Friday, Feb. 6, the College of William and Mary held a morning and afternoon Charter Day Ancestral Remembrance Tribute at the Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved. The tribute recognized the enslaved people who were exploited by the College and honored the history of contributions made by African and African American community members.
Interim Robert Francis Engs Director of the Lemon Project Jajuan Johnson delivered the welcome and introductions.
“As we observe Charter Day, we commit to telling fuller truths, to learning from difficult histories and to building a future rooted in justice and dignity,” Johnson said. “May this memorial remain a place of reflection, reconciliation and resolve, where memory becomes action and remembrance becomes responsibility.”
Victor S. Haskins, music instructor and Arts Quarter Music Series director, performed first, playing a trumpet solo.
Professor of theatre and Africana studies Omiyemi Greene ’00 delivered the ancestral blessing.
“What I was doing in my role as an Ifá-Oriṣa priest (or, in my specific case, as an initiate of Ifá and Yemọja) was opening the way for the ritual of libation and the subsequent invocation, or the calling of names of persons enslaved by William & Mary,” Greene wrote in an email. “I chose to speak in Yorùbá when chanting the two Odù, because it’s always more effective in ritual proceedings to use the ‘mother tongue’ if you know it.”
Greene defined the term “Àṣẹ” used throughout the tribute.
“Àṣẹ means the divine power to make things happen,” Greene said. “When I used it in the context of the ancestral blessing, it was meant to mean ‘May the things spoken manifest.’”
The audience and organizers of the tribute then performed the invocation. As the names were spoken, both known and unknown, Greene placed water onto the ground from a pot — the libation.
Following the invocation, Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor of English and Africana Studies Hermine Pinson, gave the second performance, titled “New Ring Shout” after a cosmogram.
The final section of the tribute included statements and flower offerings from various departments and student organizations.
Greene then delivered concluding remarks. She thanked event contributors, emphasizing Facilities Management, and focused on actions College community members can take to honor the enslaved.
Samantha Koranteng ’27, second vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on campus, attended the tribute.
“It’s Charter Day, the 333rd year, and it’s the third year that they’re holding this event,” Koranteng said. “I just really want to come out and show my support as being on different executive boards for different organizations that are impacting and involved in the community.”
Koranteng spoke to the tribute’s success.
“I do think it does a good job,” Koranteng said. “I would like a little more contribution from the school as a whole, but it does help to have a serving place for all these events that we want to do to uphold the Black community around campus.”
Dativa Eyembe ’26 represented the Black Poets Society at the event.
“I’m an Africana [studies] major, so there’s a way that the discipline asks you to be available to communal things, communal ways of coming together,” Eyembe said.
Eyembe explained that this availability is fundamental to the study, which was born out of protest in the 1960s.
“There’s a way we have to appreciate what it takes to have a community like this and how to show up as often as you can, even when it’s inconvenient,” she said.
Eyembe said the tribute was beautifully executed.
“I think that everyone who is here is here out of a dedication and a commitment that I really appreciate out of our community,” she added. “It really gives me a lot of hope to see us come out and support one another — not only one another, but also honoring those who came before us.”
Eyembe believes the College can continue improving how it remembers its use of enslaved labor and the Black community.
“My answer’s always going to be that there’s always more, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate what we’re doing now,” Eyembe said.
