Dennis,

Gene Tinnie can be reached at dinizulu7@gmail.com

 

Ric Powell

Hi Dennis, sorry it has taken so long to respond - I had to track down Gene Tinnie. Give me a call at 757-570-3520 and I will give you his contact information. I will try to reach you by phone. Peace!

Hey Dennis, I'm doing well keeping busy but I am amazed of the work you have been doing and glad to be apart of the Diversity in Aquatics network because swimming is one of my fears. I had lessons a long time ago but I did not do very well. Hopefully, I can overcome this and learn some tips on swimming so that I can one day save my life and others. This is very important and a few Africian Americans may not take this serious. You surf too? Wow..

Hey Dennis - I am honoured to be part of this- great cause, and will definately keep you posted - am looking to pop off to the land down under for hols around the beginning of Sept will up date you in August and see how your looking cheers Lisa

O wow! Bill's event slipped my mind. I would have loved to seen you all. DAP is fantastic. I'm looking forward to getting involved.

Sounds like a plan.

Dennis,
Hope all is well.
The Amistad story is generally told, to some degree or another, but what I am researching right now are the stories of three heros within their era but forgotten about, except in a few special agenda references. I am looking at the three of them from a mariners' perspective, since their histories were shaped by their time at sea. One was enslaved and rose to prominence through writing a book. One was the first Black officer in the Royal Navy, who also rose from slavery in Jamaica. The last is the best for me because he represents much of the newly formed American spirit. He was half Indian, half Black, raised with a Black Indian population who were seafarers. Went from smuggling to a fleet of ships trading along the Eastern coast of the slave owning US with all black and Indian crews as well as Europe, Africa and the Caribbean countries, and became the wealthiest Black man in America as the century turned into the 19th. He also started up the pan-African movement and the US based back to Africa movement out of his own pocket.

Unlike the Amistad, which deals with first action to free ones self, then the enslavers acting to free one; these stories are about actions by Black mariners who worked toward an end to slavery and became successful in their own right and ways.

That was a lot to say, no? Well, prying out the secrets of their lives is much much more complicated. They are like some kind of secret treasure trove of us making the move to free ourselves, which of course was the reality that we don't seem to talk about too much. It is much easier to remember that small amount of our time on earth that somebody subjegated us in a very publicly and continually public way.

I just read down the list and saw you were trying to get in touch with Dinizulu Gene Tinnie. I imagine you have contacted him by now, but here are some of this words, sent about a mentoring programme we are doing:
“Here, where numerous cultural streams coexist in the same time and space, it is required that the Griot not only be a custodian of "facts," but also have the flexibility to grasp, understand and present those facts from multiple cultural perspectives, which greatly increases what we call our knowledge, because it transcends the narrow, tunnel-vision interpretations that are so often the cause of conflicts.

In our present situation, we all understand the need to rectify the imbalance that we have all inherited, especially the exclusions along "racial" lines, of the contributions and achievements of the African Diaspora (not to mention those of females of all ethnicities) from the conventional narrative.

In making the history we pass on to future generations more inclusive, we make a new and different set of selections, which means other things risk being excluded in the process. In this situation we have to be Griots in our own right.”

Dennis,
We already are friends, so I guess this is an embarrassing way of making me respond. Sorry, I have really been busy here with some research on a book we are trying to accomplish on Black maritime heritage and history, circa 1740-1840. Specifically, Paul Cuffe and John Perkins. I am also assisting a urban youth sailing heritage programme in a funky neighbourhood in Hackney. That is kind of intense and needing concentration.

But, I will try and keep up the communications. There is a thing with a friend who has properties in Ghana and Jamaica and he wants to develop them into something dealing with heritage tourism. I did mention Aquatics and diving tourism and he seems interested. Are you or anybody out there interested in developing a diving tourism facility in an almost untouched area of many sunken vessels?