Tehran Almasi
@02618922
This week in freshman seminar we had the privilege listening to Dr. Alton B. Pollard III. Dr. Pollard is the dean of the school of Divinity here at Howard University. Dr. Pollard gave a lecture on religion, but his lecture wasn't trying to persuade us on which Religion was better than the next. He explained to us that the Africans coming from their home land to a mysterious new land needed a way to cope. Being African American I believe that we are naturally a religious people. So to hear that even though we were forced to come to this land against our will and treated less than human, we still turned to God. Dr. Pollard went on to tell us that religion is not just simply a god. It's based on the culture and time that shape what the religion is. To me this a deep because thinking of the time period and how Africans were not treated like humans. This new religion that the whites followed preached that everyone is equal. This I believe gave our ancestors the hope and strength to get by. Dr. Pollard also played a song called "Ship ahoy" by the O'Jays. I had not heard this song before but once it was played for me I knew it was a song that needed to be heard by my peers. The song was from the account of being on the coast of Africa and seeing these mysterious ships approaching them. While listening to the song in its entirety I tried to imagine myself in my ancestor's place. Not realizing that these ships were coming to take me away from my home and force me into physical labor, was something I just couldn't fathom.
