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"Reconnection implies that there is a part of ourselves that is still connected to wherever we came from. Cellular memory, I call it. A whole part of us opens when we make those connections." - LueRachelle Brim-Atkins

This quote captures the essence of "cultural reconnection" according to LueRachelle Brim-Atkins, member of an organized delegation of women seeking to bridge the cultural, physical and chronological gaps that have long separated African Americans from their ancestral past.

So what exactly is cultural reconnection? More specifically, how does an African American woman successfully reconnect with African culture? We talked with Brim-Atkins to find answers to these overarching questions.

Marcia Tate Arunga, a colleague of Brim-Atkins, began investigating the concept of cultural reconnection while pursuing a Master's in Human Development. In her thesis, "The Exploration into Cultural Reconnection of African American Women," Arunga proposed that in order for an African American woman to truly reconnect with her African roots, she must adhere to four guiding principles: collective action, culturally respectful rites and practices, ongoing shared dialogue, and gender specificity.

Brim-Atkins claims it was the desire to test this theory, coupled with Arunga's experiences living in her husband's homeland of Kenya, that inspired the delegation and its work. While in Kenya, Arunga and her sister-in-law Phelonga Okundi began to notice a growing sense of community activism among women.

About a year after Arunga moved back to the U.S., she invited Okundi and a number of African American women over for tea, where they began to discuss this activism in conjunction with Arunga's cultural reconnection work. "They started sharing ideas and before you knew it, they had talked past teatime and through dinner!" says Brim Atkins. From this dialogue, an idea began to form: the women would travel to Kenya, work alongside Kenyan women involved in community activism, and connect with African culture.

This trip to Kenya took place in 2000, and marks the first of many "cultural reconnection missions" that now take place annually. Over the course of the past decade, the cultural reconnection work has expanded beyond missions to include additional components. This includes both a sustainable joint-venture arm referred to as African American Kenyan Women Interconnect (AAKEWO) and an education arm -- the Institute for Cultural Reconnection.

Brim-Atkins explains that these three components "work together under the umbrella of cultural reconnection" and are overseen by the nine women who constitute the Vision and Planning Team. Cultural Reconnection Missions are the trips that Vision and Planning Team members and other African American women interested in cultural reconnection take to Kenya each year. AAKEWO refers to the sustainable joint ventures that Vision and Planning Team members work on in collaboration with Kenyan women's groups.

These joint ventures might include anything from sending school and medical supplies to villages or sponsoring the installation of water tanks to fight one of the leading causes of death among Kenyan children: contaminated water. A large portion of the Cultural Reconnection Mission itinerary is dedicated to working alongside Kenyan women on AAKEWO ventures, which helps reconnection take place. The Institute works on educational programs both in and outside of the U.S. geared towards researching, supplementing and facilitating cultural reconnection.

"How does one ask for permission to re-enter a culture that they've been separated from?" asks Brim-Atkins, framing one of the main overarching dilemmas of reconnection.

Bridging gaps, especially over both physical and chronological distances, is never easy. "There are a lot of things that Africans have been told about African Americans that don't serve us well and in America we've been told negative things about Africans as well. Colonizers and enslavers did a marvelous job of creating a disconnection for people of African descent on the Continent and throughout the diaspora. And that connection is still very real for a lot of people. One of our goals is to break down the myths and assumptions and re-establish that connection."

Brim-Atkins notes the importance of gender specificity in facilitating reconnection and creating a productive dynamic. This is why Cultural Reconnection Missions and AAKEWO joint ventures primarily involve African American women and African women's groups.

"Women are the cultural bearers in almost any society and are able to help us understand what the traditions are," explains Brim-Atkins. And it helps that women, especially in African cultures, are the ones who tend to "get things done." According to Brim-Atkins, "They have an expression in Kenya: If you educate a man, you feed a family. If you educate a woman, you feed a nation."

In addition to their productivity, Brim-Atkins notes that Marcia includes gender specificity as a principle because women's behavior often changes when men are around -- "We want to focus on cultural reconnection rather than on gender dynamics while we are traveling."

Gender specificity allows both African American and African parties to open up and interact with one another in meaningful, productive ways. It's a nice additive that women's groups in Kenya are in constant dialogue with one another, something that Brim-Atkins noticed right away. "The women's groups in Kenya are very connected. We would be traveling from one place to the next and somehow there would be someone waiting outside for us when we arrived. They always know we are coming."

This mention of dialogue segues into the next two principles: collective action and ongoing shared dialogue. Brim-Atkins says that Mission participants always travel, work and discuss ideas together in Kenya. "If you leave the group, you go with at least one other woman. That way, you have a connection with someone who is trying to experience the same thing. We do everything together as a group. Let's say I have an idea for a joint venture, like improving an orphanage. I can't say 'I want to help this orphanage' because that would be individual action. So I would bring my idea back to the group to discuss and get input and feedback."

Collective action is an essential part of getting things done, and tends to be an African cultural trademark. Besides, talking, living and working collaboratively on common goals helps both African American and African women connect with each other on an individual and cultural level. This is why AAKEWO joint ventures play such an important role in reconnection missions. "These joint ventures show us how important it is to connect, and how things really flower when you're connected. In Africa, everything is about relationships," says Brim-Atkins.

Brim-Atkins was one of three "custodians," or people in charge of a recent joint venture that illustrates how dialogue, relationships and connectedness can make things happen.

"We worked with women's groups to compile a list of people's needs. Some caregivers wanted bikes so they could access the more rural areas," she says. Others requested medical supplies, books, and a variety of practical items. Once that list was compiled, the "custodians" began brainstorming about how to collect and ship everything. So they started engaging with the people around them.

Brim Atkins explains, "I mentioned what we were doing to my friend Richard McIver who was on the Seattle City Council and told him we needed bicycles. He called the police chief and told him about our work." The result was that the Seattle Police Department donated 75 unclaimed bicycles. A member of Brim-Atkin's church who worked for a moving company was approached about the venture and donated packing boxes. "People around us just started donating. It was an amazing thing to see."

Before long, the group began piling donated school supplies, flip flops, sanitary napkins, wheelchairs, medical supplies, over 60,000 books and other items into a large seaworthy container. The container and shipping were also donated by generous benefactors.

In a country where students may number 200 to a classroom and babies can't be delivered in hospitals because of the lack of medical tables, items as simple as pair of flip flops or a pencil and paper are invaluable.

A Cultural Reconnection Mission delegate illustrates this notion by describing an encounter she had with a Kenyan girl. "We were walking through the village and we saw this little girl who was obviously very poor and hungry. I said, 'We've got to get this baby some food.' So we bought some of the basics to send home with her and then told her she could go into the shop and buy something for herself. We expected that she would want some sort of treat, but she came back with a pencil and paper. Out of everything, that was what she chose...something that could further her education."

In is important to recognize, especially with joint ventures, that success relies on African American and African parties working and discussing things together. Instead of paternalistically creating goals, American delegates listen to the goals that Kenyan women's groups have already established. "We learn more about the culture by asking people to be our cultural informants," says Brim-Atkins.

"Instead of telling them what they need, we ask them to tell us what they need." She claims this is important because ventures are more likely to be sustained if they are initiated from within a culture rather than being imposed by well-meaning outsiders. "We want these efforts to continue long after we leave. This is why we focus on simply providing resources to assist them in what they've already begun. We describe our model as '1-2-3/4-5-6/7-8-9.' This means that the women's groups have already done the 1-2-3; we assist them by doing the 4-5-6, and they continue with the 7-8-9."

One of the first things an African American woman learns is that she is not African -- culturally speaking. This is why the principle of "observing culturally appropriate rituals and practices," is fundamental for successful reconnection. Brim-Atkins uses the Kenyan practice of respecting elders as an example.

"At one point we had all gathered for a meeting with Marcia's (now deceased) father in law. Even though the meeting was scheduled to begin, we were reminded that we would begin after Baba had spoken and had given his permission to begin."

Brim-Atkins says the African American women have to stay open to alternative ways of doing things. In Kenya, respecting elders means including and deferring to them when holding meetings and making decisions. And things don't run by the clock. Things begin and end in a kind of generative flow. "It's a very different paradigm than in the United States," she says.

On that note, Brim-Atkins offers that being immersed in a culture other than her own is an invaluable experience. In this sense, global diversity has played an important role in informing her work. "Traveling internationally has taught me what is required to truly be open. Spending time in a culture increases the likelihood that you will be more culturally intelligent about that culture."

She claims that with global experiences, there are alternative reference points through which to interpret other cultural traditions. Cultural reconnection challenges individuals to set their cultural lenses aside and remain open to the reality that there are many ways to do things. "It's about listening to other viewpoints, even if they conflict with our own, and accepting that we may not have the answers," admits Brim-Atkins.

Another way to break down the barriers created by separation and to gain a more culturally informed perspective is "to learn what the truth is and to tell it," says Brim-Atkins. "We have to tell our stories to teach people so that we understand our history and get a better understanding of what's happening now. I tell my relatives about my experiences in Africa. I tell my grandchildren about their African roots and how special that makes them. I know that eventually someone is going to tell them something negative about Africa and I want them to have a positive framework already established."

One such story, relayed to Brim-Atkins by Marcia Tate Arunga, particularly demonstrates this notion. During a past mission, a Kenyan woman asked Marcia why she and the other women referred to themselves as African Americans. "Where do you come from in Africa?" she questioned.

Arunga explained that the ancestors of African Americans were taken from all over Africa and that many do not know from which country their ancestors came. Kenya was chosen as a site for reconnection simply because Arunga had lived there in the past, had cultivated relationships there and spoke Dhuluo, her husband's ethnic language, as well as Kiswahili, one of the national languages of Kenya.

The woman gasped, "You must be the stolen ones!" The woman explained that there were stories in Kenya, passed down over generations, about people going to market and never returning. "The people would search and search and mourn for generations over their loss. Later we found out they were taken to this place called America and to other parts of the world, never to be seen by their family and friends again. We are so happy to see you. Welcome home." Arunga has recently published the story of the "stolen ones" as a children's book.

This story bears particular significance for those African Americans, like Arunga, who grew up being told that Africans sold one another into slavery, and never mourned the loss. Bringing to light historical truths such as this story is necessary not only within the African American and Kenyan women's groups in question, but within American society at large. For Brim-Atkins, it captures what cultural reconnection is for her: "A welcome home."

Supplementing both reconnection missions and AAKEWO joint ventures, Brim-Atkins describes the Institute for Cultural Reconnection as the "educational arm of what we do." A primary function of the Institute is to create educational programs for people in the United States and abroad. Recently, this included three presentations at a conference geared towards helping Liberian Americans reconnect with Liberia. A goal of the conference was to identify conditions in the country that served as barriers to reconnection for ex-patriots.

One of these barriers, Brim-Atkins explained, was the fact that Liberia is in part, a resettlement of former slaves who returned to the country in a back-to-Africa movement prominent in the 19th century. This produced unprecedented tensions that persist today.

"Many of the people who went back to Liberia thought because they had had the American experience, they were better than the indigenous people. White people resettled them and put them in charge, causing a rift that continues today." Understanding the causes of rifts, among other things, is essential if reconnection is to be achieved.

"I will continue my work with cultural reconnection as long as I can walk," laughs Brim-Atkins. When considering the needs of African women and communities, and the mutual needs for African and African American women to reconnect, she says, "I don't see an end in sight!"

However, she emphasizes the importance of getting younger generations involved. "We want the younger women to learn what we do, because we won't be able to do it forever."

Finally, Brim-Atkins encourages others to reconnect. "People gain a lot when they look into where they came from. It's a different experience to see the world through a [cultural] filter other than your own. Sometimes we snuggle up to our filters so long that we think its reality when it's actually relative. Plus, it's just fun!"

For more information about Cultural Reconnection, AAKEWO and the Institute, visit AAKEWO.com.

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African American Women Seek Cultural Reconnection in Africa