He’s bridging the divide!
Djimon Hounsou is a two-time Oscar-nominated actor and the founder of the Djimon Hounsou Foundation, OkayAfrica reports. Launched in 2019, the organization is dedicated to strengthening Pan-African identity and self-awareness and combatting modern-day slavery and human trafficking. One of the foundation’s flagship events is a run series entitled “Run 16.19,” where attendees have the option of walking or running 6.19 or 16.19 kilometers (roughly 3 or 10 miles, respectively). Held annually, the event is aimed at amplifying little-known Black history.
This past weekend, nearly two thousand people gathered at Kanawha Plaza in Richmond, Virginia, for the third annual race. The plaza is historically known for being the place where the first ship carrying enslaved people docked in 1619. Hounsou led the race, hoping to bring people together for healing and reclamation. Sharing historical facts about the site throughout the event, Hounsou spoke about the importance of the race in helping people of the diaspora to reclaim a shared identity.
“I thought, if we could [come together] in a place where some of our ancestors were lynched, if we come together like that regularly, we’ll change the course of what took place there,” said Hounsou.
The night before the race, Hounsou also hosted a pre-race event called “Time to Heal,” offering a moment of reflection with the community and a Yoruba-influenced libation ceremony. Led by the Elegba Folklore Society, the event included meditations, performances, and local wellness-based community leaders who came out in support. The pre-event took place at Main Street Station in Shockoe Bottom, which was once the second-largest slave market in the United States.
“It is for us to acknowledge who we are as people and the tremendous contribution we’ve given to this country. I’m an emotional kind of person so it takes me there. I just want us to have a moment of reflection that addresses the 400 years of Black history,” Hounsou explained.
The foundation is already busy planning future runs in Liverpool and Ouidah, in Housou’s native country Benin. Each event is held in host cities that have artist Stephen Broadbent’s Reconciliation Triangle. Created to build bridges, when the triangle is connected through straight lines, it recreates the Transatlantic Slave Trade in what Broadbent refers to as the Triangle of Hope. The aim is to “[promote] forgiveness through acknowledgment and using reconciliation and justice to shape a new future.”
Cover photo: Actor Djimon Hounsou’s Annual Race Series Is Helping to Restore Pan-Africanism/Photo credit: Jesse A. Peters/Backlight/OkayAfrica