Lanette Stigsen was at work when she overheard a man tell a co-worker about his trip to Africa. He had spent the last year selecting youth from high schools across Chicago and flying them to a continent unfamiliar to them-but from which some of their ancestors came. That was until his mother got ill and could no longer make the annual trip. He would have to remain in the U.S. to care for her.
Stigsen, Chicago coordinator for student recruitment for the Urban Scholars program at Kokrobitey Institute, had read the book "Our Wildest Dreams," by Joline Godfrey. It challenged her to figure out what she really wanted out of life. She had mentored high school students for eight years and had always hoped to travel more. Acting on impulse, she approached her co-worker after the man left and offered to take over. She said she'd recruit the youth plus raise the money so that nearly everyone could attend the two-week trip for little or nothing. The co-worker smiled and told Stigsen she'd be perfect for the job.
In the eight years she has run the Urban Scholars program, Stigsen, 60, has taken more than 70 teens to Ghana. The March visit was the group's sixth trip. Students learn about the trip through after-school programs like Saturday Scholars, Young Chicago Authors, Target Hope and Umoja Student Development Corporation.
"Not a lot of African Americans have been to Africa," said Rhiana Gunn-Wright, a 17-year-old student who accompanied Stigsen on the March trip. "A lot of African Americans don't get to learn about the African side of our culture." Last month, the group boarded a jumbo jet at O'Hare International Airport and 24 hours later landed in Accra, Ghana. From there they went to the Kokrobitey Institute, where they learned about the history and culture of the country with Ghanaian students their age. Kokrobitey accommodates similar programs from across the U.S. and also holds literacy and arts classes for local Ghanaians.
The experience the American students received was much more than academic, but transcendent because remnants of the country's past are still around, Stigsen said. "The Africa that we see is exactly as it was hundreds of years ago," Stigsen said as she described the open markets, slave castles and backyard livestock the youth toured in nearby towns. Though Stigsen is Norwegian and Polish, she said that going to Africa is more important to her than going to her own ancestral countries."Sure, I could be going to Norway and Poland, but Africa is the cradle of civilization. We all come from Africa," Stigsen said. "My tiny gift to the world is to help youth find themselves, and hopefully like where they come from."
Stigsen recently sat down with The Chicago Reporter to talk about the Urban Scholars program and their most recent trip.
What do you love about visiting Africa?
Chicago is a fast-paced city. I never slow down. When I get to Africa the heat slows me down. It hits me in the face like a twoby- four. Once when I was running to a seminar one of the staff members stopped me. He said, "We don't run in Ghana." There was no need to be in a hurry.
And the peacefulness. When your feet hit African soil, you realize that you made it to Africa. Then the smells start to come. You smell the wood burning, and with the heat and the sweat, it's just an alive moment. In Chicago we beg for the smell of a flower.
Can you describe what the students experience while in Africa?
There are two slave castles that we visit; Elmina and Cape Coast slave castle. We walk throughout one of the slave castles and go into the dungeons. They close the doors on us and it's totally dark. There's a small hole in the ceiling where they used to drop food through for the slaves. Tour guides explain to us that in that dungeon there would be 200 to 300 people at a time. And they open the door back up and you can see the scratch marks on the wall. You can see how high the feces were at one point.
What we often do is light candles and do a little ceremony for the ancestors in the dungeon. We go through the 'door of no return' and come out alive and glad to be on the face of the earth and going home to Chicago.
Do you notice any racial barriers being broken down between students?
One year when we came out of the dungeon, many of the African-American students were sobbing. Puerto Rican girls on the trip quietly chuckled at them. The next day in discussion we talked about slavery and history. Once these two young Puerto Rican students learned of the hardships that the ancestors went through, they apologized. They said they had no idea that this could affect you still today.
Can you speak about an example in which you have seen a change in one of your students?
In one instance, in the seminar room at Kokrobitey campus, Ghanaian students asked if anyone was scared of anything in Africa. One young man on the trip said that when he got out of the airport and saw hundreds of African people looking at him, he felt like they were out to get him and do him harm. He said that he had seen a lot in Chicago and that everybody is out to get everybody. The Ghanaian students told him that as a Ghanaian he had done nothing wrong, and no one there would wish to harm him. From then on he was able to make friends and talk with the Ghanaian people. He then frequently wrote about the friendliness, the warmth and the welcoming of the people, unlike what he was used to back home.
How do you make the trips happen?
Fundraising. And fundraising remains difficult. I work fulltime for a small charitable organization. The Kokrobitey Institute Urban Scholars program is something I do on my own. I can take as many as 20 students but donations have decreased over the years, so this year I only have nine students.
There are very few individuals who embrace this idea-especially corporations. They aren't interested, even though it's totally tax deductible. I honestly don't know why it's been so hard to find people to contribute to this. Most of my funding so far has been from individual donors. The kids have to do some fundraising. I do the bigger amounts. But if a student only raised a couple hundred dollars I would have to fundraise the rest.
Why are you so passionate about this yearly trip?
When does someone have the chance to actually see students' lives change before their very eyes? I not only get to take them to Africa, but during the course of those two weeks, I get to see their lives change. It's a difficult task to get to Africa. Not many people get to do that.
How do you keep the feeling you get in Africa with you when you're back in Chicago?
Each time I come back [to Chicago] I try to hold onto that feeling of peacefulness that I get in Africa. And I can keep the slowed down pace of Africa with me for about a month before getting fully back to fast-paced Chicago. Also, when the weather agrees, I always wear Ghanaian fabric as skirts or jackets, because that way when I walk the streets of Chicago I attract the Ghanaian population. They recognize the fabric and the symbols on the clothing. I can be walking downtown Chicago and I'll hear "Sister! Sister! Where did you get that dress?" And I'll tell them that I have been to their country. It's nice to be recognized in Chicago by Ghanaians.
How do you think the trip enhances a student's view of the world?
To be able to have the experience of international travel opens up a student's eyes. Here's a Ghanaian proverb: "One must go out of one's house to begin learning." And that says it all.
