“On Tuesday, the sea resembled a giant looking glass. It sat there tranquil, beautiful, inviting. The full moon lent tracks of light to enhance the sea’s allure and a clear, blue sky ensured that cloudy patches did not contribute intermittent darkness on the glistening water.
But the sea is never to be trifled with. It is moody in its temperament, capricious by nature, extremely dangerous, deadly.
The sea has been eyewitness to heinous crimes and it has claimed its fair share of lives. But it teaches that unless we learn to respect it and use it responsibly, we will continue to suffer loss at its hands; pain at its touch; awe at its power.
It was a party to the atrocities.
“Over the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from approximately 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million captured men, women, and children were put on ships in Africa, and 10.7 million arrived in the Americas.”
And a dark period in history was ushered in.
There were and continues to be other dark periods but as slavery goes, what happened to the Africans in that era was without precedent.
Harriet Tubman’s story is noteworthy as to the lengths people went to to experience freedom.
We do not know how earth splintered into different races but we believe that Martin Luther King Jr. got it right in his non-violent dream and Bob Marley, if anyone takes notice, showed us what successful human interactions must look like if the civilization is to survive.
“Until the philosophy which holds one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned
Everywhere is war
Me say war
That until there are no longer
First-class and second-class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war.”
And we are tired of war.
The Russian/Ukrainian war reminds us that there are really no winners in war. There is pain, loss, destruction.
But what does emancipation from slavery mean to us? What should it mean?
Is it a money-making racket steeped in revelry where culture is recognized as being from the waist down?
Is it the opportunity for debauchery, lawlessness, gluttony, crime?
Is it a reflection on the significance of the event and gratitude to everyone engaged in the abolition struggle?
Is it an opportunity for an otherwise passive community and church to provoke the idea of censure because taxpayers dollars fund artists who deviate, in song, from acceptable standards of morality or decency?
Freedom is precious but freedom and responsibility go hand in hand; Solidarity and unity are never distant.
So, what kind of nation are we intent on building? And is our approach to governance introducing a different type of slavery?
The war between Napoleon and Snowball (Animal Farm) for political power holds lessons. In the final analysis, the very people whom ‘the revolution’ should have liberated were downtrodden.
Emancipation is much deeper than the removal of shackles from hands and feet. They must also be removed from hearts and minds.
Until the raging tempest and the placid sea equally inspire and bring out the best in us, the journey continues….
…Even on Fridays.
Happy Friday!”