Journeys of Discovery: Narrative of a SIP in Sierra Leone

Abstract

This Senior Individualized Project is the revised narrative of my experiences in Europe, Africa and Kalamazoo College during the period June 1992-the present. This time period includes my Junior year Foreign Study Quarters in Caceres, Spain (September 1992- February, 1993), through the quarters that I spent at Kalamazoo College before completing my Senior Individualized Project Quarter in Freetown, Sierra Leone (January-March, 1994). My memories and journals of the feelings, thoughts and actions which led me on these journeys of personal discovery on three continents provide the basis for this personal narrative. This narrative also details the extensive research on oral tradition, or story-telling, written and performance analysis which I completed while in Sierra Leone. The motivation for this topic was born out of a union between my long-standing academic interests in literature, mythology, foreign language, theatre and anthropology, as well as my personal interest in my heritage as an African-American. The inspiration for this project was Zora Neale Hurston, the renowned African-American writer and anthropologist, whose intelligence, wit and spirit of adventure I have admired and tried to emulate all of my adult life.