Black history and a trip to Angola: Wanda Tucker’s search for answers
Angola was barely mentioned in the history of the slave trade. USA TODAY invited Wanda Tucker there to search for her roots.
Jarrad Henderson, USA TODAY
HAMPTON, Virginia – Angolan Ambassador Joaquim do Espírito Santo walked quietly down the path along the Chesapeake Bay.
He and his delegation stopped at the lone sign marking where enslaved Angolans were brought ashore more than 400 years ago. There they were told how enslaved Africans helped English colonists survive, built the fort protecting the area, contributed for centuries to the making of the United States.
It was one of the last stops Saturday of a trip to the Hampton area exploring connections with the African country thousands of miles away.
The visit marked the latest effort by Angolan officials to encourage African Americans to visit their country to learn more about the historical connections and invest in its future. It began with a visit that morning to the cemetery of the Tucker family, who believe they are descendants of those Angolans first to arrive in the region.
“I am hopeful that the existing close ties of friendship and cooperation between the government of the Republic of Angola and the government of the United States of America will continue to grow in the years ahead, mutually benefiting our countries and people,” said Espírito Santo.
The Hampton trip was planned during February to commemorate the connection and history between Angola and the United States – the month celebrates Black history in the United States and marks the month Angola launched its ‘’liberation struggle’’ from Portugal in 1961, Espírito Santo said.
He said the United States was built “by the hands of the first Angolan slaves who arrived here.”
“We want to make sure everybody knows the story,’’ he told USA TODAY.
More: Hundreds of thousands of Africans were enslaved in America. Wanda Tucker believes her relatives were the first
More: In 2019, USA TODAY took me to Angola. Last year, I went back ‘home’ with my family
US history of slavery has deep ties to Angola
The Hampton connection to Angola dates back to 1619 when a ship, the White Lion, ended up at the shores of an English colony in Virginia. On board were about 20 Africans believed to have been taken from the Ndongo kingdom in the interior of Angola.
The Tuckers, a local family with a long history in the region, believe they are descendants of two of those Angolans – Antony and Isabella.
The city of Hampton, the state of Virginia and the country commemorated the 400th anniversary of the ship’s landing in 2019 with festivals, memorials, articles, films and more. Hampton was at the center of many of those activities, as was the site of the ship’s arrival, now Fort Monroe.
In the months since those commemorations, Angolan officials have ramped up efforts to highlight the connection between the country and the United States.
The Angolan Embassy hosted an event at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in December 2019 to commemorate the 1619 anniversary that featured dancers, music and a salute to the Tucker family.
In September, Angola’s President João Lourenço toured the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., where museum officials led him, his wife, Ana Dias Lourenço, and a delegation through exhibits on slavery and the Middle Passage. One exhibit features Angolan Queen Njinga Mbandi, revered for fighting to liberate Angolans from slavery during her mid-1600s reign.
“The idea is really to keep connections on both sides,’’ Lourenço told USA TODAY after the tour.
After Lourenço invited the Tuckers to visit Angola, Wanda Tucker, her brother Vincent Tucker, and their cousin, Carolita Jones Cope, traveled there in December, meeting with the president and local leaders and visiting villages and other historic sites.
Espírito Santo, meanwhile, spoke last summer at a ceremony at the Tucker family cemetery. He and Wanda Tucker will speak Thursday at a Black History webinar hosted by Rio Salado College in Arizona, where Tucker is the faculty chair for psychology, philosophy and religious studies.
Espírito Santo also recently visited Atlanta, where the City Council proclaimed Jan. 17 Angola Day. The proclamation notes “Angola is uniquely tied to the history of Atlanta and the American South.”
Espírito Santo said Angolan officials have also talked with leaders in Arizona, California, Nevada and New York about doing business and urging more Americans to visit.
“We will keep working with other states to deepen more and more the relationship between Angola and the United States,’’ he told USA TODAY.
It’s not surprising that Angolan officials are trying to build ties with African Americans and urge them to visit, said Jean-Michel Mabeko-Tali, a professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., who specializes in Central African history.
In the past, particularly before the civil war, tourism was a key part of the economy, much like in neighboring Namibia, South Africa and Botswana, he said.
Unlike some other African countries, such as Ghana, Angola hasn’t fully tapped the growing market of African Americans visiting the continent. Angola, once ruled by Portugal until 1975, is not an English-speaking country. And it hasn’t fully recovered from decades of civil war.
But campaigns to attract African American tourists can work, Mabeko-Tali said, if officials target their outreach and build more hotels and accommodations. They could also promote the country’s proximity and access to Namibia and South Africa.
In 2019, hundreds of African Americans, including a group led by the NAACP, traveled to Ghana in what was dubbed ”The Year of Return.”
Ghana had more than 1.1 million international visitors in 2019, according to Statista, an online site providing data on the global digital economy. That was up from about nearly 957,000 the year before.
Angola had 218,000 international travelers in 2019, the same number as the year before, the group found.
Angola’s tourism has suffered because of its history of being plagued by landmines from the civil war, said Mabeko-Tali. “How do you travel without dying on the mine?” he said.
He said the visit by the late Princess Diana in 1997 helped highlight the problem. Then Prince Harry, Diana’s son, retraced her steps in 2019.
Mabeko-Tali said it has taken time for Angolans to boost their economy.
“They survived,’’ he said. “They’re tough people.’’
More: She was captured, enslaved and she survived. Meet Angela, the first named African woman in Jamestown
‘You can see so much history’
During the visit Saturday, under tall trees at the Tucker Family cemetery, Walter Jones, a Tucker descendant and caretaker of the cemetery, and Verrandall Tucker, Wanda Tucker’s brother, led the Angolan delegation and family members past rows of headstones explaining the history of what they called “sacred ground.”
“It’s just a blessing to have you guys come,’’ Verrandall Tucker told the group.
More than 200 Black Americans are believed to be buried in the cemetery once called the Old Colored Burial Ground, Jones said. Headstones mark generations of Tuckers resting there. But many are unknown, marked by tiny white crosses.
“You can see so much history,’’ said Jones as he pointed toward gravesites.
During the visit, elders of the Tucker family sprinkled sand brought from the shores of the Kwanza River in Angola around the cemetery.
William Floyd Tucker, 76, said the ceremony at the cemetery where his father and two brothers are buried was a way to honor his ancestors and their connection to Angola.
“We’re reaching out for them and telling them job well done,’’ he said.
Espírito Santo said the visit to the cemetery stirred emotions not only for him, but for other Angolans whose ancestors were enslaved and brought to what is now the United States.
“More than a visit, this moment is a journey to the past where we have the opportunity to reconnect with our ancestors,’’ Espírito Santo told the group as he stood in front of a wreath of white roses, carnations and daises gifted by the embassy.
A white ribbon draped across it read “Forever in our thoughts. Embassy of the Republic of Angola.”
Espírito Santo said it was fitting the delegation visit during Black History Month. It is also in February that Angolans commemorate the start of their fight for liberation from Portugal in 1961, he said.
For centuries the central African region, which included Angola, was part of the transatlantic slave trade. Angolans paid a heavy price in the lives lost.
“People don’t forget that,’’ said Mabeko-Tali.
Even when slavery was abolished in many countries, the illegal slave trade continued there. “It’s an emotional issue for Angolans,’’ he said.
Later that Saturday, the Angolan delegation visited the Hampton History Museum, which features an exhibit about the arrival of the ship in 1619 carrying enslaved Angolans. The group then visited the 1619 marker at the Fort Monroe National Monument.
Just steps away, officials and local groups plan to erect a memorial commemorating the arrival of the White Lion and the history that followed. The $6 million project is scheduled for completion in 2026.
“Your presence today is confirmation that this work hasn’t been in vain,’’ Eola Dance, superintendent of the Fort Monroe National Monument, told the Angolan delegation.
More: I was writing about colonial America’s first enslaved Africans. I was stunned to find my ancestors, too.
More: https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/1619-african-slavery-history-maps-routes-inter
Building a bridge between Angolan and US history
Tuck, the Hampton mayor, said it may be hard to get some African Americans to visit unless there are more people, like the Tucker family, who can trace their ancestry to Angola.
He said national and local media attention around the Tucker family’s story may help. “To have a family that can trace its roots back… it’s phenomenal,’’ said Tuck.
Other barriers include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, safety concerns, such as terrorism, and the lack of knowledge about African countries, said Tuck.
More: Forget what you know about 1619, historians say. Slavery began a half-century before Jamestown
Experts said the 1619 commemoration events in Hampton may have helped focus attention on Angola.
Angolan officials hope the city will issue a proclamation declaring Angolan Day there.
“It’s time for us to build a bridge and establish a firm and a permanent connection,’’ Espírito Santo said.
Tuck, the mayor, said Hampton is a sister city with Pietermaritzburg in South Africa, but the city’s relationship with Angola is special because of the Tucker’s connection.
Developing an economic partnership with Angola, however, may be challenging, Tuck said.
“We’re not a Detroit. We’re not a Baltimore. We’re not a Los Angles or a New York,’’ he said. “We’re not in a position where we either manufacture something or we export a lot of something.’’
Hampton is a small city and so much of the economic opportunities Angola might want will probably happen at the state level, said Tuck.
Espírito Santo said he hopes African Americans not only visit Angola, but also invest in the country rich in diamonds, oil, coffee and iron.
Tuck said there could be some sister city opportunities, including student exchanges.
And there is the forever tie with the 1619 connection.
“We can trace a national event from there to here,” Tuck said. “To me, it seems more than natural that we would have that kind of relationship.”
Cope Jones, a Tucker descendant who returned from a trip to Angola in December, would like to return every year. While there, she met with village leaders, visited a waterfalls and walked barefoot on the shores of the Kwanza River.
“It’s a beautiful country,’’ she said. “They have so many resources. And there’s so much more I want to learn.’’
Cope Jones said the more others learn about Angola and its rich culture, the more they’re likely to consider visiting.
“It is just a matter of time,’’ she said. “There are efforts right now to make that happen.’’
Contributing: Nichelle Smith
Follow Deborah Berry on Twitter: @dberrygannett
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