A World of Comfort

The Year of the City is about getting out of the comfort zone. Actor Alan Alda once said, “The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.” An interesting source to speak such profound words that articulate volumes about the Year of the City and about Jesuit education. One of the key ideals of the Society of Jesus is to be open to growth. The Year of the City is urging us to get out and do something that will change our lives and integrate us into the Baltimore community. The Sankofa African Dance troupe is a perfect example of a cultural experience incorporating worldly traditions, Jesuit ideals, and the city of Baltimore, all on the campus of Loyola College.
McGuire Hall was the Sankofa Dance Theater as the drums began to sound and the dancing began. The beat picked up with “poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, embracing, arm-curving, and tightening” as Whitman unknowingly sings the body electric for the drummers and dancers that glide gracefully in front of the Loyola crowd. I have never seen anything like this before. It is easy to shrug off something like the Sankofa as weird. However, it is important to understand that it is a tribute to a different culture, the African country Ghana. I was reluctant to participate in the dance when they asked the crowd to, but I realized that I should not shy away from this new opportunity. I felt really uncomfortable, but the Sankofa is more than welcoming to the participation of the crowd.
Sankofa is a word that comes from the Akan language of Ghana meaning, “going back to fetch it”, or “reaching back to move forward”. I can easily scan my brain and think of a very uncomfortable moment in my life by thinking about my mission trip to Ecuador in the summer of 2005. I easily mingled with the people in our town and the children at the daycares, but I was never very eager to deal with the elderly. Two of our days there, we spent in the city of Guayaquil at a center for patients with Hansen’s disease. Frankly, this is a leprosy house. While I thought of the hard time I was having with the people and the interaction we had to do, I had to look at it from another perspective. These people are ostracized from society and quarantined. They know that we are probably disgusted by the diseases they have and by their appearances. It was our job to treat them as they deserve, as equals. I discovered myself there and I was very thankful for my “exquisite realization of health”. If I can spend time with lepers, I can do a dance with the Sankofa in McGuire Hall, and I can certainly appreciate the part of the culture that they shared with us. Sankofa is based in Baltimore, but by being open to growth, I was able to expand my mind and body. But these are not the thoughts and actions of the body and mind only, “O, I say now these are the soul!”