The necessity of self-determination
Reflections on my visit to the Penn Center of African American History in St. Helena Island, SC
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Penn Center in St. Helena Island, SC. I first learned of the center, and of St. Helena Island, in a charming story1 written by J. Drew Lanham for Emergence Magazine.
The Penn Center is home to one of the first schools in the Southern United States for formerly enslaved West Africans. The story of St. Helena Island, and the school itself, is a remarkable one.
As the short version of the story goes, when news of the coming Civil War reached the coast, the European settlers, who’d been enslaving West Africans on the island, all fled. They abandoned the island as well as all of the people who lived there. Through a series of savvy negotiations, the West African people, who over time became known as the Gullah Geechee people, came into ownership of the island.
In 1862, the first school opened for freed slaves in St. Helena Island. Classes were held in a church building and there were about 80 students. In 1864, the school bought a plot of land from a freedman named Hasting Gantt. In 1865, a new school house was built on the land and was named the Penn Center. At that time, it was the first school in the United States established specifically for the instruction of formerly enslaved youth. It was also in 1865 that the 13th amendment2 was signed into law.
It’s incredible to learn the stories of the Gullah Geechee people, and of the freedom they built for themselves years before it was legally granted to them.
On self-determination
I’ve written about this before, so if you’ve been following my work for some time, this won’t be new to you. But a few years ago, I started shifting away from an activism focused on getting people to see my side of racial issues and towards creating a life of healing, connection and abundance for myself as a Black person. Now, on the surface, this can sound self-serving and disconnected from the reality of systemic racialized harm in the world. I understand that perspective and I don’t even disagree with it. But what I found, and perhaps this just speaks to my limitations as a person, is that as a human with limited capacity, I could either keep spending my energy trying to get people to understand issues of racism and white supremacy in the way I understood them, or I could take that same exact energy and tend to the healing work needed in my own life, body, relationships, family and local sphere of influence.
I’ve become a firm believer that, to quote Dr. Henry McCord from my beloved television program Madam Secretary,
“When everything seems to be lacking in integrity, you know what you do? You find it in yourself. You change the world right from where you're standing.”3
As I walked through the Penn Center that day, I was overwhelmed with inspiration and delight as I learned about the ways Black folks in the South centered their own needs, built their own schools, and brought healing to their own communities.
I was in awe of the women who raised up the next generations of midwives for their families.
I was grateful to see the ways young men were taught practical skills for building homes and repairing cars.
I loved seeing all of the images of young Black folks weaving baskets, drawing in centuries-old cultural and communal practices from the Mother Land.
It was breathtaking, honestly. It was refreshing. It reminded me of what liberation is for—it’s for the freedom to live, build, learn and to serve one another.
It’s not only the historical legacy of the Penn Center that is enriching, but its how their legacy of resilience and self-determination carries on even now as community members link arms to advocate for the rights to keep their lands despite encroaching development. It’s ways the Penn Center still educates Black youth about their history. It’s about the ways the Penn Center has been known for decades a site of rest and cross-racial collaboration. It’s a beacon honestly—a signpost for what’s possible when people are liberated to build for themselves, and from that place, enabled to share with the world.
The role of interdependence
It’s important to note that self-determination is not the same as an isolating independence or rugged individualism. Self-determination, in my view, is about people having the right and resources to govern their own lives and communities. This isn’t only for the sake of self-governance and control. Self-determination is the work we do to be healthy and secure enough for true interdependence to be possible.
When there is a one-way flow of resources from one community to another, without reciprocity or exchange, codependence is at play, which is rarely healthy for the giver or the receiver.
When there is no flow of resources or support between communities, then we’re operating in siloed independence, which too often gives way to a sort of harmful isolation.
But when we know who we are, where we come from, and what we have to offer, we can show up in cross-racial and cross-cultural community with more self-assurance and generosity. We can give from a full well. Interdependence and true, equitable collaboration honors the full dignity and self-determination of those with whom we seek to collaborate.
Self-determination does not replace the need for connection across lines of difference. Self-determination makes reciprocal, mutual, and interdependent connection possible.
Closing thoughts
I’m surprised to be reminded in this moment of a poem that was read at my wedding. It’s called On Marriage by Khalil Gibran. You may have heard of it, but these are the lines resonating for me right now:
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
Self-determination is about having room to grow into what you’re destined to be, so that you might contribute to the whole of ecosystem for a lifetime.
Thanks for wandering this particular winding path with me today. I’d love to hear your thoughts, considerations. Tell me what I missed.
Be well, beloved!
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/a-convergent-imagining/
The 13th amendment to the US Constitution abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
Madam Secretary, Season 1 Episode 22