yondaproject

“I’m from Pantego, North Carolina” — and when I say that, I mean that as an acknowledgement and a reminder of the roughly 40 acres of land that you see here. In our town, it’s called “Riddick Town”. This land was toiled for and claimed (or moreso reclaimed) by my great great grandparents Annie & Noah Riddick. A Black farmer and a Black & Indigenous migrant worker. They had 8 beautiful Black children, one of which is my great grandmother. I am now responsible for the home and land she was left, being that she left that to me. Along with each of their 8 lots, there is a mass of land that is owned by our family.
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Our future goal is to conserve it and preserve it—we don’t know how, because we don’t know—but ultimately we desire to sow into it and to communally reap from it. We deeply dream of the day it reminds us all of what it used to be. I desperately dream of the day my elders will feel what they felt when they used to roam the fields that Noah & Annie tended and tilled. That it reminds them of when they would skip the fresh water in the creek that used to divide the land from the neighboring white owners who patiently wait to colonize what’s there. It is good ground. It is beautiful Black soil. It is sacred space.
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And Whatever it takes, we will honor those who came before us. We have to. We have to because our family’s history and future both depend on it. This is and forever will be our story to tell.
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#pantegonc #land #family #familyland #love #future #BlackAugust #BlackFutures #Yonda #AfroCarolina