Do You Know Where You Come From?

“Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.” ― James Baldwin

Yesterday, Day two of our family reunion, we held a memorial service at my grandparent’s church to remember our lost loved ones.

For the sermon, my aunt preached an educational message. Teaching my generation of the family tree about where we come from and who we are.

My full name is Nathan Alfred Jugbeh Hastings-Spaine, named after my grandfather, the late Alfred Jugbeh Robinson. Since a child, I knew I had this other name that wasn’t on my birth certificate but was still very much so a part of my identity. Jugbeh, my Kru name. But I had minimal context on what it meant to be Kru.

Then in 2001, when my grandparents moved to the US from Sierra Leone, I was slowly exposed to my Kru identity.

The first exposure came through language. Growing up in a Sierra Leone household, my siblings and I naturally developed an understanding Krio, a dialect of Sierra Leone. Which in its simplest form is broken-English but in its true essence, embodies so much more.

Moreover, since we didn’t speak Krio, people often assumed that we didn’t understand it. But quickly…