A Man from Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life (34 page)

Once I finished my conversation, Special Agent Mark T. Lewis and Special Agent Raymond J. Sturm Jr. handed me their cards
and introduced themselves. “What do you guys think of my new president?” I asked them.

They both agreed that President Koroma and his delegates were good guys. Special Agent Sturm said, “We have been with these
guys for a while now and, you know, people tend to relax and talk a lot in front us. They are
good guys,
Isaiah.”

“That’s good to know,” I answered. “Thank you for watching out for him.”

We pulled into Union Station in DC and I watched as President Koroma and Minister Bangura were escorted to their vehicles
driven by the United States Secret Service. I grabbed my bags and walked the short distance to the Hotel George. I checked
into my usual room, dropped my bags, collapsed on the bed, and passed out from exhaustion.

The next morning did not go as smoothly as I’d hoped. Unfortunately, President Koroma arrived in Washington at the same time
the Senate and the House of Representatives were scrambling to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Despite
what his staff had told me about Congressman Conyers always keeping his word, he kept President Koroma waiting for two hours
and then finally had to cancel the meeting. Minister Bangura was very disappointed. I was able to arrange for Congressman
Conyers and President Koroma to talk on the phone before he left for Sierra Leone so all was not completely lost.

A few days later, on September 29, 2008, the Dow Jones lost 778 points, the biggest single-day point loss in history, after
the House of Representatives rejected the government’s $700 billion bank bailout plan. I lost what was left of my portfolio.
The sweetness of my victory with President Ernest Bai Koroma began to fade; it wasn’t just me facing a financial crisis anymore,
now the whole world was having a financial meltdown.

A few days later, on October 5, I received a refreshing e-mail from Professor Joe Opala that let me know my efforts were not
going unnoticed. Sierra Leone was moving forward as planned.

The devil is beating his wife, again.

Over the next few weeks I spent countless hours at the TGMF office trying to figure out what my next move would be. The only
thing that kept me distracted from thinking about my own situation was watching presidential candidate Barack Obama on the
campaign trail making some of the most incredible speeches I have ever heard.

The day before the U.S. presidential election, I was in my office working on invitation letters for the TGMF Inaugural Dinner
planned for April 23, 2009, in Washington, DC. We had yet to discover that Barack Obama would be the forty-fourth president
of the United States. Ironically, I received a copy of an e-mail from Iris Max-Macarthy from the office of the Permanent Mission
of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the United Nations in New York. Iris told me that she sent it out to all Sierra Leoneans
on her contact list who may have had doubts or reservations about voting for presidential nominee Barack Obama. After I read
it, I knew that my work in Sierra Leone was indeed my
destiny.
Meeting Senator Obama and having access to his office was no
coincidence.
The senator wanted positive
change
in Sierra Leone and in the world. That was directly in line with the
change
I had worked for my entire adulthood. Then it hit me, I remembered something he had said to me when we met briefly outside
of the Senate chamber: “I’ll see you at the crossroads.”

I had arrived in Sierra Leone for the first time on May 22, 2006. Just eighteen days before, without my knowledge, Senator
Barack Obama had written to Gaddi Vasquez, director of the Peace Corps, to request that he reinstate the Peace Corps program
in Sierra Leone. Could Sierra Leone be at its “crossroads” for the betterment of itself its people? Will President Barack
H. Obama, President George W. Bush, President William J. Clinton, and I all see each other again… in Sierra Leone?

*     *     *

It was about 8:30 in the morning on December 15, 2008, ten days before Christmas. I was driving on the 405 North on my way
to the TGMF office when my mobile phone rang. I pressed the speaker phone and heard Minister Zainab Bangura’s voice. She told
me that President Koroma had agreed to initiate my immigration and naturalization paperwork to make me a citizen of Sierra
Leone.

I almost careened off of the freeway, nearly blinded by the burst of my own tears of joy. “I’m sorry, Minister Bangura,” I
said, “but can you please repeat that?”

She did. “Oh my God.” I said, “Do you know what this means historically? Oh my God! This is the best news ever! Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! And please tell the president I said thank you!”

I arrived at the TGMF office in Burbank, jumped out of my SUV, and ran inside the building. I was so excited I could barely
get my keys into the lock. I closed the door behind me and locked it. I fell to my knees. The tears ran down my face as I
prayed. I thanked God for an early and amazing Christmas gift. It was done and there was
no turning back!
I managed to regain a modicum of composure, went to my computer, and composed an e-mail that I blasted out to my entire contact
list.

On April 23, 2009, I held my long-planned Gondobay Manga Foundation Inaugural Dinner in Washington, DC. We honored Forest
Whitaker; Rick Kittles PhD and Gina Paige of African Ancestry; Congresswoman Barbara Lee; and Professor Henry Louis Gates
Jr. The Duchess of York, Sarah Margaret Ferguson, was the keynote speaker. Ken Harvey, Etan Thomas, and Jeffrey Wright were
the presenters and Esther Vassar gave the opening remarks. Seventy-five percent of the event was sponsored by Maria Elena
Lamas using her personal money. TGMF raised $100,000 that night during the height of the recession.

In his acceptance speech, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., recipient of the 2009 TGMF Sankofa Award, expressed his gratitude
for the award and thanked me and TGMF. He spoke eloquently of the importance of memory and remembering one’s personal history,
one’s family history, and one’s people’s history, and how vital it is to keep those histories alive.

He talked of Carter G. Woodson, known as “the Father of Black History,” who wrote that “a people cannot determine their future
unless they know their past.” He talked of Alex Haley and his quest, through television, to connect the “African past with
the African American future.” And he talked about his own passion for DNA ancestry tracing and his acclaimed PBS series.

I stood there listening, and thinking that this is what it was all for. All of the times I wondered, all of the times I cried,
all of
the times the people who loved me suffered for what I was trying to do, all of the times I wanted to give up, this was the
reason why I didn’t. Here I stood, the first African American man in history to achieve dual citizenship from the United States
and an African country. I had realized a dream that phenomenal African American men like W. E. B. DuBois, Edward Wilmot Blyden,
Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Reverend Leon H. Sullivan had long before I was born.

The debt collectors, the money worries, and my acting career—none of that mattered to me in that moment. I just looked around
the room and took it all in. This was the culmination of a journey that started with a seemingly meaningless award named after
a mostly forgotten man. It was then that I realized that Canada Lee was not forgotten—his spirit, his DNA, was alive in me.
It was alive in every other black man who ever stood up and risked his life, reputation, and income, dreaming that his life
could be about something bigger than himself.

Professor Gates was finishing his speech:

Isaiah Washington has taken this journey. And this foundation is the splendid result of what he has found. Isaiah Washington
not only talks the talk, he walks the walk. No one embodies the spirit of Sankofa more fully and completely in our generation
today than does Isaiah. And I ask you to give it up for our host this evening, a man of enormous vision and dedication to
restoring and reconnecting our African American sisters and brothers with their African heritage.

Applause roared, filling the room, and I knew that some say, may your dreams come true. Well I say, stay true to your dreams.

1
.
http://www.paff.org

2
.
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad

3
.
http://www.sierra-leone.org/villagenames.html

4
. Information taken from
www.stanford.edu
: “Blood Diamonds: The Conflict in Sierra Leone” by Eric Johnson,
Edge,
December 6, 2002, and “Amputation Is Forever: Blood Diamonds and the Civil War in Sierra Leone,” by Cordel Robbin-Coker,
Edge,
June 2, 2005.

5
.
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0032902/quotes

6
. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200506/20050627_washington.html[0]

7
.
http://www.kimberleyprocess.com

8
.
http://www.ddiglobal.org

9
. Excerpt from the speech taken from “Transcript of Bush’s Address to N.A.A.C.P.,” July 20, 2006,
www.nytimes.com
.

10
.
http://finazafoundation.org/Finaza_Foundation/About.html

11
.
http://jcrs.com/newsletters/2007/2007_01.htm

12
. Simon Robinson and Jeffrey Ressner, “Hollywood Plays Rough With Diamonds,”
Time,
November 27, 2006, page 64.

13
. “Disney Profit Jumps on Strong Results from Networks, Studios, Parks,”
www.usatoday.com
, November 9, 2006.

14
.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/earnings/2006-11-09-disney_x.htm

15
.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/uploaded_files/ 121406_whitehouse_malaria_transcript.pdf[0]

16
.
http://www.putonthearmoroflight.com/2010/01/bridge-builder-by-w-dromgoole.html

17
.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b54551_greys_ugly_are_hot_image_awards.html

18
.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44113

19
.
http://www.bunce-island.org.uk/page3/page3.html

Everywhere I went as a young man Africans asked me, “What part of Africa are you from?” Here, at eighteen months old, I already looked African.

At four years old I already knew what to do in front of a camera.