Originally uploaded by beninmwangi
This picture was taken when my Dad and I were in Ghana. We had the opportunity of a lifetime when a friend of ours, Awauni (seated next to my dad) offered to take us to his village “up north”.
The trip there, by car, was a real adventure. But the bonding that he, Nita (my second mom), and myself were able to do was incredible.
When you see my Dad seated there on top of the “main house” of this village compound, notice how happy he looked. This is how my dad was. He was as comfortable in an African village- as he was shaking hands with three African Head’s of State (Ghana’s Rawlings, Botswana’s Festus Mogae, Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali). He was also at home in the academic and corporate worlds. And when I was a student at Morehouse College, we’d sometimes go for walks around the campus (which at the time had a low income inner city feel to it) and the way that my Dad would talk to the residents of the area, it was like he was one of the residents.
I think my brother, Dr. Daryl Brown summed it up nicely
“in Dad’s hometown of Boston, Mass he was known as Charlie, to the brothers around the way he was known as “Doc”, in academia he was known as Dr. Brown, in Ghana he was known as the Prof or as Nana, and to us he is affectionately known as “Dad”.
Photo Courtesy of: Wikipedia
