Chiamaka Culhane 11th July 2008
Slave Diary
I remember back to when I had a very happy and fulfilled life. We did not have much, but we had each other. I lived in a village called Jimmi, it was beautiful. I lived with my family in a small hut in the centre of Jimmi. We were very happy. My sister, Asha and I went down to the well every day to collect water, it was never a chore for us but a time for us to talk and play, and to get away from our brothers Zuberi and Sakumsi they help father in the fields everyday and enjoyed it because they felt like real men haha. After our chores we would go our separate ways and play with our friend, that is when the bad men came, they knocked Thabo and Rutendo 0on the head, I screamed and then they hit me on the head.
When I woke up I was surrounded by people from other villages. My head hurt. I tried to rub it but I am chained. I look around for Thabo and Rutendo they are huddled together on the other side of the cart, I get up to go over to them and then I here a shout and my back stings with pain I sit down and look in the direction of the shout a man looked at me I could see evil and greed in his eyes. I made the sign of the cross in his direction, mother said that this would calm the most fearsome beast in the jungle but it did the exact opposite the man pulled out a gun and pointed it at me another man shouted “Ayo, save it for some real trouble makers.” Ayo looked at me and growled. His name means Joy, but I can tell that this man was not at all Joyfull. I looked around the cart looking for any faces that I could recognize. No-one. I put my head in my knees and started to cry. I felt a hand on my shoulder I looked around quickly, an old woman was sat behind me, she too was crying, but not for herself. “You poor girl, what heartless creature could do this too you?” I looked at her puzzled she was looking at my back, the pain had been so bad that it had numbed my it. I looked around. It was pouring with blood, this made me cry even more. “Let me nurse it for you.” Said the woman. She told me about herself. Her name was Chike her name means God’s power. I could tell she had God’s power within her because her hand was so gentle on my wounds and she talked comfort to me. She was kind.
The cart was very bumpy and it hurt. I kept looking over at Thabo and Rutendo they were crying too, come to think of it, everyone was crying it was so sad on the carriage. Chike finished nursing my wounds and then the carriage stopped. “GET UP!!!” the bad men shouted, we got up and followed everyone down a rough road towards the coast people kept falling around me and when they did they were beaten with sticks or whipped. I was hoping praying that I don’t fall. Chike was behind me. “Be strong my child.” She said.
16th July 2008
We are on a ship and have been for several days now we are all lined upon the floor in each others waste and tears. We are naked; they took all our belongings and threw them over board, just like they threw the sick and the dead over. I am next to Chike she will always look after me, I know I can rely on her to be there for me, not always physically but I know that she will pray for me and I will pray for her in return. She is my new mother; I know I will never see my mother again. I miss her. Oh mother I started crying again. Chike cuddled me and we both wept together. Suddenly we heard footsteps above us. It must be time for food, I thought, but it is to early for food. They came in and chucked some bread and water at us, I caught a few droplets in my mouth and it was bliss, I scrabbled for some bread, I got two pieces I gave one to Chike and the soldiers chucked more water at us. They stepped on us and over us looking for any ill or dead people. They found a few dead and many ill, they took them out, I saw a mother and her baby getting up, the mother was begging the soldiers to save the baby, but they were bad men and would not agree, The door shut behind them and we waited for the screams, we heard the scream of the mother and the cry of the baby, it went right through me to the pit of my soul. I will never forget that innocent baby’s cry nor the mothers scream. Everyone on the deck was distraught and crying out to God “Why do you do this to us great father!” I wanted to join in but mother said never to doubt God’s ways even if it was in times f great pain or suffering. I told Chike this through my tears and she agreed, we held each other close and cried our selves to sleep.
I awoke to the sound of raised voices upstairs on the deck they were saying. “The middle passage we are at the middle passage.” They sounded like they were covering up some sort of fear. I asked Chike what the middle passage was and she said she didn’t know but it did not sound good. She was right it was not good. The boat rocked more viciously and our chains pushed into our skin so much that it hurt. We all banged together hard and it was sore. I wanted to go home, to get away from the terror, the sadness, the horror. The floor got wetter and wetter, the boat was filling with water we all sat up as best as we could to get away from the water. It came up to my neck before the boat stopped. The door was flung open and the bad men pulled us to our feet. We were going outside, for the first time in weeks, months, days or years we could never know. But we could breath fresh air.
We walked along cobbled streets away from the coast. We were taken to a big clearing where there were many bad men, but they had skin as pink as the sunset sky and eyes as blue as the sky. I wondered how such beautiful people, I think they were people, could be so heartless. They took the slaves up one by one and told them something. Soon it was my turn. “What is your name?” The bad man asked me I answered “Chiamaka Culhane, sir” He looked at me and said “Not any more, darling. You’re name is Alice Boydell.” “But my mother gave me the name Chiamaka, it means God is beautiful and it is a special name.” The bad man struck me. “You’re name is Alice Boydell.” He said as he took me by the scruff of the neck and shook me. I agreed with him but my name would always be Chiamaka, Chiamaka Culhane as long as I breath Gods air and see God’s creation, I know that God is beautiful.
