Reviewing 'We Are All Africans': A Reflection on MoAD Museum Visit

This report details a student's experience visiting the Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco as part of a university trip. The student reflects on the exhibits, programs, and overall impact of the museum on their understanding of African history and culture. The report discusses the student's initial skepticism towards the 'We Are All Africans' thesis and how the museum visit, particularly the exhibits and interactions with artists, transformed their perspective. The student describes the museum's architecture, exhibits ranging from art and clothing to historical documents, and events like the MoAD Emerging Artists program. The visit led to a personal transformation, challenging the student's worldview and fostering a deeper appreciation for the African Diaspora and other cultures, prompting them to consider a broader understanding of history and social justice. The experience also changed their views about the world.

Running head: REVIEWING WE ARE ALL AFRICANS
REVIEWING WE ARE ALL AFRICANS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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The experience
Out trip commenced on November 27 and ended on November 30. During this period, we
visited several cultural and historical hubs in San Francisco. The trip was full of fun as we went
together with our professor and visited numerous places. In my personal view, this was one of
the most fulfilling trips in terms of knowledge about the world and its history. On the first day of
the trip, we went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and explored the exhibits there.
The museum is a modern-day marvel from the outside with its creative architecture and from the
inside as well, it was breathtaking. The arts in exhibit were hard to interpret but had an appeal.
We had a session with the museum authorities who guided us through the exhibits. The
experience was enriching.

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The next day, we went to the Children’s Creativity Museum that was not too far from the
Modern Art museum. The Creativity museum had an animation studio where we enjoyed making
clay characters and then make them move digitally. A music studio was also there in the museum
where we had fun recording music videos. The best thing I liked about the museum was that it let
the children explore their creative minds. We ended the day with a visit at the Yerba Buena
Center for The Arts Theater. The last day of our trip was spent at the Museum of the African
Diaspora, known locally as MoAD. In my opinion, there could have been no other better way to
end the trip than to visit the MoAD. We began our day quite early and after sightseeing the
nearby parks and streets, we visited the museum. It was an amazing experience looking at all the
exhibits and programs at the museum and ending the trip with immense knowledge.

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The MoAD
The Museum of African Diaspora is located at 685 Missionary Street at Third in San
Francisco near the Bay Area. The MoAD looks like just another building from across the street
with just the board having MoAD inscription outside. It had glass windows in the front. The
moment we reached the front of the building, I found it to be very appealing because of its
simplicity. In the entrance, the name of the museum is written in white fonts over a grey
platform, which is simple and clear for the visitors to read. Inside the museum, inspirational
writings about and by the African dissent people could be seen adorning the walls. The museum
has a digital health gallery, a grand staircase with an entire wall covered in a collage of pictures

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from African history across the globe. The exhibits in the museum that ranged from clothing to
books, artistic works like paintings and embroidery and other handicrafts enthralled me.
We had the opportunity to experience live and ongoing events at the museum as well.
One such event was the MoAD Emerging Artists presents 5/5 Collective that will run from
November 11 to December 16, 2018. The program highlights the diversity of the African
Diaspora and the Black experiences. Artists from Nigeria had a program that day where they
demonstrated their ordeal while transporting from their own land to other places. We also gad a
session with the organizers of an art exhibition titled City with a River Running Through of late
Ficre Ghebreyesus, an Eritrean-American artist. It was an enlightening session as it enriched my
knowledge about the struggles of various African communities.

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Effect of MoAD experience on thoughts
Prior to going on the trip at the MoAD, we had a thorough discussion on the thesis “We
are all Africans” and I was not much interested in it, as I did not believe much of it. However,
my perception about the thesis changed entirely post the trip. The main point raised by the thesis
was that the early human race evolved majorly from the Africans. According to the Chapter 1 of
Becoming Human, most of the scholars accept the view that modern human have emerged
prominently in Africa some 200,000 years ago. The humans then began migrating to other parts
of the world some 100,000 years ago. In fact, Lucy, one of the oldest known hominid skeletons
was found in the African nation of Ethiopia in 1974. Although this information interested me, I

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did not believe that Africans had such long history. The visit to the museum changed my
perspective on African community completely.
The thesis although associated most of the origins of humans to African land, it did not
talk much about the art, language and other areas of the Africans. After visiting the MoAD, I
found that most of the claims made in the thesis contradicted my perception. The visit led me to
an entirely different world where I could interact directly with history, the history of Africa. The
experience helped me get rid of the wrong notion that Africans and any dissent of the African
community are savage and uncultured tribes.
Effect of the visit on worldview

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The visit to MoAD did not only change my experience about the African community but
also my views about the world. The trip itself, as I have mentioned previously, was very
fulfilling for me. I had the chance to meet people of other cultures while on the trip and during
the museum visits. I am not from the African background so I did not have much knowledge
about the community and neither did I try to learn about them. Although I did not hate them, I
had no love for them too. However, the visit developed a feeling of admiration and respect in me
not just for the Africans but also for other cultures and communities as well. I realized that each
culture has the right to enjoy equal respect and freedom. I have Christian faith but I had hardly
ever recognized the actual meaning of being a Christian until I paid a visit to the museum. The

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exhibitions and programs at the museum allowed me to learn deeply about the African history
and their struggles even made me emotional.
My worldview is based on the gospel of the Christ, which states that each individual be
given equal right to live. However, the visit contradicted this view as the history that I learned
about the Africans was far from the gospel. As humans, I felt that we have failed ourselves and
we have failed Jesus as well. The African Diaspora did nothing to deserve the harsh treatment
they were made to face, the racism that had to face. My worldview has changed completely after
the visit to MoAD and I now realize that I should do a little more than just going to the church.