Clotilda: The Return Home (2024)

[bunniefuu]

[Garry Lumbers]

This is where it starts.

[Tara Roberts]

Altevese, Garry, Cassandra,

and Delisha are descendants

trying to take their ancestors

home to West Africa

for the first time

in over 100 years.

This is an opportunity

to reckon, to heal...

[Altevese Rosario] Oh my God.

[Tara Roberts] ...to honor.

[Altevese Rosario] Is the

king saying my ancestor was

not sold into sl*very?

[Tara Roberts] This is

absolutely universal.

This is all of our history.

And that just feels

really powerful to me.

[Garry Lumbers]

Come on! Come on!

[clapping rhythmicly]

[whimsical music plays]

[Tara Roberts]

Diving With a Purpose

is a non-profit group.

It's made up of predominantly

Black scuba divers who mainly

have a passion for scuba diving.

[Tara Roberts]

How do you want to start?

[Tara Roberts] But the part of

their work that I most connect

to is this workaround

diving for sl*ve shipwrecks.

There were approximately

36,000 voyages that brought

12.5 million Africans

to the Americas.

[Tara Roberts] We are

going to measure this wreckage.

[Tara Roberts] Most often,

we think of the people on

these sl*ve ships as cargo,

as like faceless statistics...

[Crew] Welcome back!

[Tara Roberts]

but they were people.

They were mothers,

daughters, husbands, sons.

They were princes.

They were kings.

They were farmers, dreamers,

scientists, teachers.

They were all of that,

but we don't often

see them in that way.

[Tara Roberts] And the

Clotilda is actually the only

one of those ships to

have been found intact.

This work to recover

that history is hard.

But as I met descendants of

the ancestors on the Clotilda,

and I saw the strength that

they got from connecting to

that past, it's like, well,

if they can do it, maybe I can.

Alright, y'all.

So where are we?

[Altevese Rosario] We are at

the monument of our ancestor,

Kossola Oluale.

Whose sl*ve name

was Cudjo Lewis.

We're going to take some

soil in order to represent him

and take him home.

[Tara Roberts] Home for

Kossola was near the kingdom of

Dahomey in West Africa,

within what is

now known as Benin.

In 1860, he was captured by

members of the Dahomey tribe,

sold into sl*very,

and forced onto the last

known sl*ve ship to America,

the Clotilda.

Kossola was only 19 years old.

[Cassandra Lewis]

Kossola said that when

he went onto the ship,

there was a man

standing there, and he said,

"Take your clothes off.

You won't need this

where you're going."

And that right there,

taking his country cloth,

it just took

something out of him.

[Tara Roberts] Kossola and

109 c*ptive Africans were

confined aboard the Clotilda,

all chosen and among

the last to enter the world

of chattel sl*very in America.

Under this brutal system,

humans were

reduced to mere property,

treated like cattle,

and perpetually owned

under laws designed to

enforce their degradation.

Kossola, renamed Cudjo Lewis

and those aboard the Clotilda

endured and

persevered through this

cruel system for almost

five years in Mobile, Alabama,

until they were freed in 1865.

Their first wish?

To return to Africa.

[Altevese Rosario] Their

plan was to work and to save

their money and return home.

[Cassandra Lewis] But when

they go to pay for the ticket,

the price kept rising.

[Tara Roberts]

Unable to return home,

the survivors of the

Clotilda brought home here.

They purchased land from

their former enslaver and

called it Africatown.

They built a community

complete with houses,

a school, and a church,

establishing the first town

in the United States

to be founded, controlled,

and continuously occupied

by African Americans.

[uplifting music plays]

Here, they could celebrate

their culture and preserve

their memories of

home for generations.

Cudjo, the Clotilda's

last male survivor,

married, raised children,

and passed down

his life story with a

hand-drawn map

showing the path home.

[Cassandra Lewis] His last

words were that he wanted

to go back to Africa.

He wanted to see his family.

He always say, I

want to see my mom.

I'm looking for a feeling when

we hit Africa for him to say,

"I'm home.

You did a good job."

[Tara Roberts] Altevese,

what are you feeling?

[Altevese Rosario] You mean,

what's coming back up?

[laughs]

I'm very emotional because

this was what he always wanted,

and we get to be

the ones that do it.

That's a big deal.

Because this is huge.

This is something that has been

100-plus years in the making.

- We got it. Yeah.

- Yeah.

Remind me of that

when we're there.

[Garry Lumbers] Cause

we keep thinking that...

- It's just us.

- It's just us.

- Yeah.

- But we're not in this alone.

[Altevese Rosario] No.

So, we are gathering

soil from Cudjo's memorial

to take back to Africa.

In the African tradition,

it is the women who

are to take and the men

who are to give.

[Tara Roberts] It's a ritual

that serves throughout time,

and it feels like that's what

we're about to do in Benin.

This is something

for the ancestors,

it's something for us,

and it's something

for future generations.

Delisha, does this exist for

you in your body anywhere?

[Delisha Marshall] For me,

I'm not blood-related to Cudjo,

but we are family,

and that was the

spirit of Africatown.

[Tara Roberts]

Delisha's ancestor was

also on the Clotilda,

a royal prince named Gumpa.

[Delisha Marshall]

People are like, oh my God,

you're royalty,

and I'm like, I'm really not.

[Laughs]

It would be nice,

but there's a very

ugly side of that story.

[Delisha Marshall] Gumpa was

a member of the royal family.

He was related to the

king at the time, Glele.

[Tara Roberts] The same

king who ordered the raid

on Cudjo's village.

[Delisha Marshall] Gumpa did

something that offended him,

and the royal family

wanted to get rid of him,

and that's how he ended

up on the Clotilda.

[Tara Roberts]

Betrayed by his own family,

Gumpa emerged as a

beloved leader of Africatown,

where part of his legacy

still stands today.

[Delisha Marshall] The

last structure remaining from

that time is Gumpa's chimney.

It's a symbol of how the people

of the Clotilda came together.

Yesterday, I was able to place

a couple of flowers out there,

say thank you for

all the things that

they endured and survived,

and dig up some of the soil from

around the chimney.

And I plan on taking

that back with me to Benin,

and hopefully,

I can leave

some of it in the palace.

[Tara Roberts] On some level,

it's just you

honoring your grandfather.

[Altevese Rosario] This is

our way of giving back.

[Tara Roberts] By them

fulfilling the long-ago request

of their ancestor

and taking him home,

I think it heals

something for all of us

who will never

be able to do that.

Before this reverse

journey begins,

the descendants wish to

pay their respects to all the

people aboard the Clotilda,

whose stories may have

been lost but never forgotten.

[Cassandra Lewis]

I was a little girl,

and my father would

make us repeat the ship and

the year that they

came over and over again.

[Tara Roberts] When the

Clotilda arrived in 1860,

importing enslaved

people into the U.S. had

been ill*gal for decades.

So, after the captain

offloaded everyone,

he burned and sank the

ship to destroy any evidence.

[Cassandra Lewis] One day,

I got tired, and I said,

"Dad," I said,

"why do we keep doing

this over and over again?"

He say, "They think we don't

know what we saying because we

don't have proof of a ship,"

he say, "but it's out there,

and you always remember."

[Tara Roberts] For 159 years,

the only evidence of

Clotilda's ill*gal voyage was

the firsthand accounts

of its survivors.

Then, in 2019, a

discovery was made.

[Dr. James Delgado]

Yes, it is Clotilda.

[Cassandra Lewis] So all

of us said we don't have to

pass it on to our

kids the way he did it.

We can talk about it

because we got proof.

[Delisha Marshall] We can

throw these flowers as a way

to say thank you

to the ancestors and

ask them for their protection

as they watch over us.

For the ancestors!

[Descendants] To the ancestors!

[Garry Lumbers]

We're going home.

[Delisha Marshall]

[Cassandra Lewis] I think it's

going to be really emotional.

And I just want to take it in.

I want to feel it in my heart.

I think it'll make me whole.

[Delisha Marshall] Going back

to Benin having a conversation

with descendants of King Glele,

we are distantly related,

so that brings up a whole

other set of mixed emotions.

[Altevese Rosario] The hope is

that whomever we encounter on

the other side is going

to be just as encouraged,

just as joyful to

connect with us.

[Garry Lumbers] As we are

trying to connect with them.

[Tara Roberts] This

is an opportunity and

an experience to reckon,

to heal, to honor,

and that just feels

really powerful to me.



[Tara Roberts] Benin, a small

gem in the heart of West Africa.

Everywhere in this

vibrant country,

echoes of its past are palpable:

ancient kingdoms, revolutions,

and independence

from France since 1960.

And the people welcomed us so

warmly as soon as we arrived.

[Garry Lumbers]

This is where it starts.

[Delisha Marshall] I'm excited!

We're here!

[Altevese Rosario] We're home.

We're, we're officially home.

[Airport Personnel]

Welcome. Welcome.

[speaking in French]

[Ada] He says, "Welcome to

the land of your ancestors."

[Descendants]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Airport Personnel]

Welcome! Have a nice journey!

[Garry Lumbers]

There's so many of us,

like my mom, my grandma,

my grandfather.

We're not with only us.

You know, we're

bringing everybody.

[African music playing]

[Tara Roberts] We're

on our way to Ouidah,

a coastal town that has

remarkably transformed from

the busiest sl*ve market in

West Africa to the spiritual

heart of Benin.

Cudjo and Gumpa's

last steps on African soil

were here in 1860,

and it's where our

reverse journey begins.

[singing in native language]

Standing on the shore,

the weight of the

horror and injustices that

awaited those torn from

their homeland washed over us.



[barking]

[Altevese Rosario] He was

being stripped from his home.

He didn't know

where he was going.

He didn't have any

family with him.

He was being taken away

from everything that he knew

and that he loved,

never to see them again.

[Delisha Marshall]

They stole his family,

and I'm mad as hell

that they did that.

It took us 162 years

to get back here.

[Tara Roberts] They say

that the Atlantic is churning

with these lost souls.

1.8 million Africans died

in the middle passage.

That's the crossing from

Africa to the Americas.

Just in the crossing,

1.8 million people died.

Overlooking Ouidah Beach

is a monument that represents

The Door of No Return.

There are many such "doors."

Sometimes literal doors.

Other times, open spaces.

They exist up and down

the coast where slavers from

the Americas and Europe

loaded their ships with people

who had been captured,

kidnapped, bought, and sold.

Cudjo and Gumpa came

from different parts of the

warring Dahomey empire.

One captured in a raid and

sold as a prisoner of w*r.

The other betrayed by

his relative, the king,

and given away as a gift.

But today, they return together,

carried symbolically

by their descendants.

So we're here in Ouidah in

the Village of Zoungbodji,

and this is called

the Tree of Return.

And that just means that

c*ptive Africans would walk

around it three times so that

their souls would remain here

even though their bodies

were being taken far away.

[Altevese Rosario]

We're returning.

We're returning them.

[Delisha Marshall] Yeah,

they're physically not here,

so we're returning

on their behalf.

[Cassandra Lewis] To me,

it feels like getting closer

to their soul.

[Garry Lumbers] When I first

came, I didn't feel anything.

But then, when I put

everybody's hand together,

then I was just like, 'bam'.

It just started to clicking.

[Tara Roberts]

Can I touch it, too?

[Delisha Marshall]

Yeah, get in here.

This is your ancestors, too.

This is everybody's ancestors.

[Tara Roberts] You're right.

You're right.

I know that at least 20%

of my blood comes from Benin.

So you're right.

Like this is...

[overlapping chatter]

Me, too.

[Altevese Rosario] This

is you now communing

with your ancestor.

-Wow

-Absolutely. Yeah.

[Tara Roberts] When I

started this journey,

I was like, does

it really matter?

Do your ancestors, I don't know,

does it really

make a difference?

And I think it does.

I think knowing who you

are gives you strength,

gives you confidence.

And that is absolutely

something that's universal.

All right, I know that you have

a ritual that you want to do,

so I am going to step

away and let you do it.

[Delisha Marshall] Billy Adams.

[Descendants] Ashe (Amen)

[Delisha Marshall] John Africa.

[Descendants] Ashe (Amen)

- Lancer Africa.

- Ashe.

[Delisha Marshall] We are

calling the names of those

that are known that have

departed on the Clotilda.

And we tried to use as many

African names as we could.

-Omolabi

-Ashe.

[Tara Roberts] As

they read the names of

Clotilda survivors out loud,

I thought about what

all the captured Africans who

walked around this tree

were forced to leave behind.

[Delisha continues reading]

[Altevese Rosario] When you

separate people from everything

that looks like them,

from everything

that sounds like them,

they lose their entire self.

[Descendants] Ashe.

- Lottie Dennison.

- Ashe.

- Samuel Johnson.

- Ashe.

- Anna Keeby.

- Ashe.

- Gumpa.

- Ashe

- Kossola Oluale.

- Ashe.

[African music plays]

[Tara Roberts] We've been

invited to an Egungun ceremony,

a West African dance tradition

that manifests the spirits of

ancestors for remembrance,

celebration, and blessings.



The timing was perfect.

The descendants of Cudjo

and Gumpa are embarking on

the next phase of

their reverse journey,

the sl*ve market.

[Alex Amoussouvi] Ouidah

was one of the most important

sl*ve towns on the

west coast of Africa.

When the sl*ves

were brought from the

different wars that existed,

they were brought

to the sl*ve market,

chosen by different

sl*ve traders before they

would board the ships.

[Tara Roberts] So I'm just

imagining Cudjo on the platform.

[Altevese Rosario] I can

only imagine, first of all,

how degrading it

is because you're in front of

a crowd of people,

and you have these

strangers poking and prodding.

You don't know

what they're saying.

You don't know what's happening.

[Tara Roberts] Yeah.

Can you tell us a little bit

about Gumpa, Delisha?

[Delisha Marshall] He

was here at the market.

He looked very dignified,

very beautiful,

dark brown chocolate skin.

As I understand it, Gumpa

was given away as a gift.

[Alex Amoussouvi] Almost

18,000 Africans were taken

from the port of Ouidah

every year.

And that is why we

consider it as a genocide.

It is a genocide.

[Tara Roberts] The next stop

on our journey is the place

where Cudjo was held

before he came here.

That was a barracoon.

Barracoons were outdoor

stockades where captured

Africans were held for days,

even months, until ships,

like the Clotilda,

arrived to take them

across the Atlantic.

[Alex Amoussouvi] There were

five major forts in Ouidah:

the Danish, the Dutch,

the French, the English,

and the Portuguese fort.

They were kept chained here

until the ships were ready.

[Altevese Rosario]

Oh, my goodness.

[Tara Roberts]

Those are shackles?

[Altevese Rosario]

Those are shackles.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my...

[gasps].

[Tara Roberts]

That's a neck shackle.

[Altevese Rosario]

Oh, my God.

[Cassandra Lewis] Imagine this

around your neck and the weight.

[Alex Amoussouvi] Captives

could be up to 60, 80, 100,

200 that were kept here

with very little, no food.

Only once in a day,

they were fed.

[Garry Lumbers] How do you

think the women's felt?

[Altevese Rosario] That was the

first thing that came to mind.

If you're having

your menstrual cycle.

[Delisha Marshall]

Or if you're pregnant.

[Tara Roberts] Trafficking

that many people, you know,

through a fort like this.

[Altevese Rosario] Which

I'm sure was not cleaned,

so whatever the group

of people did in here once

they were taken away,

another group came in

and sat in the blood,

in the feces, in the urine.

You're now sitting in

yours and someone else's.

[Garry Lumbers]

This is a lot to ingest.

[Alex Amoussouvi] On average,

they were spending roughly

two months here.

[Altevese Rosario] And

then you're at the market.

[Tara Roberts] Right.

[Altevese Rosario]

You're at the market like

you're a cow waiting to be sold.

[Alex Amoussouvi] The moats

are just around the fence that

circles the old fort.

They were infested

with crocodiles.

It is believed that there

were some that were thrown

into the gutters.

[Altevese Rosario] Cassandra,

you want to lead us in prayer?

[Cassandra Lewis] Lord,

Father God, this room here,

it's just a spirit here,

it's just making us

feel kind of down.

I ask you to lift us up and

carry us in a decent way.

[Descendants] Amen.

[African music plays]

[Tara Roberts]

We're off to Abomey,

once the capital of

the Dahomey kingdom.

Between the 17th

and 19th centuries,

twelve kings reigned,

many of whom expanded

the kingdom by conquering

neighboring tribes and

selling captives to be enslaved.

During that era, Dahomey

became one of the most powerful

kingdoms on the

West Coast of Africa.

[singing in Fon]

Today, the country of Benin

is no longer a monarchy,

it's a republic, and the

title of king is primarily

a ceremonial one.

[Alex Amoussouvi]

Let us prostrate. Like this.

[Alex Amoussouvi] The

King of the most powerful

Dahomey Kingdom wants to

renew his gratitude.

[speaking in Bon]

[Alex Amoussouvi]

Everybody accepts today that

the sl*ve trade was a

crime against humanity.

[speaking in Bon]

[Alex Amoussouvi]

And today, we are ready to

move forward in a partnership,

in a strength building

between Africans and Africans

of the diaspora.

[speaking in Bon]

[Alex Amoussouvi]

And that is why His Majesty is

expecting you to

come back again.

All his children,

all his grandchildren,

they should come back home.

[Cassandra Lewis]

Wow, this is amazing.

You can't even imagine.

[Altevese Rosario]

It's a sense of peace,

it's a sense of comfort.

[Garry Lumbers] This is what

Afro-Americans need to know.

[Altevese Rosario] Yeah, that

they can always come home.

[Tara Roberts] After our

visit with the current king,

we're now off to

meet a direct descendant of

a past king.

Like Delisha, this

descendant can trace

his lineage to King Glele,

who ordered the raid

on Cudjo's village and exiled

Gumpa from the royal court.

[speaking in Bon]

[speaking in Bon]

[Interpreter] The king

is very happy to welcome you.

-Thank you.

[speaking in Bon]

[Interpreter]:

If you have any questions,

it is your time to ask him.

[Delisha Marshall] Can you

tell us a little about Glele

and what he was like?

[speaking in Bon]

[Interpreter]: When the

King Glele come to power,

he reign with peace

and with progress of the

Kingdom of Dahomey.

He liked people.

He liked Europeans.

He liked everybody.

[Altevese Rosario]

Because the King has such a

good relationship with

the Europeans,

did he know what

European sl*very was like?

[Interpreter] The King of Abomey

never sold people as a sl*ve.

Those men and women

travel to America to

work with those Europeans,

and they want to

have a good relationship

with those Europeans,

so if today we

talk about sl*very,

it's to show the negative

parts of the kingdom of Abomey,

but that is not right.

It is wrong.

So this is the facts.

[Altevese Rosario] Is the

King saying the fact is that

my ancestor was

not sold into sl*very?

[speaking in Bon]

[Interpreter]: The King said

that they never sold people.

[Altevese Rosario]

Because my ancestor, Kossola,

told his children and his

children's children that he

did not go willingly.

To say that Africans

were not sold into sl*very

is not only false,

but it makes it seem as

though he thinks I'm foolish.

[speaking in Bon]

[Laughter].

[Altevese Rosario] I feel very

much so mocked by the laughter,

and that got me more

enraged to the point to where

I wanted to get

up and walk away.

[Cassandra Lewis] I was stunned.

Do you know we lost relatives?

And for you to

sit here and deny it,

it was shocking to me.

[Garry Lumbers] I didn't

want the conversation to go

where it was going.

I just didn't want

nobody to be hurt.

He's not going to say that

his family was part of an

ill*gal sl*ve trade.

I don't expect for him

to say that he's wrong.

[speaking in Bon]

[Tara Roberts] The king

started off saying these things

that impacted us all.

But then he changed his tune,

but he didn't change

his tune on his own.

Someone on our team went

to the prince and told him

no, no, no, no, no, no,

this is what happened,

and you will not disrespect us.

[Alex Amoussouvi]

The king says for

reconciliation to take place,

it is important

to continue to talk,

to continue to exchange,

for us to be finally,

how you say?

[Alex Amoussouvi]

Cleansed. Cleansed, exactly.

[Altevese Rosario] I

have a final question.

Why not sell them,

send them to a

place where they can

keep their culture intact,

where they can be

with their people,

where they can

eventually return home?

Because in America,

they are completely cut off

from their language,

from their people,

from their culture,

[Delisha Marshall]

From their families.

[Altevese Rosario] So

why send them to a place

where you know they

will never have contact with

what is most

deeply pure of them?

[Delisha Marshall] It's okay.

[Altevese Rosario]

It's not okay. It's not.

[Delisha Marshall] It's okay.

This is what we came for.

We came for answers.

[Altevese Rosario] I did notice

other ladies that were crying.

And that was a

sense of comfort for me.

Regardless of what

else has happened,

regardless of what anyone

else is saying, you get it,

and you're with me in spirit,

and you feel my pain.

[Delisha Marshall] Both sides

need to take ownership.

So I'm equally mad at

Glele and people like him who

enslave their own.

That doesn't diminish any of

the part that sl*ve traders and

sl*ve owners played in this.

Everyone needs to be held

accountable for what happened.

And that is why a lot of

people are still angry.

[African music plays]

[Delisha Marshall] Some of

the elders from Glele's family

took me into Glele's

personal palace.

This would be where Gumpa would

hang out like in everyday life.

Prior to leaving Alabama,

I dug up some soil which

is around the chimney that

still remains of the

house that he lived in...

Welcome home, Gumpa.

to give his soul a release

and to fulfill his wish.

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day,

our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is kingdom, the

power and glory forever.

Amen.

I know it's something

that he's been wanting,

and my family's been

wanting to do for 162 years.

So finally being able

to do that for him,

it feels very freeing, and I

hope he's at peace as well.

[uplifting music plays]

[Tara Roberts] We're

on our way to Bant.

[Altevese Rosario]

Yes. I am so excited.

Like I can barely

contain myself.

[Tara Roberts]

What about you, Garry?

Do you feel nervous

about anything at all?

[Garry Lumbers] I'm

just going to take it in.

[Delisha Marshall]

That has to be exciting.

I'm excited for you, guys.

[distant African music]

[cheering and chanting in Bon]

Oh, wow.

Do y'all see this?

Oh, my God.

[Altevese Rosario]

Scores of people.

Old people, young people.

Men. Women.

[cheering and chanting in Bon]

[cheering and chanting in Bon]

[Cassandra Lewis] You

got my brother's nose.

You got my sister's eyes.

You got my cousin's cheeks.

Everybody represents somebody.

[Altevese Rosario] I didn't

feel like a stranger anymore.

[African music plays]

The oldest of the elders just

told us welcome back home,

you're home, you're our family,

your family is here.

And every person just

echoed that sentiment,

and it really did feel that way.

[Justin] He's very

glad because your ancestor

write his story

and because of his story

you know the route

and you've come back home.

[Altevese Rosario]

I am so overwhelmed.

[Tara Roberts] I have snot

coming out my nose now.

[Altevese Rosario] Like,

I'm thinking, okay this is the

path that he walked.

Like even just in his normal

everyday, just going places,

this is the ground

that his feet touched,

and then coming back

into the village,

these are the

songs that he sang.

These are the

dances that he did.

These are the drums

that he saw, and he heard.

[Tara Roberts] Yes,

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

These are the faces that he saw.

[Altevese Rosario]

These are the faces,

these are his people,

and these are my people,

and they're saying

you're home, you're home.

[Tara Roberts] Yes, yes, yes!

This isn't even

my story, but it is my story.

[Altevese Rosario]

It is your story,

it's all of our stories, it is.

It is your story.

[Tara Roberts] The moment had

finally come to ceremoniously

bring Cudjo Lewis home.

[Altevese Rosario] So it was a

ceremony that we had to perform,

a ritual that could only be

performed by blood relatives.

And it had to do with us

giving him an offering,

and it was really just

us inviting him back,

his spirit back

into the village,

and then sealing it in a way

where his spirit is tethered

to his village.

[Delisha Marshall]

I'm so excited.

[Cassandra Lewis] I had to

get down and draw the map.

[Garry Lumbers]

Pour it out, Cassandra.

We're going to put

Pop-pop in the middle.

Put the heart in there, yeah.

[Cassandra Lewis] We

spread Cudjo's and his wife's

soil in the middle

with the heart.

[Altevese Rosario]

We placed soil from our

other ancestors from Mobile,

bringing them home as well.

[Garry Lumbers]

Tell them to call Cudjo.

Tell him to come home.

[group chanting in Bon]

[Garry Lumbers] Louder.

Louder! Louder! Louder!

[group chanting in Bon]

Bring him home, come on.

Bring him home!

That wasn't just me.

That was the family.

That was the

people of the village.

That was everybody!

Come on, come on,

come on, come on, come on!

[chanting continues and fades]

[Cassandra Lewis] When it ended.

I said is it done?

And he said yes.

So I had to turn to

everybody and say it's done.

[Tara Roberts] It wasn't

my family returning home.

But it was.

The stories of our ancestors,

specifically

African American people,

are human stories.

And they're not just about

the condition of enslavement.

There is joy.

There is power.

There is agency.

This work is about discovery.

[Garry Lumbers] We're ready.

We're good, we're good.

[Tara Roberts] It's about

remembering and honoring and

reckoning and restoring,

and ultimately,

it's about healing.

[Altevese Rosario] Where

we performed our ceremony,

that is a part of the three

acres of land that the village

has gifted us.

The expectation is

that we come back.

Which we will.

[African music plays]

[Tara Roberts] Our

journey wasn't over yet.

The town of Bant

had a surprise for

Cudjo's descendants.

[Altevese Rosario] Oh

my goodness gracious,

you have got to be kidding me.

[Cassandra Lewis]

When we saw it,

I spotted it from afar,

and I couldn't take

my eyes off of it.

The statue was so beautiful.

[Altevese Rosario]

Wow, look at this!

[Tara Roberts] Do you

want to read it out loud?

[Altevese Rosario]

"Cudjo Oluale Kossola Lewis

from Benin to Alabama, USA,

last survivor of the

last known sl*ve ship to

enter the United States.

He was one of over 100

African men and women purchased

and brought across the

Atlantic to Mobile, Alabama,

aboard the sl*ve ship Clotilda."

[Garry Lumbers]

They never forgot him.

He must've sent out some

strong vibes back here, man,

for them to

remember him like this.

[Altevese Rosario] Yeah.

[Tara Roberts] My hope that

as people listen to this story,

as they connect

to this miraculous,

amazing opportunity

for the descendants to

connect with their roots,

that something gets

healed in our world.

And that feels like,

that's everything.