A Man from Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life (32 page)

FLASH!
I looked around the room but saw no familiar faces. The place was in full party mode—excited chatter, many people greeting
each other and shaking hands; the room was electric. Ms. Parker walked over singing, “Izaaayyyyyyaahhhh! You made it! Let
me introduce you to Sharon.”

A beautiful, calm, and elegant storm of a woman walked up to me and smiled. It turned out she was the director of this very
new and special place, Sharon F. Patton PhD. “Hello, Mr. Washington. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine. So, you are the creator of all this wonderfulness?”

She laughed and said, “I have a great staff.”

“This would be the perfect place for me to do my first fund-raiser in Washington and raise awareness for Sierra Leone,” I
said.

She agreed it would be. We discussed February 2009, Black History Month, as a good date, and she agreed to check the schedule
and get back to me. “You should walk around and see our exhibit,” she said as she left.

As an African singer kept the crowd enthralled with her beautiful voice, I slipped downstairs to admire the collection. It
contained some of the most amazing African art that I had ever seen, from all over Africa.

I looked down at one huge mask from Sierra Leone and noticed that it was owned by Walt Disney. I looked at another piece,
it was owned by Disney as well. Then another piece and then another. I stopped and looked around to see if Ashton Kutcher
from the TV show
Punk’d
was going to jump out and let me off the hook. I walked farther and saw a security guard standing there. “Hey, man,” I said.
“I see Walt Disney on all of these art pieces.”

“Yeah, Walt Disney owns all six thousand,” he answered, pointing to a sign above one of the entrances. I looked past his finger;
“Walt Disney–Tishman Collection” was inscribed above the door. “Deep, ain’t it? Mickey Mouse owns all of our shit,” he said.

“Not me,” I said.

“What you say?” he asked.

“Disney doesn’t own me, he’s helping me.”

“
Helping you?
Helping you do what?”

“Reach my destiny.”

On March 5, 2008, I sent out an e-mail blast to all of Minister Zainab Bangura’s key supporters and to my TGMF board members
saying:

Things were starting to look up. But, a few weeks later, on March 23, 2008, I received a frightening e-mail from Maria Elena
Lamas, my Cuban angel and the biggest donor to TGMF, that she was in a severe car accident. She sent out an e-mail via her
iPhone from an ICU. She fortunately had no internal injuries but was in great physical pain. Despite that, she vowed her fund-raising
event for TGMF would still go on as planned.

I was not alone. It was clear that this thing was getting much bigger now, much bigger than my solitary vision; now others
were embracing the vision as well. I
had
to continue with TGMF.

I called Jasmyne and asked her if she could answer the phones at TGMF while I looked for a nonprofit specialist. Sonya needed
more money to return to TGMF and I just couldn’t afford it. Everything was coming directly out of my pocket. That was a tough
decision to make. Sonya
was
TGMF. She did all of the heavy lifting.

On April 1, 2008, Ms. Lorne S. Wellington was hired as executive director of TGMF. Lorne had recently returned from working
with an organization in South Africa and had extensive knowledge of the nonprofit world. Jasmyne stayed on as marketing director.
I called my broker at Morgan Stanley and sold all of the Bausch & Lomb shares I had purchased the day I had met Jeffrey Sachs
for lunch back in New York, but Lorne let me know that the major threats to TGMF’s success were a lack of
money
and
focused leadership.
I knew that the proceeds from sell
ing the stock wouldn’t last for long, but I needed to get TGMF ready to be taken seriously in the world.

I finally found work. Filmmaker Tim Story cast me in the film
Hurricane Season,
starring Academy Award–winner Forest Whitaker
.
It was Forest who had put me in his directorial debut film that had caught the attention of Spike Lee. And now it was Forest
Whitaker giving me a chance to
continue
my film career in spite of the forces that seemed to be conspiring to keep me from ever working again. The income I earned
from the film was a third of what I usually made, but I didn’t complain. It was good work. Things were getting tough in Hollywood
and around the world, and I was very grateful for the opportunity to work.

In April, I was invited to sit on a panel at Harvard University. David Sengeh, a native Sierra Leonean, had created the Harvard
College Sierra Leone Initiative (HCSLI). The other panelists included the legendary, ninety-three-year-old Dr. John Karefa
Smart, Eleanor Thompson, and author Ishmael Beah.

By May, Maria Elena had made a miraculous recovery and held the fund-raiser for TGMF in her home in Miami, Florida, as scheduled.
Lorne attended on my behalf because my film schedule would not allow me to be there in person. I also had to cancel my third
scheduled trip to Sierra Leone. I wasn’t happy about either circumstance, but I was doing what I had to do to keep my family
afloat, as well as continue moving forward with TGMF. Feelings were hurt, and I felt terrible that there was nothing I could
do to avoid it.

While working on the film in New Orleans, I received daily calls from Lance, my business manager, about my dire financial
situation. The prognosis wasn’t good. All of the projects I tried to produce outside the Hollywood system fell through. I
went through my entire portfolio, including my retirement monies, and it still wasn’t enough. I received a frantic call from
Lance
saying, “Isaiah, don’t you care about your family? You are going to lose everything!”

“I’m doing this in Sierra Leone for my family,” I said.

“This is madness,” he said. “It will take years before you see a return on anything in Sierra Leone.”

I hung up and recited a quote from Albert Einstein to myself. “Great Spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities.
The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously
uses his intelligence.”

I watched helplessly as project after project fell apart. I had come to the end of the line. TGMF was over. I had to resign
myself to the fact that I had kept my
word
. I had built the school. My larger plans for Sierra Leone would have to wait or maybe, I finally had to accept, might never
happen.

I composed an e-mail and sent it out to all of my TGMF board members and supporters.

Within twenty-four hours e-mails were coming in from around the world urging me not to give up. One of my supporters alerted
me to what was written on my Wikipedia page.
I typed in the Web address and took a look. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Someone had leaked my e-mail. Who? I wondered who
hated me so much and why? I sat there in complete shock as I read how my effort in Sierra Leone, TGMF, and my career failure
were considered a media “victory.” My weariness, my resignation to give up, fell away and was replaced by inspiration and
determination to continue to fight, and to push forward with TGMF, my vision, and my mission for the people of Sierra Leone.

Among the rest of my e-mails I found this one from a fan, Kristle Jenkins:

On August 5, 2008, Lorne and Jasmyne proudly presented me with the new TGMF brochures, the new TGMF budget plan, and the creation
of the new
reachonemillion.org
Web site
that they had worked tirelessly to create. Finally, it started to feel as if we were winning.

Jasmyne sent out a press release.

August 5, 2008 Reach One Million Campaign

Actor and philanthropist Isaiah Washington is using the occasion of his 45th birthday to kick off a national campaign entitled
Reach One Million. Spearheaded through the nonprofit organization he founded, The Gondobay Manga Foundation, the campaign
is the brainchild of Washington, who has set a goal of raising $250,000 to help improve the lives of one million children
in Sierra Leone—one village, one region, at a time.

Launched online via
ReachOneMillion.org
, the Reach One Million campaign will engage and educate everyday Americans on the plight of the children of Sierra Leone,
where 47% of the country’s children under the age of 5 are afflicted with malaria and 28% of the population is unable to meet
basic food requirements.

The campaign calls for Americans to help “reach one million” children in Sierra Leone by making a donation in the amount of
$5 to $5,000, to aid in providing food, education, protection from malaria, and clean drinking water.

The Reach One Million campaign comes on the heels of Washington discovering his genetic link to the Mende tribe of Sierra
Leone. After his initial visit to Sierra Leone in 2006 where he saw firsthand the extreme poverty and the needs of the children
of Sierra Leone, he made a pledge to do more to help the country. One year later in 2007, Washington opened the Chief Foday
Golia Memorial School near the village of Njala Kendema in
the Bagbwe Chiefdom. Currently, there are 300 students out of a total population of 2,150 from six villages in the Chiefdom
attending class every day.

Later this year, Washington will travel back to Sierra Leone where he will receive dual citizenship from the Sierra Leonean
government.

“This is a historical moment in time for me, the people of Sierra Leone, and Africa,” commented Washington. “DNA has memory
and we all can do our part to make life a little better for those less fortunate. While I am very much focused on helping
the underserved here at home, it’s also important to me now that I know where I come from, to help my people in Sierra Leone
as well.”