China Cabinets 06/09/2011
 
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  I needed time to process it all.

I thought blogging while in Africa was going to be fun, except often times I found myself speechless. But now that I am home, I have time think about the last three weeks.

Africa is a place that all people should visit, especially people of color. There are so many similarities between Africans and Black Americans, rightfully so, since we all truly descended from there. I had dinner at the home of both teachers who classes I taught and I truly felt like I was sitting in my great aunts living room in Greenwood MS. Although neither teacher was rich, in fact, they only earn $50 a month as a teacher, their homes were clean and both had very nice China Cabinets in their living rooms.

I have always thought that China Cabinets were just a form of decoration that all the elderly people in my family had to protect the dishes that only the preacher could use. I viewed it the same way I viewed having a plastic cover over nice furniture. Both were a bit ridiculous and China Cabinets especially take up way to much space.  I can remember sitting on a couch covered with plastic as a child in Mississippi staring at a cabinet full of dishes that I was never allowed to touch. As the sweat started to make me stick to the sofa, I vowed first that I would never cover my furniture with plastic and second, I would not have a cabinet for dishes in my living room.

Now some twenty years later I am in Africa, sitting on a plastic covered sofa looking at yet another  China Cabinet. It was then that I realized that both where African traditions. Plastic covered the couches because it kept them clean. When you live in a home with concrete floors and loose dirt from outside easily able to get inside, keeping furniture clean is not always and easy task. And the China Cabinet was where they stored their personal dishes. Neither home I went in had a kitchen.  They did however have a kitchen boy, who collected their dishes and took them to the community kitchen shared by about eight families.

After getting the chance to finally eat from the dishes of a China Cabinet,  I found it fascinating that even though my ancestors situation had changed, their mindset remained. Discovering China Cabinets and plastic covered furniture in Africa helped me realize that even through years of slavery, where blacks were stripped of our true identity—there are still some things that remained.

Although I am hoping one day to discover my true last name, for now the China Cabinet will do :-).
 

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