Guy and Timbuctoo in the NEWS

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 Phaedra Trethan

Cherry Hill Courier-Post 

Published 5:00 AM Feb. 21, 2022 

Guy Weston jokes that he's a "jack of all trades, master of none," a military kid who lived in 15 different houses and went to nine schools from Costa Rica to the Philippines, England to Puerto Rico. The Willingboro High School graduate admitted that, "as a military dependent, we always say we're not from anywhere ... You don't really have an affinity for one place."

A place called Timbuctoo, a Burlington County site settled by free Black people and former slaves, changed that. A much older cousin told the teenage Weston about his great-grandmother's home there, and Weston spent years learning more, diving into property records, deeds, tax papers and his family's genealogy.

A health care consultant who's written and spoken on HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, Weston learned records weren't always as reliable as he'd thought, and that deeds weren't always accurate. Property was passed from generation to generation without changes to the paperwork, throwing ownership into question, and as Weston worked to untangle it all, he learned more and more about his family history.

"In the case of Timbuctoo, we see that whole narrative we got in school was false," he said, and slavery, while a central part of Black history in America, isn't the whole story. "It's not always intentional. Textbooks are written for a national audience, so you don't hear about these local histories (like Timbuctoo and Lawnside), and what people get taught is that dominant narrative of slavery."

But by 1804, he explained, every Northern state had enacted laws to end slavery, which meant that Black people owned property, established schools and churches, and formed their own civic and fraternal organizations. "All that points to tangible success and accomplishment," he noted. "You see photos of people with smiles on their faces. It's not that they didn't struggle; they did. But this is another part of the narrative."

Though he now lives in Washington, D.C., Weston talked about going to his mother's Burlington County home, giving tours and speaking about Timbuctoo virtually and in person, and how it's important to both acknowledge the horrors of slavery and celebrate the triumphs of those who overcame it. "It's good for people to have images of their families that are positive, and not just being beaten over the head by white people," he said, recalling the 1877 obituary of David Parker, which talks about his many virtues and how he "endured the esteem of a large number of white friends."

"To hear people tell it, Black and white people didn't like each other then, but that's not always the way it was. We don't want to underemphasize the ugly, but we want people to know, ugly is not all that it was." An annual Timbuctoo Day celebration has been on hold during the pandemic, and though Weston is no longer directly involved in the planning, he's hopeful it can return this year, perhaps in September.

More information: https://timbuctoonj.com/