By Molly Tanenbaum
Within the council chambers at Mountain View City Hall last Saturday, 10 boys became men.
Among them was Ian Jasper, a painfully shy 17-year-old from East Palo Alto, who overcame his fear in order to speak before an audience about his experience in the Oriki Theater’s Rites of Passage program.
“I used to not want to go, but after the first session, I found myself wanting to go to every one of them,” he said.
Since November, Ian and nine other high school-aged African American boys attended weekly sessions as part of the Mountain View-based theater’s program. Through Rites of Passage, the boys carried out independent research projects, read the autobiography of a prominent African American surgeon, and discussed growing up as black males in America.
“We have to celebrate our boys, to teach them, to walk them into manhood,” said Chike Nwoffiah, Oriki Theater’s founder and director, addressing the audience during the Feb. 25 graduation ceremony.
During the course of Rites of Passage, which Nwoffiah began four years ago, the young men are exposed to something invaluable: positive male role models. Rites of Passage pairs each young participant with an African American male community member, from Stanford graduate students to an IBM retiree to the president of the local NAACP.
Gradually, the small group establishes trust, and discussion topics often turn personal, to hardships in the boys’ lives.
“When we come in and close the door, we tell them, ‘Cool is out,'” Nwoffiah said. “Sometimes, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.”
This year’s group of 10 came to Mountain View from all over the Bay Area — Union City, Sunnyvale, Oakland — and even as far as Sacramento. They met at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings at the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce to discuss readings and learn eight principles from traditional African coming-of-age ceremonies, such as “Love for self and others,” “Strength to soar above distractions,” and “Pride in who you are.”
During the graduation ceremony on Saturday, Nwoffiah called some of the boys at random to ask them to answer questions about lessons they learned in front of the audience of family and community members.
“If you don’t say ‘Here I am,’ no one’s gonna say, ‘There you are,'” responded Ryan Ginyard confidently, a 15-year-old from Sacramento.
His grandfather Harris Ginyard, a Mountain View resident and Rites of Passage mentor, convinced Ryan and his older brother, James, to make the long trip to Mountain View to participate in the program.
Besides the eight principles, other traditions from African culture appeared in the ceremony, including an Oriki Theater drummer to open the event. Each boy was adorned in a traditional Ghanaian Kente cloth, and Nwoffiah presented each graduate with a leather pouch worn by Nigerian warriors. Gift giving, Nwoffiah explained during the ceremony, is an important part of African rites-of-passage ceremonies.
Adding prestige to the ceremony, representatives from the offices of Assemblywoman Sally Lieber and county Supervisor Liz Kniss presented each graduate with a certificate in recognition of their work in the program.
The Rites of Passage program not only connects young African American males with their heritage, but it also prepares them for the real world.
“When you look at the statistics with respect to young African American boys graduating from college, or from high school, or in the justice system, it’s not very encouraging,” Nwoffiah said “As young black boys, they are being perceived as threats.”
This difficult message came through in part of Ryan Ginyard’s response about what he learned as a Rites of Passage participant.
“You’ve got to represent black males in a good way,” he said. “If you go out there and start cussing, people are going to think that’s how all black males act.”
Marian Askew saw a notable difference in the way her 15-year-old son, DeMario Benton, carried himself as a result of going through Rites of Passage.
“He was a little rough around the edges,” admitted Askew, who lives in Sunnyvale. “He got a little more respectful.”
Both Jasper’s parents and his mentor were impressed by the way the shy high school junior got up in front of the audience to speak.
“It’s absolutely amazing how they pushed him to open up a little more,” said his mother, Judy.
The program also helps the boys by fostering lasting connections with peers and adult role models.
“The most important thing to me is that they realize that network and bond they’ve established, and they come back and use it for the rest of their lives,” said Wilbur Jackson, one of the mentors and an IBM retiree.
“It’s a powerful beginning,” he added.
Nwoffiah said he receives calls from Modesto, San Francisco, Oakland and even Los Angeles from communities that want him to help start similar programs there. This means the program is providing a much-needed service, Nwoffiah said.
“We thought some of us who are fortunate to be where we are could do something by stretching our hands to the younger ones, and shrouding them with love and compassion and pointing them in the right direction and giving them the tools to navigate life,” Nwoffiah said.
E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum
