On Friday, March 24, Parker’s Upper School Positive Racial Identity Development through Education (PRIDE) group left for Ghana for a 10 day experience of the West African country’s culture and to take advantage of its educational opportunities. The primary goal of PRIDE, according to the group’s founder, middle school history and social studies teacher and middle school diversity coordinator Keedra Gibba, is to help ensure that the voices of racially underrepresented students at Parker are heard.  

The group, consisting of 12 Upper School Students across grades 10, 11, and 12, traveled with Gibba; middle school mathematics teacher Kam Woodard; and 7th grade assistant Justin James, who filmed the process. They returned on April 1.

Ghana is on the western shore of the African continent. Renowned for its diverse wildlife, beaches, and historic forts dating back to the time of slavery, Ghana is a growing democratic nation.  According to Gibba, more than half of the students in PRIDE identify as Black and have African heritage, so Africa came to mind as a worthwhile destination for group travel.  Having once lived in Ethiopia, Gibba originally wanted to bring students there, but due to the current civil unrest there, she opted for Ghana instead.

Once the group touched down in Ghana, their itinerary was filled with excursions both educational and fun. For many of those who went on the trip, including junior Priscilla Roman, the Elmina Castle Dungeons––a structure where slaves were kept for transport in the 1600s––was a memorable moment. “The biggest eye-opening thing that we talked about at the dungeons was how females would be separated from their families,” Roman said. “Being a woman myself and hearing about the sexual assault and humiliation that females faced made me feel very uneasy.”

For junior Natalie Braye, the dungeons felt surreal. “The Elmina Dungeons have the original ‘door of no return,’” Braye said. “I don’t even know if my ancestors are from Ghana, but at that moment it felt as though my ancestors were bound to have been in this room, walking through that door onto the slave ships.”

The group also spent a significant amount of time on the shores of Ghana in the city of Cape Coast. There Parker students had the opportunity to meet with their pen pals, local students with whom they had been communicating for a few months before the trip. The groups exchanged what Junior Gabe Olson called “cultural gifts.” For example, Olson received a necklace and a bracelet, and he gave his pen pal a selfie stick.

The process to join PRIDE began during first semester of the 2015-16 academic year with meetings led by Gibba. To become a part of the group, students had to be nominated by a committee of teachers from multiple departments, administrators, and counselors, according to Gibba. “At first we got recommended from different teachers around the school,” junior Moré Fabiyi said.  “Then we had to complete an application process, followed with more meetings with Ms. Gibba.”

According to Gibba and Fabiyi, the individuals who were ultimately chosen to be included in the group were high school students with a passion for social justice and mentoring young students, and an interest in learning about topics underrepresented in the Parker community.  

Gibba sees PRIDE as different from a typical group at Parker. “It’s pretty hard to define because I think that it is isn’t something that is in the structure of the school,” Gibba said. “It’s a group of students who are interested in topics that are underrepresented in the curriculum.” These topics include slavery and counternarratives regarding other historical events.  

Along with the Upper School students, Gibba had her sixth grade students in mind when creating PRIDE. Gibba said, “I wanted PRIDE to be about student leaders who could mentor and inspire my sixth grade students.” To accomplish this, Gibba tries to make connections between PRIDE and her sixth grade curriculum, whether through in-class activity or other mentorship opportunities.

The members of PRIDE recently helped the sixth grade history students organize a teach-in for the rest of the lower school, according to Braye.

With the pen pal system in place, as well as the application of mentoring middle school students, Gibba took PRIDE to Ghana for opportunities that not many associate with the West African nation. “I know that the way we typically think of African countries revolves around the idea of what kind of work are we going to do there,” Gibba said. “I want these students to see Ghana as an educational resource.”

Fabiyi, who has visited the neighboring African nation of Nigeria before, wanted to see how her peers reacted to the Ghanaian culture. “What I valued was being able to see what my peers thought,” Fabiyi said, “and going back to the motherland with them to learn and experience.”   

Before the trip, Olson echoed Gibba. “I think that there are some really unfair stereotypes assigned to Africa, so we wanted to go there to dispel those rumours,” Olson said.  “When I think of Africa, I think of war, and hunger, and disease, but I’m also pretty positive that people in Ghana don’t constantly live in those situations, so I’m excited to see what it’s really like.”

Braye echoed such thoughts. “The image of Africa is always around poverty and very barbaric,” Braye said. “But really these are thriving societies that have their own economies and communities.”  

The people Olson encountered in Ghana, whether his pen-pals or others he met on excursions or around town, were generally happy. “The native Ghanaians were happy to see us as westerners coming to visit their country,” Olson said. “It gives them a sense of pride. While we did see some poor areas, the people seemed healthy and lively.”

To Roman, Gibba’s point regarding the representation of topics not often talked about in the Parker curriculum surfaced in her eyes during the trip. “I felt so many emotions for my peers who are the diaspora of Africans,” Roman said. “But the trip made me a bit jealous because I personally don’t know about my ancestry. In America, we focus on slavery through the American perspective, but I think as a nation we need to recognize all types of people, and I hope to learn about my history soon.”

Braye referenced her prior study of “Abina and the Important Men,” by Trevor Getz. Her teacher wanted to stress the idea that some of the citizens of Africa took part in the slave trade, holding slaves as the Portuguese and Dutch began to steal humans from African coast. “This form of servitude was a much more complex and humane system of servitude compared to the dehumanizing system of selling people,” Braye said. “If you were in servitude on the African mainland, you were able to marry and have a family.” According to Braye, she does not feel as though this narrative has been communicated well during her time at Parker.

Back at Parker, the group held discussions critiquing how the history department is teaching underrepresented topics, including slavery. “The complexity of these events is always ignored,” Braye said.  “I’ve been asked about what I think the worst part of slavery was, and I think that if I’ve learned one thing from this trip, it’s that issues of history are way more complex than we think.”

As for the future for PRIDE, one thing is for certain.  “Each year, we will focus on underrepresented curriculum,” Gibba wrote in a recent email, “that might make non-white students feel a sense of pride about their own history.”