"The Boys of Baraka"

At a time when many of the young black boys who’ve grown up in the inner city imagine their ticket out as being a chance at the N.B.A and N.F.L, or a lucrative recording contract, it’s refreshing to see that some youngsters know that obtaining a quality education is yet another option. Last week I had the opportunity to see a screening of “The Boys of Baraka” a documentary film which chronicled the experience of 12 young black boys from Baltimore, who spent one year in Kenya, at a boarding school there which was “The Baraka School’. The film which shows us the process which led to those 12 boys boarding a plane and heading to Africa back in 2002 shows us how that journey impacted their lives.

The film begins with a look at Baltimore, at some of the neighborhoods which like neighborhoods in other urban centers reside in the shadow of the downtown area. With those images we get a sense of where “The Boys of Baraka” come from, and we also get a sense of what their mostly poor and working class neighborhoods look like. There are kids who run around what are public housing developments, kids who play cops and robbers, and kids who are well aware of the dangers of the city. They are well aware of the pervasive forces which work against them drugs, crime, poverty, and sadly enough failing schools. The obstacles that young boys and girls, but most especially young boys in Baltimore face are daunting. As Mavis Jackson, an admissions officer for the school tells the boys, the odds are not necessarily in their favor, and they have choices to make. Ms. Jackson states the options clearly and plainly they are, “An orange jumpsuit and bracelets, a black suit in a brown box or a black cap and gown.” With over ¾ of the boys who attend Baltimore’s public schools failing to graduate from high school, there is a sense of urgency with trying to convince these boys to “straighten up and fly right.”

In the film we don’t just see the typical depiction of boys in the hood, we see so much more. Through the eyes of Devon Brown, Montrey Moore, Richard Keyser, and Romesh Vance we see what these kids are yearning for is knowledge, but most importantly that what they are seeking is an opportunity. Whether it’s Devon the aspiring preacher, whose impromptu sermon at the beginning of the film brings laughter, whether it’s Montrey whose mother wants to keep her son from falling victim to the streets, whether it’s Richard who visits his father in prison and vows never to head back there, or Romesh, Richard’s little brother, whose mother fought hard to have both boys accepted because she said to school officials, “Don’t make one a king and the other a killer.” We see these boys embrace Africa, and embrace a new way of life.

It’s a story about the reality of urban life in America, the reality of the education system, but it is also an amazing story of hope for generations of African-Americans who are far removed from Africa, but in this film we see that Africa for those twelve boys serves as a place of rebirth, by the end of the film we see that “Baraka” has fulfilled its meaning for those boys it has been a “blessing”.