A Man from Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life (24 page)
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Authors: Isaiah Washington
Tags: #BIO002000
“I’m not offended by you,” Rosalind said. “You are passionate and I know someone who could help you. In fact, your passion
reminds me a lot of him.”
I started to calm down a little. “Oh really… and who would that be?”
“President Festus Mogae of Botswana,” she said.
“Why is that?” I asked, not sure why the president of Botswana would care about helping me or Sierra Leone.
She continued, “He believes the same thing about Botswana. He feels that the natural resources should be owned by, controlled
by, and benefit the people. He’s done it. I think you and President Mogae should meet.”
Three weeks later I received an official letter from the Republic of Botswana.
Dear Mr. Washington,
At the end of this month my country, Botswana, will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary of Independence.
In this context we are extremely proud of our unique record over the period as Africa’s oldest multi-party democracy, and
fastest growing economy. A pillar of our progress has been prudent management of our natural resources, and in particular
our diamond revenues.
Today Botswana is the world’s largest producer of diamonds by value. For our citizens this has resulted in better quality
of life. Notwithstanding the fact that our country is prone to drought, nutritional levels have steadily risen over the past
decades, in part due to our provision of free food for school children, the destitute and others with special needs. We are
especially proud that even during the most severe droughts, not a single Botswana citizen died from hunger.
Diamond revenues have enabled us to provide free education to all, with the result that today close to 90% of our population
below 40 is literate, whereas our literacy rate in 1966 was only about 10%. Other social indicators such as children’s immunization,
Infant Mortality rate and Life Expectancy at birth have improved significantly even though lately, they have been adversely
affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Botswana was one of the first countries to introduce Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission
Programmes of HIV/AIDS. All the initiatives directed at children are in recognition of the need to facilitate smooth childhood
development in order to lay the basis for a stable and secure nation. Any nation that places its children in peril, places
its own existence in danger.
Indeed, forty years ago I was one of the very few people in my country to have been exposed to a University education. I can
still remember the names of my colleagues from back then. Today, tens of thousands
of Botswana citizens are studying at tertiary institutions. Included among these are those living in our most remote and marginalized
communities, such as those commonly known outside of our country as the “Bushmen.” The prudent management of our mineral wealth,
especially diamonds, has also allowed us to provide nearly universal access to free health care, with the vast majority of
our citizens now living within 15km of a public health facility. All this has been made possible by the fact that education,
followed by health, has each year received the largest share of public expenditure.
We recognize that human capital is key to sustainable economic development. Having noted some of our achievements I also wish
to acknowledge that we remain as a developing country facing many challenges including the specific challenge of being one
of the nations most affected by HIV/AIDS. In this respect, we have at least been fortunate in having the public resources
to confront this scourge through such measures as our commitment to prevention, provision of free anti-retroviral drugs as
well as support programmes to allow the infected and affected to lead productive lives for as long as possible. In particular,
we have extensive orphan care programmes. People from outside our country sometimes ask me why our diamonds have been such
a blessing to us. An important part of the answer I believe has been the decision we took at independence to entrust ultimate
ownership of the minerals and other natural resources of our country through the state to the nation as a whole, irrespective
of who owns the land on which such wealth might be discovered.
This has ensured that all of our citizens—irrespective of their ethnic or regional affiliation—have a collec
tive stake and enjoy common benefits, rather than just those few who by a chance might find themselves sitting on nature’s
gifts. We have avoided the interethnic conflicts over resources, which have plagued some societies. Indeed a World Bank study
released this month ranked us as being among the most peaceful, politically and socially stable, as well as democratic nations
not just in Africa but in the world.
Why am I sharing my positive perspective with you? Quite frankly, I am concerned about the growing perception in some quarters
that the mining of minerals, and more especially diamonds, throughout Africa is a greater cause of conflict, rather than national
construction and shared future. In my country diamonds have been a source of life, hope and future prosperity. To ensure that
this continues to be the case Botswana has joined together with other leading diamond producers in the world in something
called the Kimberley Process that today ensures that the 99% of the world’s diamonds that come from areas free of conflict,
like Botswana, can be traced to their point of origin. In other words, we abhor conflict and are active participants in isolating
diamonds that are used to promote conflict.
The Kimberley Process provides objective verification that the source of diamonds is not in any way connected with conflict.
Thus when you buy diamonds from Botswana and other Kimberley Process countries you can wear them in full knowledge that you
have paid for a child’s immunization, education as well as overall development and helped the sick secure treatment. The joy
diamonds bring to you is also our joy. Our diamonds play a critical part in poverty reduction and sustaining human life. And
it is also our earnest hope that those
that use diamonds for evil will soon begin to realize the immense potential they can make to the development of their nations.
All of humanity stands to benefit from global peace, stability, understanding and co-operation.
I would therefore, be most grateful if you could carry this message of hope to all you encounter.
Festus Mogae
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA
After I finished reading the letter from President Mogae, I was feeling honored and numb at the same time. I sat in my office
chair, staring at the paper in my hands, intensely thinking, “Why are so many people talking to me about these damned diamonds!”
I was desperately trying to figure out what my next move would be. I just didn’t know what to think or what any of this meant.
I started to feel as I did when I was a little boy witnessing it raining hard on one side of the street while the sun remained
high in the sky shining brightly on the other side. It was a conundrum, it didn’t make sense. “The devil must be beating his
wife,” I said aloud.
At that moment the phone rang; it was my publicist, Cynthia Snyder. “Hey you,” she said, “why haven’t you called me back,
aren’t you excited?”
“Excited about what?” I asked.
“Have you been checking your e-mails?”
I hadn’t.
“I sent the news in an e-mail a week ago! Congratulations, you’re number one in adult ratings eighteen to forty-nine! You
beat
CSI
last week in the Thursday night slot.” This meant that my television show was the most watched by adults ages eighteen to
forty-nine.
“Well, God,” I said aloud, “now Africa and America know my name. Thanks for another dream come true.”
A little more than two weeks later, on October 9, 2006, the actor Patrick Dempsey and I clashed on the set of our TV show.
Within hours “reports” of the incident hit the tabloids and the entire world seemed to be talking about me. I had wanted to
become a household name for years, but this wasn’t what I had in mind. There’s little more I can write about it that hasn’t
already been written.
It was by far a total nightmare, an experience that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I recall walking into my TGMF office
feeling that the world had changed and that I was never going to be the same again. Sonya was there. “Patrick and I almost
had a fight. We had a horrible argument.” I sat down across from Sonya. She just sat there staring at me. For a few minutes,
I just sat there too. My thoughts drifted back to Muh’ Dear and the fight with the Frazier sisters.
The ring of my mobile phone startled me back to the present. It was a reporter from
People
magazine. Her questions weren’t questions. She was condemning me, chastising me even. I listened to her talk because I knew
her and I thought she knew me. We had recently discussed doing a story on my work in Sierra Leone.
“Isaiah, this is horrible, but I have to do my job,” she said. “You have to tell me what happened. My editors want to know.
We put you in our magazine. You’re on one of the biggest TV shows in the country. Isaiah… Isaiah? Isaiah, are you there?”
I hung up and walked into my office, closed the door behind me, and slumped down into the chair. Within a few minutes the
phone was ringing off the hook. It would not stop ringing. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
My ringing phone snapped me back to reality. It was my assistant director. “Isaiah,” he said, “we’re back in. Your scene is
first up.”
“Okay, I’m on my way,” I said.
As I hung up the phone, I remembered the conversation I had had with John Amos when he asked me if I could be servile: humbly
submissive.
“Can you be obsequious?” he had asked me.
I didn’t get it then, but I sure as hell got it now. Before I left the TGMF office I checked my e-mails one last time. To
my surprise there was an e-mail from Adisa. I had not heard from him since July. I was at the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital
the day he was released. He didn’t have Lassa fever as we had feared; he had contracted hantavirus, a hemorrhagic disease
,
equally as deadly.
This is an excerpt from that e-mail that he sent to family and friends:
While in the hospital I can remember crying when I thought of my 85-year-old father. The thought of him having to possibly
bury me made me very emotional. My faith was tested immeasurably and being on a ventilator meant death was a real possibility,
and although I didn’t dwell in fear, I knew the reality of my situation. It is because of this that I am grateful to my mother,
my Godmother, family members and close friends who stayed near my bedside during my time of distress and challenge. When my
faith weakened and I grew weary, I leaned on theirs. Their never ending hope, enlightened eyes, courage, smiles and presence
gave me the strength to keep going.
Once cleared of the virus, my 5 foot 9 inch, 170lb muscular body was reduced to a buck 35 not to mention the fact that my
body had atrophied badly during those two
weeks. I couldn’t walk, nor could I hold my tiny cell phone, which seemed to weigh a ton. But the rebuilding process had begun.
Every day I made small gains. I even told the hospital staff that I was Cassius Clay. I may have come off a bit crazy, but
it was all designed to motivate me. During this time, more than one nurse or doctor walked into my room and proclaimed me
a miracle. I do believe that there was a great divine force calling for my life to play out this way and that God and the
Universe have given me a great opportunity to grow, and gain insight with regard to my purpose on the planet.
I often laugh and joke with Isaiah about the ethnic group to which he belongs—the Mende of Sierra Leone. I tell him that if
I had known ahead of time that the initiation process for his group required confronting death, I would have chosen the Ashanti,
Zulu or Yoruba traditions. At least the Yoruba just mark your face and you keep pushing forward. But near death?! We laugh
out loud and realize that greater things shall come from this.
On July 15th I walked out of the Daniel Freeman Hospital, one month after I checked myself into the emergency room. One of
my doctors and a few therapists expressed concern over my leaving. (They wanted to keep me a few more days, put me in a mock
apartment, etc.) But for anyone who has been in a hospital for a prolonged period of time, you know how debilitating it can
be. I told the doctor he could speak with my brothers when they arrived. He then seemed happy and willingly agreed to do so.
My doctor didn’t know that I wasn’t playin’. Rev. Leon Campbell showed up with about ten of my Agape brothers. Isaiah was
also there to show his support along with some close friends. The doctor took one look and knew, just like everyone else in
attendance, that my strength was their strength and vice versa. I left the Daniel
Freeman Hospital that day with a smile on my face and determination in my heart.
My life has been altered forever and I’m sure everyone who experienced this with me has been transformed as well. My body
is improving little by little every day. Please continue to keep me in your prayers and know that you are in mine. By October
I should be back to throwing children in the air—one of my greatest pleasures. In the future, look for me directing films,
continuing to heal the planet through my humanitarian efforts, and early next year I’m traveling back to Sierra Leone to build
a high school with several colleagues.
For those of you who have called, please forgive me for my tardiness in getting back to you. Thanks so much for your kindness
and know that you are in my thoughts. Recovery takes time, so please be patient with me.
And to those who do not believe that God is still in the miracle business, I am here to tell you that God has once again spoken
and it feels so good to hear his voice.
Thanks again for your love, support, prayers and well wishes.
Your brother,
Adisa Khepra
PS: Please forward to any friends and colleagues I might have forgotten. Thanks!!
My spirit began to smile after reading Adisa’s words of encouragement. I was humbled by his support. I later learned that
during his battle with the deadly hantavirus, Adisa died and was revived three times. Adisa kept his word about finding “his
purpose on the planet.” He has since cofounded Finaza Foundation, an organization that, per its Web site, “is committed to
the enrichment of impoverished children’s lives throughout the
world and to help galvanize communities that are in need of resources as a means of empowerment.”
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