West Africa

The 1854 warship Constellation is awash in the sweet smell of new wood as workers at Baltimore's Fort McHenry Shipyard glue and nail fresh planks of Douglas fir to the old ship's sides.The $9 million restoration of the ship -- which served in the Civil War and in the anti-slavery squadrons off West Africa -- has passed the one-third mark and entered its second winter.Work remains on track for a return to the Inner Harbor in July 1999, according to Louis F. Linden, executive director of the Constellation Foundation.

You know you aren't in the company of a typical college basketball player when Sitapha Savane starts talking about his future."I'd be very surprised if I'm not in politics," says Savane, a sophomore forward at Navy.Politics? Most players would tell you it's what goes on behind the scenes of the weekly Top 25 balloting.Savane, a citizen of Senegal, in West Africa, knows better. He was raised in a political family. His father is a member of Senegal's Parliament, after years as a leader of a left-wing opposition party.

IF ONLY Stokely Carmichael had stayed in this country, we would all be the better for it. Known in later years as Kwame Toure, he will be best remembered for the most famous -- or infamous -- phrase in the civil rights lexicon, "black power." But his vision and ability extended far beyond words.His death at the age of 57 recalled the heady days of the movement of the 1960s, the tense and sometimes deadly challenges to the racist status quo in the South and rioting in the rest of the country.

His eyes shut, his feet pounding pavement, Baba Kwame Ishangi contorted his body and sang about the dead yesterday at the Inner Harbor.About 70 people on Pier 5 listened and echoed Ishangi's words in the African tongue of Yoruba. They pounded drums and jingled bells to remember their ancestors, who passed -- shackled -- through town. They were slaves."This is about healing," said Adeyemi Bandele, 47, of Davidsonville, who organized the two-day "Remembrance: A Tribute to Our Ancestors," which ended yesterday.

MAJ. JOHNNY PAUL KOROMA shattered the 1996 accord ending five years of anarchy in Sierra Leone. On May 25, he deposed the elected president, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who fled. Major Koroma's troops are children with assault rifles and rebels who launched civil war in 1991.The coup undoes the progress that the poor country of 4.5 million people in West Africa was finally making. It repudiates the 53-nation Organization of African Unity's (OAU) slow march toward stability and democracy in Africa.

BOSTON -- In his new, widely publicized book ''Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa,'' author Keith Richburg of the Washington Post sees the corpses of massacred Africans and writes, ''If things had been different, I might have been'' one of them. ''So I thank God my ancestor survived that voyage.''At another point, he visits the place where Africans were loaded for the voyage: Goree Island in Senegal. Many African-Americans cry when they visit Goree. Mr. Richburg writes that he felt ''little personal connection or pain.

The Baga of West Africa are a small, unpowerful people. They number no more than 40,000 in all, and live in several groups of villages along a 100-mile stretch of Guinea's coast. They have never held major political power, and have been subjugated by others, both African and European. Not a people you would think important enough for outsiders to study.Except for their art. Over the centuries, they have created a body of art monumental in its proportions and more highly developed than that of much larger civilizations.

ELLICOTT CITY resident Marie Gravelle, a graduate of Centennial High School and James Madison University, is a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa. She has been in Niger for a year and is serving her final year.Living in a two-room mud "concession," Gravelle has no bathroom or electricity.The 100-degree heat means that she must pull her mattress outside and cover herself with mosquito netting each night because it's too hot to sleep inside.Her work is to teach nutrition to pregnant women in one of the world's poorest countries.

SALVADOR, Brazil -- Tourists come to Salvador and surrounding Bahia state seeking the same things they find in much of the rest of Brazil -- idyllic beaches, a welcoming sun and an easygoing lifestyle set to a samba beat.But what they also find here is the most African of Brazilian cities, a place where the dress, the food, the music and even the religion hark back to West Africa.And increasingly, African-Americans are heading south to Salvador, seeking something that goes beyond a relaxing vacation -- a sense of kinship and a common heritage with the blacks of Brazil.

THE WALTERS ART GALLERY has made a substantial advance in the acquisition of 17 works of Ethiopian Christian art, most of which are now on public view. This complements its holdings in Armenian, Russian, Greek and early Italian Christian devotional art.This addition to the collection flows naturally from the Walters' xTC stunning introduction of Ethiopian religious art to Americans in its 1993 show, which fed its own interest and reputation, indirectly leading to this purchase and extended loan.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama made his first trip to the African continent as president, visiting Ghana, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain its independence from Europe. The nation of about 20 million remains a democracy and has not been a victim of civil unrest, making it a peaceful destination for tourists. It also offers a range of attractions from beaches to game reserves to old European forts and castles. 1 Explore the National Museum: . Located in Accra, the nation's capital, it is the oldest museum that celebrates the rich culture of the region, offering art and historical objects, exhibits and films.

About $36,000 in currency was seized from two passengers at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport this week, and another man was arrested on a drug possession charge after marijuana was found in his baggage, customs officials announced yesterday. Officials also announced that two stolen vehicles were intercepted last week at the port of Baltimore before they could be shipped to West Africa, bringing the number of stolen vehicles recovered there this year to eight.

On June 4, 2003, as Liberian President Charles Taylor walked up the steps for the opening ceremony of the Accra Peace Accords in Ghana, I stood in front of the world's press and announced that I had unsealed an indictment charging him with 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international community reacted with praise - and condemnation. Politicians and diplomats voiced concern that my announcement had jeopardized the newly organized peace process and hopes for stability in West Africa.

Stephen Henderson Henderson is a freelance writer based in New York. He writes frequently about design, food, travel and religion. He is an enthusiastic traveler who has recently filed stories from Africa, China, India, Sicily and Sweden. For UniSun, he writes about a growing number of African-Americans who are enjoying outdoor sports (Page 10). Daamon Speller Born and raised in Queens, N.Y., Speller is a freelance writer who lives in Montgomery County. During the past 10 years, he has written for Today's Black Woman, Black Men, Upscale and Heart & Soul magazines.

I grew up in the early 1960s in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Burkina Faso is a small, landlocked country with a population of less than 14 million, most of who are poor. Life expectancy for men and women is 48 years because of the lack of health care. This is especially the case for women who die during or after giving birth. As a young man, I remember hearing about women in my village who died during labor. Their deaths were not discussed publicly. All we were told was that it was God's will and that we should accept these tragic events as an inescapable part of life.

West Africa Performers share heritage If you want to hear the beat of the drum and learn the tradi tions of West Africa, go to the Randallstown library, 8604 Liberty Road, at 7 tonight, where Anansegromma of Gha na will share its heritage. Kwame Ansah-Brew is the mas ter drummer, dancer and actor, while Kofi Dennis is the artist and educator. Free. Call 410-887-0770.

A small New York-based airline that typically flies only chartered flights will launch a once-a-week flight to West Africa from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport beginning June 4, the airline and airport said yesterday. North American Airlines, founded in 1989, has flown military and other charters from BWI. The airline was bought recently by World Air Holdings Inc., an Atlanta company that also operates air charters. North American will be the first carrier to offer service to West Africa from the airport since Air Ghana was grounded in 2004.

WASHINGTON - Buried deep in news reports are signs that trouble is brewing in Nigeria. It may seem insignificant that an extremist Islamic militia attacked two Nigerian police stations Sept. 20, killing five. But whether the United States cares to notice may have dire consequences for our country. In September 1991, a decade before 9/11, the State Department's special envoy to Afghanistan, Ambassador Peter Tomsen, cabled Washington with a prophetic warning: Afghanistan was "a receding issue in U.S. global interests" and American neglect "would be a blow to U.S. objectives ... in combating terrorism."

Take a break from checking your e-mail, and put those cell phones away. Keynote speaker William Safire offered that advice to graduates at Loyola College's 152nd commencement yesterday, reminding them that human beings need to set aside time to think. At the 1st Mariner Arena downtown, 813 Loyola students were awarded bachelor's degrees, and another 831 earned master's or doctoral degrees. More than 400 students at St. Mary's College of Maryland also graduated yesterday in southern Maryland.

Funds for Iraq could do much here at home President Bush has requested $87 billion to fund the first year of the military occupation of Iraq ("Report details spending request for Iraq," Sept. 23). Members of Congress now must deal with the difficult issues of how best to support our troops and bring a better way of life to Iraq. But who will receive the most benefit from that $87 billion? The Iraqi people? Or will the fat cats of Halliburton, Bechtel and other corporations that are poised to do the "cleanup" in Iraq reap the rich harvest they have been counting on?