my name is francesca conaté and I was the first child of two for karen and hadie conaté. my brother raymond is living in california with his son amani. i also have a younger sister named techell from my mother’s second marriage.
my mother is african- american and 5th generation californian. my father, the youngest of three children, was born and raised in mattru jong, sierra leone. my father died on october 1, 1984 and time did not provide the opportunity for him to reveal the rich history of our conateh (as spelled by my family in sierra leone) heritage.
mattru jong always had a mythical ring to it because my subconscious had stored the memory of this name but i had no images or information of family or life there to support the fact that this was a tangible location.
the trip i embarked on from december 15 – january 2, 2007 was to re-connect with my historic and proud mandingo lineage originating from my grandfather abubakar conateh who migrated from mali to sierra leone. it was also to re-discover the african pride that my grandmother musu kanneh bestowed in me as she was the daughter of the paramount chief of mattru jong.
this trip was 35 years in the making because the day i was born it was written that i would make this life elevating and joyous pilgrimage home. true to the spirit of my grandfather and father, my trip required me to cross great distances to realize the 1st step towards my destiny. my grandfather went from mali to sierra leone as a businessman. my father decided to relocate from sierra leone to america, stopping first in new york before settling in california.
i have always enjoyed traveling and have visited 10 countries, the majority of which i traveled alone. i currently live in tokyo japan and in order to fulfill this part of my destiny it required me to fly from tokyo, japan to atlanta, georgia in america to visit my family; london, england for a connecting flight to freetown, sierra leone and a 6 hour car ride to mattru jong!!
the following blog re-counts some of the high-lights of my journey home…
the trip i embarked on from december 15 – january 2, 2007 was to re-connect with my historic and proud mandingo lineage originating from my grandfather abubakar conateh who migrated from mali to sierra leone. it was also to re-discover the african pride that my grandmother musu kanneh bestowed in me as she was the daughter of the paramount chief of mattru jong.
this trip was 35 years in the making because the day i was born it was written that i would make this life elevating and joyous pilgrimage home. true to the spirit of my grandfather and father, my trip required me to cross great distances to realize the 1st step towards my destiny. my grandfather went from mali to sierra leone as a businessman. my father decided to relocate from sierra leone to america, stopping first in new york before settling in california.
i have always enjoyed traveling and have visited 10 countries, the majority of which i traveled alone. i currently live in tokyo japan and in order to fulfill this part of my destiny it required me to fly from tokyo, japan to atlanta, georgia in america to visit my family; london, england for a connecting flight to freetown, sierra leone and a 6 hour car ride to mattru jong!!
the following blog re-counts some of the high-lights of my journey home…
3 comments:
Nice reporting and really nice photos. Keep it up.
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Hi, I was zapping throug blogs and I saw yours, which made me really happy. I am part of a cultural association that works on African cultural roots, to get people discover REAL Africa and real African history, that one never told on books...but exhisting in the oral (spoken) African tradition. We started last year a Responsible Tourism project called "Pilgrimage to the heart of Africa" which is about the re-meeting of African people from east and west of the Atlantic Ocean! That's why your story moved me. We have a site www.malakimakongo.net, which unfortunately is only in part in English. We hope to find the way of translating it all... a little by little! Take care, and get in touch if you will. Letizia
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