The pilgrimage will be centered around the theme of "Sankofa," a Western African term that calls a person to look to the past for wisdom to discern their future. The pilgrimage will mark the 500th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans who were transported for labor to present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The trip will acknowledge the history of the African culture and will be a walk in faith together for the diverse group of pilgrims.

Members of the contingent include Rev. Jesse de Porres Cox, O.P., a priest from the Archdiocese of Detroit; The Rev. Dr. Trinette McCray, campus minister/director of multicultural relations at Cardinal Stritch University; Dr. Anthony Mensah, deacon at Milwaukee's St. Martin de Porres Parish, and his daughter, Antoinette Mensah, who was born in Ghana; James Paszkiewicz, a lay formation student at Saint Francis Seminary; Mary Pattillo, the chair of the African-American Studies Department and an associate professor of sociology at Northwestern University, and her mother, Marva Pattillo.

The pilgrims will leave Milwaukee on Holy Thursday, March 28, and will celebrate Easter in Ghana. "This is a very meaningful time for us to be in Ghana," said Schauneille Allen, director of the African-American Ministry Office, who will be travelling to Ghana. "The Easter celebration will set the tone for our pilgrimage."

Part of the trip will include visiting slave castles in the Elmina. The pilgrims also will visit a river where captives were bathed for the last time before being taken to the slave castles.

An especially moving experience will be when the pilgrims place rocks from the Dominican Republic on the Ghana ground. The rocks were collected on an archdiocesan pilgrimage to the Dominican Republic last fall. The placing of the rocks will symbolize the unifying of the two lands - where the enslaved captives began their journey and where they were transported.

"As part of this journey, we are addressing a reality which began in one land and has infected our world for the last 500 years," said Rosemary Huddleston, OP, archdiocesan International Mission coordinator, who also will be part of the pilgrimage. "This is a pilgrimage to historical sites where the ground has been made holy through the sacrifice of innumerable human lives."

Pilgrims also will visit the estate of sociologist, author and civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois and will travel to Asante villages where craftsmen make kente cloth and wood carvings.

"We are providing this opportunity for people to examine their lives and to be transported to a place where such an important event that changed our world began," said Allen.

The pilgrims, their friends and family will gather for a prayer service on Tuesday, March 26, to pray for the group and their journey.