In Sep­tem­ber, Willie Mae Lewis penned a let­ter to her son Robert, shar­ing fam­i­ly updates, includ­ing his father’s recov­ery from ill­ness and the sib­lings’ activ­i­ties. She expressed con­cern over Robert’s antic­i­pat­ed trip to Africa, ques­tion­ing his deci­sion to trav­el so far. Robert’s eager­ness stemmed from his new­found inter­est in his fam­i­ly’s roots and con­nec­tions with African stu­dents, which had deep­ened dur­ing his time in Nashville and High­lander. He reached out to Bayard Rustin, express­ing a desire to vis­it Africa to ben­e­fit both SNCC and him­self, seek­ing sug­ges­tions for patrons.

Har­ry Bela­fonte emerged as a key sup­port­er, offer­ing funds for a group excur­sion to Guinea, where they would engage with senior mem­bers of the Guinean inde­pen­dence move­ment led by Pres­i­dent Sék­ou Touré. On Sep­tem­ber 10, Lewis depart­ed from Atlanta to New York, brim­ming with antic­i­pa­tion for his trip. How­ev­er, com­pli­ca­tions arose at JFK air­port when the flight was over­booked, prompt­ing Ruby Doris Smith Robin­son to stage a sit-in on the jet­way, allow­ing the group to board the plane.

The jour­ney to Africa was a first for Lewis, exhil­a­rat­ing yet nerve-wrack­ing, as he was pet­ri­fied of fly­ing. Upon arrival in Sene­gal, the recep­tion was warm; Hamer kissed the ground in grat­i­tude, and the group enjoyed the sight of Black pro­fes­sion­als in roles sel­dom seen back in the U.S. They head­ed to Guinea to stay at Vil­la Sily, receiv­ing grand hos­pi­tal­i­ty that includ­ed sump­tu­ous meals and night­ly enter­tain­ment dur­ing the cul­tur­al fes­ti­val.

Lewis enjoyed the vibrant events but also engaged in dis­cus­sions about the polit­i­cal land­scape with local min­is­ters and activists, dis­cov­er­ing the nuances of Guinea’s one-par­ty sys­tem. The vibrant atmos­phere offered a con­trast to the harsh real­i­ties they fought against back in Amer­i­ca. Mech­a­nisms of SNCC were put to the test as inter­nal con­flicts arose over lead­er­ship and direc­tion. While in Africa, Lewis remained con­scious of the urgency back home, choos­ing to immerse him­self in learn­ing rather than polit­i­cal strife.

In Liberia and Ghana, the cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences became appar­ent, with Lewis reflect­ing on sim­i­lar­i­ties and aspi­ra­tions that defined their respec­tive strug­gles. Their expe­ri­ences cul­mi­nat­ed in Zam­bia, where they wit­nessed the jubi­lant inde­pen­dence cel­e­bra­tions and drew inspi­ra­tion from the uni­ty and free­dom expressed by Zam­bian cit­i­zens. Despite the joy, Lewis grap­pled with feel­ings of being out of sync with the local cul­ture.

Upon return­ing to the U.S., Lewis’s time in Africa sparked a com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion with­in the civ­il rights move­ment. How­ev­er, his return also brought con­fronta­tion with the chaot­ic state of SNCC, where inter­nal divi­sions and dis­agree­ments over lead­er­ship were emerg­ing. This chap­ter of his life sig­nif­i­cant­ly shaped his under­stand­ing of the com­plex­i­ties of race, iden­ti­ty, and glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty in the fight for civ­il rights .