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Howler's avatar

I didn’t want to hit like on the reply bar cos obviously I don’t. But thank you for writing about this, the atrocities just seem endless.

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Jennifer Adams's avatar

Disgusting. And no, nothing about this surprises me. There was the scene in "Amistad" where the "excess of human cargo" necessitated to "lightening of the load" and dozens (?) of enslaved people on their way to a life of misery and drudgery were chained and dumped into the sea. Not sure which group had the worst of it. The group that drowned in the choking darkness chained like animals or those who survived to be beaten, branded, raped, raped in order to be impregnated, bought and sold, to see loved ones bought and sold, to know Generations of Inhumane Conditions and Never See Their Homeland Again...

Zong Massacre not a sexy enough script? No room for a Heroic White Savior to "Help those poor Negroes?" Too expensive? How about the bare bones, a woman grabbed from the bushes near her home. Beaten. Beaten by Black hands as well as White. Money changing hands. Waiting in a wall enclosure, a pen, with other terrified people. Mingling in terror. Looking for loved ones, friends and being terrified of not finding them. Of finding them. Waiting. Waiting. Hunger. Thirst. Strange noises. Sleeping on stone. Reliving yourself in a corner. The corner everyone else uses. Loud, rough voices. Everyone on their feet, herded out into the light, dark, light. Up a wooden plank. Hit with sticks. Pushed. Shoved. Forced down into a foul-smelling dark hole. The crying and screaming. been pressed body-to-body with other frightened people. The creaking of the wood. The sound of boots overhead. Chinks of light growing dim as the heat and swelling smell of unwashed bodies rises. No room to move. Not an inch to get more comfortable. Comfort long gone. Fear. Black Fear and Waiting. The yelling of men over your head out of sight. Strange tongues. The sound of rigging and the sea. The swells as the ship moves away from the coast. The Silence. The blackness now dim as your eyes adapt to the lack of light. The shapes of others. A hand held for comfort. The sickness as your body reacts to the undulations of the ship on the open sea. The smell of rain on the boards. Reaching out to grab even a drop of fresh water. Your lips cracked. Eyes sore. Stomach churning. All churning, weeping, shouting, crying, roiling heat. Bladders letting go. Urine dribbling down the wooden boards. The sharp smell of alcohol. The unseen men struggling over you. Slamming and knocking into things. Cursing in the thick, toneless speech you start to recognize. Day? Night? Only the chinks of light give any indication of the passing of time. So hungry you become delirious. You think the others have been given food, water. You can smell it, but it never comes near you. Time does not exist. You have been here forever. You will die here. A chick of day explodes as a door is flung open. Heavy boots struggle down the wooden steps into the hold. The clanking of chains and weak protests of those hauled to their feet. They are struck with heavy sticks even in their weakness, sickness. None are spared. men, women, children. Grabbed and dragged out of the darkness into the blistering glorious sun. There is nothing but sun. No land. No trees. No grass. No soil. No people. The tiny ship bucks and rolls on the huge blue mass of ocean. A white man bigger than you shoves you roughly in the back, yelling wordless words and he and two other white men push you towards the side of the ship. You are herded into a group. Chains are unlocked, slipped off, heavier rusted ones take their place and are secured roughly to your wrists and ankles. You could not move away from the others if you tried. You are trapped. There is nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. The angry white men curse and spit at you. Thrusting metal sticks into your face and yelling with murder in their eyes. A man dressed like a peacock stands above you waving his hand toward the sea. One by one you watch your chained companions be thrust over the side of the ship into the deep blue waters. Their heads never come up. They are not swimming, there arms waving uselessly, their hands grasping for nothing as they disappear beneath the water. Before you can steady yourself, you are pushed overboard with three others. Men, Women? You don't know. The water is so cold you feel like you have been stabbed all over with tiny knives. You cannot breathe. You reach through the cold green water as the sun slips further and further away. Darkness. The chain tearing into your skin, cold as the sea. Silence. Darkness. You cannot breathe...

You are not meant to.

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