One of my favorite blogs is by Asabagna Alatentou. He adds to my thinking, and I appreciate the perspective he brings on cultural issues.

In the first of this two-part interview, Asabagna shares his background, why he changed his name, and the impact that his pilgrimage to West Africa had on his faith. 

SMULO: Asabagna, please tell us about yourself.

ALATENTOU: I was born in England but spent my formative years in Jamaica, where my parents are originally from. When I was about 5 yrs. old, I moved to Toronto, Canada. My family returned to Jamaica where I spent most of my teenage years, moving back to Toronto when I was 17 yrs. old. I have been in Canada ever since.

I currently work for the Ontario Provincial Police as a criminal investigator (detective). I have been a police officer for over 14yrs. My first posting was in Toronto at a traffic detachment. I was there for 5 yrs., then I was assigned into a firearms trafficking unit. I did that for another 4 yrs until I was assigned to my current unit, which investigates national security concerns. I now live in the nation’s capital, Ottawa. 

I am married with no children as yet, though my wife and I are expecting our first soon. 

My wife and I currently attend a Pentecostal church. Although I “grew up” in the Church, I was “saved” when I was about 25 yrs. old.

SMULO:  You have said that you changed your name to “Asabagna Alatentou”.  Tell us more about the journey that led to your renaming.

ALATENTOU:  As I was growing up in Canada, I became very aware that I was considered different from the majority of society. I went through what most Black kids went through at that time: the name-calling by white peers, the attitudes by teachers that you didn’t/couldn’t measure up, the harassment by the police etc.  It was very unsettling for me, as I had always been taught up to that point, that all people were the same, we were all equal, blah, blah, blah….. yadda, yadda, yadda! I experienced similar experiences in the churches I attended also. More on that later. However all this awakened a “tension”, a “tempest” within my spirit that I sought to calm.

In university I became very active in the African & Caribbean student association, which started my interest in African history, culture and politics. This also led to my political activism and cultural awakening which went hand in hand at the time. As my interest and knowledge grew, I started consciously identifying more and more with my African heritage. It was a timely process though. First I identified strongly with my Jamaican roots, but after a time that wasn’t sufficient enough to calm the “storm” within me. I had a foundation in British, African and Jamaican history from my early schooling in Jamaica, so I was aware that “Black” people were not the original “Jamaicans”, They were imported there as slaves. 

Over time, I started developing what I termed “an Afrocentric consciousness” in how I viewed the world and a desire grew within me to go to Africa, West Africa, Ghana in particular. According to historians, Afro-Jamaicans were taken from the Kormance region of Ghana, and I wanted to return there.

It wasn’t a “I want to return to Africa and become African” mentality, as it was a yearning to reconnect with my heritage and settle an identity crisis and more importantly calm the “spiritual tempest” that I was going through at the time. Therefore I earnestly prayed to God that I wanted to go to Africa and for Him to make it possible. 

I continually and simply reminded HIM of the promises in His Word that he would grant the “desires of my heart” (Psalms 37:4) and that “ask and you shall receive” (numerous verses).

I believed God and in 1997, He made it possible for me to make my pilgrimage to West Africa: Senegal, Gambia and Ghana. This journey was very significant for me as it led to a spiritual and cultural rebirth. I experienced calm, peace within. I was able to visit the Kormance region of Ghana and I had this overwhelming sense that I had fulfilled the “desires of the heart” of my ancestors (whose blood flowed through my own heart), by bringing their spirits back home. A home they had “desired” to return to like Kunta Kinte in “Roots”.

I was able to stand in the slave castle where my ancestors stood. In the actual cells, before they were taken through “the door of no return”. Standing there touched me spiritually in a way words cannot describe.

At that moment, I saw myself in a new light and made a conscious decision to define myself as being of “African heritage”. During this pilgrimage I visited a village in Ghana and during a naming ceremony to signify my return to the Motherland, I was given the name “Asabagna”, by the village Chief, which means “Hunter”.

I also visited a Mandingo village in Senegal and a Griot, the musical historian of the village, gave me the name “Alatentou” which means “God is gracious”, as he added my visit to the history of that place.

So like the patriarchs of the Old Testament and Saul in the New Testament, I acknowledged this new consciousness that had awaken within me, this new way that I saw the world, specifically the eurocentric-western world and my place within it, by taking on a new name.... the African/Spiritual name: Asabagna Alatentou.
Make sure and check back tomorrow for part-two of this interview.

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Adam: ... http://igneousquill.blogspot.com

Fascinating. I look forward to the next installment.

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March 28, 2007
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John: ... http://missionalapologetics.com

Adam,

Thanks, I'm sure you'll enjoy what Asabagna has to say.

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March 29, 2007
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