After elected officials and community activists from the African American community
forced the federal government to halt the construction of a federal office building
in lower Manhattan when they discovered a burial ground for Africans in colonial
America, the remains from this burial ground were taken to Howard University
for study, with the understanding that they would eventually be re-interred
near the site where they had been
found. But the government continued to erect the building and now, a decade
later, the remains have yet to be returned to New York.Almost from the moment
they were discovered, these sacred remains have been
caught in a swirl of politics and economics. It was only because the community
insisted that the building be halted that it was, despite government guidelines
about what to do in such a situation. It was only because the community insisted
that these remains of Africans be sent to an African American university that
Howard was given the contract for the study.
Howard researchers have been studying the remains and have already learned much about the life of African people in colonial America. For example, they have found that the death rate for these African people was about twice that of white Americans, a statistic that sadly remains true today, 300 years later. The three scientific reports which must be completed (including data recovery, writing and peer review) include skeletal biology reports, historical reports and archeology reports. The completion of this significant research will cause history books to be re-written and may enable present day African Americans to search for their ancestral birth countries.
But a political battle has been raging between the General Services Administration
(GSA) of the federal government, which had been given the role of overseeing
the African Burial Ground project and the research staff
at Howard. We all are the losers in this power struggle.
The good news is that partially because of this battle, the remains of these
African people were still at Howard University on September 11, 2001. Many of
the articles which had been found with the remains, however, were in a vault
at the World Trade Center site for safekeeping and the researchers feared that,
after surviving in the ground for three centuries, they had been lost. But several
weeks after the attacks, these vaults were
found and the miracle is that these articles had now survived being lost for
the second time.
Even as we are about to enter another new year, the remains of these African
people seem to still be caught up in a battle between the GSA and Howard University.
The government's director of the project has declared
that the remains will be re-buried soon, but the question is whether adequate
time and funds will be set aside to complete this critical research.
Moreover, the question is will the remains be buried in consultation with the
community that has so diligently protected them over the past decade. Will they
be buried on a day of significance to the African American
community or just rushed into the ground after so many years? Will members of
the African American faith communities be consulted and included in the planning
and interment? If it is true that one of the key GSA positions dealing with
the African American community has been eliminated as a full-time job and that
the consultant hired is not working full-time and is no longer even living in
New York, the question is how can all those issues listed above possibly be
addressed?
Those who were buried in the African Burial Ground were lost when the city
covered over this site as it grew beyond its original lower Manhattan boundaries.
They were almost lost again on September 11. Will they be
lost once more in institutional differences? Will the federal government officials
heed the advice of the African American community or will it go its own way?
Those are questions which should haunt us all.