Inspiration

I went to two OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, sponsored by the University of Cincinnati) sessions this week and left both uplifted in knowledge and spirits.

Thursday a woman by the name of Tambura Omoiele spoke about "Blacks in the Holocaust: The Rhineland Bastards." I was not the only person in the audience who, having read the description lightly and long ago, came to the class thinking we were going to hear about the children of black American soldiers who had gotten involved with German women. We did not. And when I did read the class description, I discovered that I was a little too late to read the recommended (advanced) reading: Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi.

Few people know that between 400 and 600 black German children were castrated, sterilized and/or sent to concentration camps during the Hitler years. They had lived in Germany since the migration of many Liberians to the Rhineland in the early 20th century. Hans Massaquoi was born in Germany in 1926 of a marriage between the Liberian consul and a German mother; somehow he managed to escape the fate dealt to many of the black children. After WW II he left Germany and came to the United States, where he served in the army, married and had children, made his living as a journalist, marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., and became managing editor of Ebony magazine. His book on his life in Germany was published by Morrow in 1999 and is still in print.

Tambura Omoiele is on a mission to inform people about the forgotten black people in major world events. I certainly did not know that black German citizens were among the 11 million people who died in the Holocaust. Now I do. Tambura mentioned in passing that a black couple had also been on the Titanic, but we never knew that, did we? Maybe that will be her next speech. At any rate, her telling of this event of WW II history was passionate and profound.

The next day I drove to another OLLI location to hear Jonathan T. Reynolds speak for three hours about "Every Bite a Taste of History: Food in History." Not only did Professor Reynolds, a specialist in West African history and Islam and currently on sabbatical from Northern Kentucky University, impart many facts about food in history, he treated his audience to a history of the teaching of history since the years that many of us had studied it in high school and college. Dr. Reynolds theorizes that one can teach the history of the world using a cookbook as a text. He hasn't gotten approval for that yet, but if he ever does, I'd like to take that course! And when he finishes his current textbook (his sabbatical project), World in Motion: A Dynamic History of Humankind, I may give that a shot, too.

Again this one-shot lecture was given with passion, and it taught me things about historiography and the origins of foodstuffs that were brand new to me. He inspired me.