Years ago, on Emancipation Day, an elder called me in London from Cameroon and greeted me with song.
“First of August come again hurrah me ginga/jinga”.
Years later, I heard the song at local Emancipation activities.
For some time, I began to sing “Oh Ra me ginga/ jinga.”
Ra, deity of the sun of ancient Kemet, today known as Egypt. Without the sun, there would be no life on Earth, so for many years I have thought that there is wisdom in worshipping the sun.
That elder, now an ancestor, forever imprinted that song in my mind even though I have never taken the time to figure out the meaning of the latter part or even if I was singing the words correctly. It is perhaps an inheritance from my ancestors, who were enslaved and lost their languages. The elder who sang to me on the phone was a Guyanese who had migrated to Cameroon when she married a Cameroonian. Every Emancipation Day, I think about her and the joy in her voice that day. The love was felt across continents.