I am working on a submission that honors my Leeke and Roberts Family legacy in DC. I decided to use Canva to create digital collages that include my interpretation of the DC flag and several photos of great grandparents, grandparents, aunt, parents, brothers, and myself that were taken in DC during the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or early 2000s.
Take a look at my “Chocolate City” DC flag and the current DC flag. My “Chocolate City” DC flag uses two shades of brown to honor the occupied land of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank (also known as Anacostan or Anacostine) people and their contributions to the land. The brown colors also honor the people of African descent and their contributions to the land.
I replaced the three stars with Nsoromma Ghanaian Adinkra symbols because I wanted the flag to reflect the deep spiritual belief, connection, and faith of the Piscataway, Nacotchtank, and African people who laid the foundation and made significant contributions to DC. Nsoromma means “children of the heavens” and “star.” It represents Creator watching over all of humanity.
The photo I used for the base of my collage features my Aunt Paulyne Roberts who worked as a public health nurse at Freedman’s Hospital in the 1940s in DC. She is standing on a street in DC. I added my Chocolate City flag as a border on the right side of the photo and placed Nsoromma symbols on windows and the sidewalk.
Ananda Leeke 