“I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong” – Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Interchange of ideas, and a stroll down history lane from inside the Cape Coast Castle with its ugly but transformative stories, will come with me now and forever. Its reeling emotions interred with my bones in the HEREAFTER-If any!
For me, the sorrowful experience at the Cape Coast Castle goes beyond snapping selfies – it’s a silence hour. It is a sacred ground which should accord deep reverence. Should include special moments of introspections, connecting with the inner spirit plus listening to the loud silence of the maimed captives therein.
I have said many times that ‘men don’t cry’ but I sobbed in the dungeon at Cape Coast Castle. There I knew real men cry! I suffered dejection! I became a victim of that newborn child who blubbered because of her sense of a new world upon birth. That pristine first cry which seems to prompt complexity, cruelty, unfairness and a world of uncertainty.
A minute of silent here in the dungeon connected me to my spirit and bogey as I heard innocent souls cry – a wistful memoir nonetheless a melancholy.
Whose eternally wounded hearts still bleed, who died on empty stomachs, souls that died of mere thirst, who force-feed their repast in shackles and in the midst of fecal matter. These souls are still wailing in deep silence, and of the quest for ritual purification and spiritual rehab.
Who saw the “door of no return’ as hell’s gate. Who normalized restricted liberty. Whose blood stained the dungeon walls. Whose carcasses are chucked into the sea upon demise instead of dignified burials.
Quite a quiet moment for me to see the church cathedral built right on top of where human beings were confined in the gloom amidst teeth gnashing. Big-Bad!
Crystal clear, the perpetrators have had dead consciences. Did the missionaries in charge at the cathedral actually preach God and the good news? Did the so called missionaries listened to the plea for clemency?
Ideally this bothers on the infamous paradox whether the world is fair or not? Were they truly men of God? “Wolves in sheep clothing”? Many such an unswerable questions crossed my mind. Unfortunately one can say without apology that the mentality of the men of God at the cathedral atop the dungeon set a pace for the emergence of FALSE men of God.
Today’s men of God do such similarly sinister things as over exploiting poor church members for money. The unsuspecting and vulnerable church members are conned in the name of God. The men of God nowadays preach virtue and practice vice. Society is corrupt right down to the church with no recourse to conscience.
A different episode of my contemplations prompted a thought of whether people who are expected to work soon on another’s field should be tortured, starved, flogged or weakened before the supposed work! This is fierce and hard heartedness! Again, dead conscience prevailed.
I would reason that, persons expected to soon labor for another should be well fed, clothed and sheltered. That I suppose could have been the ultimate guarantee for work efficiency!
This is sin against man who was just going to serve on a farmland unknown. Sin against man who was betrayed by his own native slave traders. These native traders who were not just accomplices but pioneering workers in the abominable slave business. You can’t deny this. The cradle of the slave exploit began on our shores, by us.
Sadly, African tradional leaders profited, corroborated with the slavers in raids, capture of fugitives, and engaged in the sinful ‘slave hunt’. We are surely our own enemies.
The narrative that our forebears served the sexual appetencies for the so called Lords is yet another forlorn anatomy. As to what triggered this moral evil as exhibited by the colonial master remains a head scratcher! Sex in chains is unfathomable. Sex with a crying slave is a lost of dignity definitely demeaning.
Here again another thought.. were there not human right activists in the world at the time of this callous slave business! Perhaps human right laws were differently applied to people. I regret to think, but perhaps it occurred on the blind side. I am not here to lay blame anyway!
For the roguish conditions in the cells at the Cape Coast Castle at the time is a ghostly apparition. My heart ached, and for few moments lost my reasoning faculty. Indeed unthinkable. The prison cells are mournful and built to kill not to correct the supposed bad behaviors of the bondsmen. The prison walls are but tunnels with little or no ventilation and fiery room temperatures caused exhaustion and heat cramps. The design architecture of the prison walls was a calculated tactic lacking in human virtues of mercy.
Ceteris Paribus, the other part of the coin is obvious that, it is a bygone. It is indeed considered history if we as a people take precedence in frowning on any form of domestic slavery or serfdom which in disguise are corruption, profligacy, and child labor. Others are human trafficking, disregard for women’s rights, illiteracy, enhanced media bias, injustice, whatsoever.
Indeed it will all be long gone if lessons are learned and well. Much depends on change of attitudes. We must build a society endowed with conscience that elicits moral ethics and philosophy, strengthen ties, and never sin against oneself or another man.
All said, I wish there was no such hangdog narrative like “slave trade”. I wish I can delete this record from old history. How I wish it was a fairy tale, but wishes are not horses for beggars to try a ride.
May The Souls Of These Painfully Departed Rest In Peace!