Michelle Commander explored the Black American quest for cultural identity in her lecture, “Flights: Black American Travelers and the Search for Africa” last Thursday.

A crowd comprised mostly of anthropology students turned out to explore the subject and awaited the lecture while enjoying a video montage of photographs reflecting important African landmarks and festivals.

Graciela Cabana, professor in the anthropology department, gave Commander a splendid introduction, enthusiastically welcoming her to speak with the group.

“Dr. Commander has a joint appointment between the English department and Africana Studies,” Cabana said. “She is a wonderful teacher, and I want to endorse the class she will teach next semester, dealing with slavery.”

Commander began by recounting the experiences leading up to her interest in studying black Americans who have decided to make a new home in Africa.

“My original project and purpose for traveling to Africa was to evaluate how the black women’s movement was working in Ghana,” Commander said. “They are currently trying to get rid of domestic abuse, and I traveled there to explore their efforts.”

As she encountered various black Americans who had chosen to abandon the United States in favor of a home in Ghana, however, she became enthralled by their stories.

“I kept meeting up with people who were visiting or living in Ghana, so I decided to keep interviewing them, noting their individual narratives,” Commander said. “This started my project.”

She made it a point to explore the entire history of Africans attempting to return from whence they were taken.

“I began to be more interested in the long trajectory of African American flights home, the first type of flight being when Africans careened off of slave trading ships, hoping to return to their homeland even just in spirit,” she said.

More recent attempts of African-Americans to achieve a national identity are her main focus.

“In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a migration of Africans back to the South as well,” Commander said. “My question is, what motivates black Americans now to seek their homes in Third World countries?”

She searched existing research that could help explain this phenomenon.

“Orlando Patterson, (professor of sociology at Harvard), argues the black Americans are seeking temporary freedom from their diasporan position, hoping to somehow suture the cultural trauma associated with natal alienation,” Commander said.

She shared a movie entitled Coming Home Ghana that demonstrated the new lifestyles of black Americans who returned to their native land.

Immigrants to Ghana from the United States described their experiences as liberating; they were honored to have the chance to make their home in the land of their ancestors.

Commander applies learning from her English background in studying personal narratives.

“Literature becomes relevant in studying these experiences, specifically Neo-slave narratives, where characters are exposed to their slave past,” Commander said. “In these narratives, the protagonists are often exposed to violence that their ancestors encountered through some literary form of time travel, and this helps them reform their ways and embrace a new identity.”

Commander has established a pattern of exploration that black Americans go through in their journey back to the homeland.

“A catalyst prompts the black American to travel to Africa,” Commander said. “The tourist will then encounter the landscape for the first time and negotiate the differences they encounter in Africa. After that, they gain a concept of possibilities and limitations that dwelling in Africa once more could bring.”

Not every individual who returns is guaranteed a positive experience.

“A lot of people, though, express disappointment,” Commander said. “Some eventually return home, unable to find work or build a community.”

One concern of some black Americans that make their home in Ghana is whether or not the government of Ghana has welcomed them genuinely or in an attempt to attract more capital to the nation.

“Beginning around the 1980s, middle-class African-American families set their eyes on Bahia, Brazil,” Commander said.

“This city has retained a great number of African vestiges, namely in religion and culture. Many Africans own residences in this city and will live there for half of the year and in America for the rest.”

Race is different in Brazil, though, as some African-Americans are labeled “white” based simply on economic class. In this region of Brazil, race is still measured on a continuum from white to black, with more than 20 delineations.

Thus, in both Ghana and Brazil, African-Americans who desire to return to their homeland may still be considered outsiders, further complicating their search for identity.

Some African-Americans have consequently taken a different route in re-creating their homeland. Oyotunji Village was founded in Sheldon, S.C., and exists as a pocket of Africa in the United States, where families can choose to live life as their ancestors did. They dwell in traditional homes, practice traditional religion and re-create all aspects of African life.

This was only one lecture in the Department of Anthropology’s Lecture Series.

Commander’s main focuses are studies in African American literatures, Pan-Africanism and race and ethnicity. She is currently studying the travel experiences of black Americans who search for their cultural identity through touring Bahia, Brazil, Ghana and West Africa.

“When you are out in the field, you should keep your eyes and ears open, because you will never know when you would find something you want to research,” Commander said.