CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Good Kids Mad City, an Englewood-based group, organized a trip to Ghana for teens and their parents — and leaders said the trip changed some lives.
“We looked at it as an opportunity to see some things outside of Chicago,” said Camiella Williams, an adult mentor and advisor with the group. “You know, people were smiling, people were happy — even, you know, the police, they didn’t have this persona like it was a level of fear.”
Jerimiah Trask, 16, was among those to make the trip.
“My experience in Ghana was so fun, just to hear the history,” he said.
Williams said a concert in Ghana, performed by Chicago artists Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa, was among the impactful parts of the trip.
“You have different people from the Black diaspora coming together to have one, big party,” Williams said. “There was no fighting. There was no arguing. There was no anything; it was just love, and unity, and peace.”
The trip also included a stop at a slave castle in Ghana.
“That was a very heavy moment for them, and it was also a heavy moment for me because we’ve always heard about slavery — but not in the magnitude that we heard when we actually went to Ghana,” Williams said.
Williams and other leaders said they’re hopeful the trip has a strong, meaningful impact on the youth and, in turn, the city of Chicago.
“The young people feel ignored,” Williams said. “But to actually hear someone else tell you, ‘Keep fighting. You’re the next freedom fighter; you will bring that peace; you will bring that change.’ That also did something for them.”
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