as regards the Sierra Leone-Gullah Heritage Association hosted a lecture where Sierra Leoneans, Gullahs and DNA Sierra Leoneans together shared the common history and culture between the families across the seas. For his efforts, Mr. Opala was awarded a big bowl of rice and another, full of cassava leaves, arguably Sierra Leone’s number one dish. Having spent 17 years in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer and later professor at the Fourah Bay College, Joe a native of Oklahoma and an honorary citizen of Sierra Leone was quite in his element...