Courage Paved My Way by Jerome Dowdy

The ConTextos Authors Circle was developed in collaboration with young people at-risk of, victims of, or perpetrators of violence in El Salvador. In 2017, this innovative program expanded into Chicago to create tangible, high quality opportunities that nourish the minds, expanding the voices and sharing personal truths of individuals who have long been underserved and underestimated. Through the healing process of drafting, revising, and publishing memoirs, participants develop selfreflection, critical thinking, camaraderie, and positive self-projection to author new life narratives.

With support from Chicago CRED, ConTextos works with New Mount Pilgrim MB Church’s MAAFA Redemption Project. MAAFA’s mission is to significantly improve the quality of life for young men of color and their families on West Garfield Park providing dormitory-style residential support, workforce training, personal/spiritual-development, and a host of wrap-around social services. The embedded ConTextos Authors Circle provides a synergistic space of reflection, connection and healing growth as authors continue to forge new life chapters.

The powerful memoirs from the 2021-2022 MAAFA Author Circle complicate myopic, monolithic narratives and include an array of Sankofa Stories, transformative experiences and vibrant insights of young men on the West Side of Chicago.

I am from sports and commitment, From Chuck Taylors and Penny Candy.

I am from the West Garfield Park Area Love, laughter, hardwork.

I am from Sun flowers, That look like the sun and kissed by the sun.

I’m from food and celebrations, From John and Minerva.

I’m from the love and the discipline.

From God is the creator and Jesus is his son.

I’m from the Baptist church and prayer.

I’m from Chicago, Illinois Memphis, Tennessee and Dumas, Arkansas.

Greens and Neckbones.

I am from the two unit building that sits on the corner With the brick and wrought iron fence.

From Converse All-Stars and Nike.

Discipline, Hard Work, Love, I am from Sunflowers, Providing energy and happiness.

I’m from Good food and Good fun.

I’m from the Love and Support.

I’m from believers of Jesus Christ, Baptist Church.

From blacker the berry, sweeter the juice And I’m a Dowdy.

A memoir is a personal narrative that shares reflections, insights and transformative experiences of an author’s life journey.

I feel threatened when it comes to writing. The threat is my vulnerability emotionally. It causes me to shut down and be afraid of what people may think of what I wrote. This has hindered me all my life. It’s time for me to conquer my fear of writing this year, 2021. I believe I can do it because what I have to say is important, and the world needs to hear what I write.

So, I will be participating in Contextos this year, 2021.

In the year of 1997, I had the opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe, Africa for missionary ministry. Once I was packed and ready to go, the Church van came to pick me up. It was August and the weather was warm and the sky was clear, perfect for an airplane to fly. I loaded my huge luggage on the van and began my journey to the airport. I had traveled these streets to the airport before, but this time it was different. I was going to the Continent of Africa where my ancestors were stolen from.

Excited and nervous, I thought about how it would look and if there was regular housing or just huts everywhere like it’s portrayed in the media. My mind was everywhere, from food to the people and let’s not forget about all the diseases that are talked about to discourage stolen Africans from going back to the Continent of Africa. With all the shots, malaria pills you have to take, it’s enough to discourage anyone from taking the trip.

Finally, we arrived at O’Hare International Airport. I unloaded my huge luggage bag and started towards check-in. As I looked around, I saw people from all over the world representing what looked like every country. As I checked my huge luggage bag in, I was only left with my carry-on which lightened my load. Then I moved on to the security check point where I had to take off my shoes and belt. I went through the full body search machine and retrieved my shoes and belt from the gray tray.

After putting my shoes and belt back on, I proceeded to my gate where I would be boarding the huge British Airways plane.

On my way to the gate, I picked up some snacks for the wait and to carry on the plane for the long plane ride. The time had come to board the airplane. I got in line and my heart started to beat a little faster. So, I had to take a couple of deep breaths so that I could slow down my heart beat back to normal. I found my seat by the window on a fully occupied airplane. In front of me was a small screen with the options to look at a map that monitors our travels or watch a movie.

Now was the time to take off and the flight attendant started to give instructions about seatbelts, emergencies, and evacuations. Everyone now had their seatbelt on and were ready for the aircraft to take off. The plane backs out of the gate and heads toward the runway. Then the pilot got clearance from the Tower to go ahead, and the plane took off down the runway until we became airborne.

The first leg of our trip was to London, England where we had an 11-hour layover. There we were 30 thousand feet in the air for 9 hours to London. That was long enough to have lunch, dinner and breakfast.

On the ride I got a chance to read, look at a couple of movies and sleep.

We arrived in London, England midafternoon at Heathrow Airport. It was also my first time to England. We exited the airplane and went directly to baggage claim to receive our luggage. After receiving our luggage, we went outside of the airport to an overcast sky just as I saw movies about England on television. It was amazing to be in London, England. The first thing that I experienced was hearing a black person with a British accent. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. We proceed to board a double decker bus to head to the hotel in which we would be staying for our 11-hour layover. Once we arrived at the hotel it had the original sink, tub and fixture which gave me a sense of the past.

We got settled in and went to an old English pub for dinner. It was located on a country road. I ordered the Whale and chips (French fries) . The Whale was the biggest piece of cod fish I had ever seen. It was fried with a beer batter. I ate the whole fish, and I have to admit it was delicious. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and rested getting ready for the second leg of our trip. At about 11pm their time we loaded onto the double decker bus and headed to Gatwick Airport to go to Zimbabwe, Africa. We arrived at the airport to check in our luggage and went to the gate. One of the things I noticed was so many groups of young people traveling internationally. We boarded the aircraft, and then we were on our way to Africa.

Finally, my dream was about to come true.

The airplane took off up through the clouds. We went on a packed airplane with every nationality. This was a big deal for me because where I’m from where the world seemed more segregated than integrated.

Now the time had come. We touched down in Harare, Zimbabwe at the Harare International Airport. The flight attendant passed out a Traveler Entry Form that lets the country know what you are bringing into the country. That threw me for a loop. I didn’t know what to put on the form.

It asks you how much money you carrying, where would you be living and what you will be doing. It was my first time and I didn’t have a clue how to answer the question. It was a good thing that I was not traveling alone, and there was someone in our group to guide me. I was so grateful.

I exited the plane and went through customs and then picked up my luggage. I was now in mother Africa, I felt an instant connection.

Something inside of me felt satisfied and fulfilled. It was crazy. I had never seen an airport operate with all black people in my entire life.

WOW! Look at my people: airplane pilots, flight attendants, customs agents, and baggage handlers. They held every job that was needed to operate an airport.

As I stepped outside of the airport, I looked around and saw a city that had sky rise buildings just like any other city. I had to ask myself why was the picture painted in the United States of America that Africa just was wild animals and half naked people running around like animals.

After thinking that, I had an opportunity to stand in awe of the beauty of Africa. Even onto this day, I long for mother Africa.

Sankofa is a word from the Ghanian Twi language meaning “Go back and get it.” “Sankofa teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward. Whatever we have lost, forgotten, forgone or been stripped of can be reclaimed, revived, preserved and perpetuated.”* *UIC African American Studies Department

When I was about 4 years old my daddy would drive my mother to work early in the morning and I would ride with him. Every day I watched him drive, so he must have seen the intense look on face as I studied his hand position, and the way he would turn the steering wheel. Because one day when he dropped my mother off at work, he pulled into an empty lot and sat me on his lap and allowed me to guide the car while he drove it.

Wow! I could not believe it, my hand was not only on the steering wheel, but the car was moving as well. I did not see that coming, what that did for me at 4 years old was amazing. First of all, it built my confidence and it also secured his love for me. For a young boy to experience those two things at an early age could set you up for the rest of your life. Social issues, educational issues, relational issues, and any other issue could not stand when you know for sure that your daddy loves you.

Now my daddy was a man’s man his no was no and his yes was yes, that being said papa didn’t take no mess. My mama would discipline us but my daddy was in charge of corporal punishment. It took a lot for him to intervene in a situation however, when the situation got out of hand his hands would be activated. Each year we traveled down south to Dumas, Arkansas to visit my grandfather which is my mother’s father and other relatives and Memphis, Tennessee to visit my grandmother which is my father’s mother.

Even as I got older, I would still watch my father drive the whole distance both ways by himself. We started our journey early in the morning before day break so it would be dark outside so there wasn’t a lot to see. When we got outside the city limits the fun would begin, sandwiches appeared and the fried chicken my mother cooked that morning. As we continued going down the never-ending highway the sun began to rise and light from the sun allowed us to start seeing the farms, cows and horses. We saw long rows of corn fields and a host of other vegetables.

The whole time we were traveling I kept imagining myself driving the highway one day. Fast forward to the summer after I graduated from high school me and my daddy went to Memphis just the two of us.

Again, he drove all the way to Memphis by himself with no indication he would need my help. We made it to Memphis, and had a great time with my down south family. Now, it was time to go back home.

We started our journey back home, and 300 mile down the highway we stopped to get gas and he announced to me that he was giving me the opportunity to drive. I was shocked and nervous because this would be my first time driving on the highway. We filled up the car with gas and handed me the keys, my heart was beating fast but did not let him know that I was nervous because I was excited as well. He made highway driving look so easy.

I took the keys and started the car up, put it in drive and started toward the highway. Finally it was my turn, I was the captain of the ship.

I turned onto the ramp and signaled to get on the highway and started down the road. It had to be 30 minutes into the drive and it became very apparent that highway driving was not easy. The lines on the highway started to look like they were coming together with the exit lines. I didn’t want to make the wrong turn because we may have to drive 100 miles before we could turn around.

I fought through everything that was happening for another 30 minutes and handed it back over to him. We laughed and he made a little fun of me, but for the whole time he knew that wouldn’t be able to drive for a long period of time. He was just teaching me how to drive on the highway. That teaching paid off because 3 years later I was driving him and my uncle down south for our men’s trip every year after. Now that helps me to drive my two sons up Bates College in Lewiston, Maine 18 hours away. He has passed away from this earth now, but what he left was a well prepared husband, father, brother and son.

I always want to be married with children to establish a household like my parents.

I always wanted to see Africa because I was stolen from there.

I always wanted to travel to Africa the motherland where my ancestors lived and created.

I look forward to becoming a grandfather to a generation that will go beyond me.

The goal I set for myself is to live a life that will glorify God. I would like to see a world that is full of love, joy, and harmony.

My legacy will be that I provided material and spiritual substance for my family and others.