The Tale of Olawale: a slave ship story

The Tale of Olawale

    The smoke filled my eyes from all the gunshots. Another cannon fire shook the ground underneath my feet. Our hiding spot so dark that I couldn't tell if my eyes were opened or closed. I felt my daughter, Teni shake with near so I held her closer to my heart. I softly sang a lullaby he mother used to calm her. “Daddy, what’s going on?”
    “Just be quiet, and I’ll tell you later, okay?” She nodded and dug her face into my chest.
    “Is Mommy coming back?” she whispered. I looked back to only this morning. We awoke to the sun shining and like any other day, we prayed for the best. I went out to go to the market for some fresh supplies. When I had bought all the food we needed, I heard a scream come from my side of Ewe. I dropped all the food and sprinted worried about my family.
    There was fire set to the neighboring huts. The sight made me run faster wanting to reach Teni and Akon in time. Inside I looked everywhere in our small hut. Then, I heard the slightest noise that could hardly be heard in this chaos. In the safe spot behind a loose board, I showed them where to go when they sensed there was danger.
    I found Teni’s little body hidden under Akon’s robes. I sighed in relief knowing they were safe, for now. I crawled to sit next to them. “Are you okay?” I asked.
    “Now that your here we are,” Akon answered. I kissed her and said, “I will never leave you without you by my side again.” Akon nodded. There was a cannon fire that seemed to shake the ground, more screening followed.
    I looked to little Teni, shaking of fear. I shook my head, no ten year old should have to go through this frightful day. We sat and listened not making a sound that would reveal our hiding spot. We heard someone come stomping into our hut. Teni, Akon and I sat still so we wouldn't get caught. We heard all our furnichure being turned over and thrown.
    There was a mumble from the invader, I couldn't understand what they were saying for I've never heard the language.

“I'm going to expose myself. You two hide under the secret enclosure under us,” whispered Akon so that only I could hear.
    “No don't go! We'll be alright if we just stay here and keep quiet,” I whispered back. She thought about what I had just said then finally nodded.
    “We all go down together,” she said. Akon, being the one on top of the secret door, lifted it and let us in first. She went to climb in after us but stopped.
    “What are you doing? Get in here,” I whispered.
    “I'm sorry, I have to.”
    “No don't!”
    “We’ll see eachother again, in this world or the next. I will always find you.” She then dropped the door on us. I couldn't do anything else, she already made up her mind and there's nothing you can do to change my Akon's mind.
    “Where's Mommy?” Teni whispered to me.
    “She went to go get something for us, she'll be back,” I lied. Teni nodded and kept close to me.
    The memory faded away as I held back tears not knowing what has become of my wife.
    “When's Mommy coming back?” she repeated.
    “Teni, I don't know, okay? Just sit tight and we'll get through this together.” I took my arms and wrapped them around her small little body. We sat there in silence knowing the consequences if we made even the smallest peep.
    We heard someone walking above us. No, not just one person but about a dozen. They started to pry at the floorboards pursuing to find more people in here. Then there was silence again. “I think we're safe now,” I finally said. I slowly lifted the door open to look around. I saw nothing. I climbed out and then helped Teni.
    Together we walked out of the hut. There was dead bodies scattered everywhere. Blood spilling from their lifeless corpses. Women, children and men, all that I knew and talked to just minutes before laid beneath my feet. I picked up Teni and covered her eyes so she wouldn't have to be scarred by this picture. What used to be the beautiful, living village of Ewe is now a massacre of the bodies of its people and burned down huts.
    We walked out of the dead village in search for a new home. Out of nowhere there were men that I didn't recognize. Their skin different from mine and my people's. They spoke the same language I heard from in our hut. They had guns in their hands ready to fire at any minuet. One reached for Teni but I pulled her away.
    “I don't know who or what you are but you leave me and my daughter alone!” They didn't seem to understand what I said. The man more aggressively grabbed for her but again I pulled her away. He then said something which I didn't understand and next thing I knew someone started to pry my arms, away from Teni.
    I kept a good grip on her. No one, no one was going to take me away from my daughter. Then I felt a sharp pain in my arm that I recognized as a blade cutting through the skin on my arm. I winced at the pain but I still held onto Teni. I felt the blood pour down from my arm to my feet. It felt warm at it's touch but turned cold as it fell.
    I felt another cut slice through my skin but on my back this time. They could do anything they wanted but I was never going to let go of my child. I already lost my sweet wife Akon, Teni was all I had left of her. Then I saw one of the smaller guns go to Teni's head. But the one holding the gun was what looked like someone of my kind.
    “Let the girl go and she lives,” the man said in my language.
    “What is your doing with us?”
    “We are here to take you to our country and use you as slaves.”
    “No, not Teni. You leave her here with a woman and take me. You leave my little daughter out of this!”
    “We mean your daughter no harm, just let her go and she leaves free.” I looked at her then back to the man.
    “You promise?”
    “Yes,” there was something off on his voice but I ignored it. I sighed and looked to Teni.
    “Teni dear, your going to go with this man here and he's going to take you somewhere safe, okay?”
    “Where are you going?”
    “I-I'm going with his friends.”
    “I want to come with you.”
    “I know, but I want you to be safe and where they're taking me is where I don't think will be best for you.”
    “Where ever you go, I go.”
    “I'm so sorry Teni, but this is how it's going to have to be.”
    “I don't want to leave you.” Tears filled her eyes. The sight of her sadness an the face of betrayal made a lump in my throat.
    “I know sweetheart, I know.” I kissed her forehead. “But we'll see each other again, in this world or in the next, I promise.” I realized those were the same words that Akon had said before she had left.
    “But Daddy-” I cut her off by saying, “You take good care of her okay.”
    “Don't worry, I'll take wonderful care of her.” He took Teni and set her down in a standing position. I felt two iron rings clip around my wrists. I didn't try to fight it knowing it would cost my daughter's life. I saw tears fall down her cheek. I wanted to comfort her and wipe away her tears but I couldn't. The men turned me away from Teni and started to walk me away. Then I heard something I wish I didn't hear.
    There was a loud gunshot from right behind me. I forced the man holding me captive to turn my body around so I can see what had happened. The man I trusted had his pistol pointed at the ground. Between the barrel of the gun and the dirt ground was a dead body.
    I fell to my knees and held back a sob when I noticed who the dead body belonged to. “You monster! You promised you'd take her somewhere safe and away from here.”
    “I did, she's now far from here at the gates of hell were you savages belong,” he sneered, his face full of hatred and anger.
    “No! Tendi was too good for this fate! She did nothing, nothing!” I cried. The men tried to pull me away but I resisted. I will not let them carry me away from my daughter. Even though her soul has now traveled to the golden gates of heaven, I couldn't, wouldn't leave her.
    I then felt a sudden pain from my head that made me fall to the ground and my sight went black. When I gained my consciousness again I saw I was being dragged towards a big ship. When my captors saw that I was awake they made me stand up and walk.
    Around me women, children and mostly men from tribes all over West Africa walked. From the village of Mande to Igbo, rivals and friends walking side by side all facing the same fate. We all faced the fate of death, torture and extreme labor. They walked us up to the quarter deck, the smell of sea salt filled my nostrils.
    There was netting all around the ship. Then I recognized what ship this was, a slave ship. I've heard that the journey on them is far more worse than death. Though I still grieve over the death of Akon and Teni I to this day am glad that they died before they even saw the ship.
    They shoved us below deck were I knew is where they were to keep us. If you ever smelled something so awful you couldn't help but gag, that is nothing compared to the thing that reached my nose. It was the smell worse than death. The rotting of the ones that died on past trips was almost unbearable. The smell of urine and feces reminded me of a dungeon, no it was worse than a dungeon. It was the smell of hell.
    The man kicked me so that I would fall on my back. As quick as a jaguar he leaped down to my feet and shackled them so tight I can hear my bones brake. I winced at the pain that shot through out my legs. Before I could even think he grabbed the shackles they put on my hands and chained them to the floor boards.
    They laid us down so that we were pretty much on top of one another. The horrid smell seemed to burn my nose hairs. I tried to cover my nose but there was no way I could move. When everyone was chained in, the white men left us in this gutter of a place. As the last person climbed out he shut the door leaving us with nothing but darkness and the smell of death.
    Next to me layed a man somewhere around my age, maybe younger. He did his best to turn his head towards me. “Hey, what’s your name?” he asked trying to rid of his fear.
    “I’m Olawale, you?”
    “I’m Chidi from the tribe of Adja.”
    “I’m from Ewe, how do you know my language?”
    “My mother grew up in Ewe but was later chased away to Adja where she met my father.”
    “Do you have any other family besides them?”
    Chidi paused before saying, “I had a fiance, we where to marry today before-” He cut himself off not wanting to face the truth.
    “I had a wife and a little daughter,” I finally said.
    “What were their names?”
    “Akon my wife and Teni our daughter.” I held back tears remembering her face when I handed Teni to the monster I never recieved the name of. The way she looked as her body went limp and blood pouring out of her wounded head. I squeezed my eyes as if to rid of the memory. No matter how many times I try, to this day the memory haunts me.
    “My future wife’s name was Hadiza. I watched her get pulled away from the alter as I stood there waiting for her to come to me. I tried to reach her, touch her lips one last time but I was grabbed and never saw her beautiful face again.”
    “Before I got caught we were hiding in our safe spot just above a little room. We heard the white man’s voices in our hut. Akon lifted the secret door so that we could hide but right before she was about to climb in,” I stopped not wanting to finish.
    “She was taken away from you?”
    “No, she exposed herself to save us. But before she left she promised that we would see eachother again, in this world or the next. I said the same to Teni before she was killed right in front of me.”
    “You had yourself a brave one, your wife I mean. One that would risk her life to save you and your daughter.’
    “Yeah.” We both went silent. The only sound we heard was the sobs of our fellow prisoners and the crashing of the waves around us.
    Then in that sudden silence I heard the door creak open and light flooded throughout the room blinding my eyes. When I got used to the light I saw someone coming around and giving us something. I didn't know what they were handing out until they came to me. In his hands was a bucket full of slop. If this is what the white man called food, then they are the true savages.
    He dropped his spoon in the bucket and it fell with a sickening splat. When he lifted the spoon again he tired feeding me this poison. I moved my head out of the way and keeping my jaws clamped, I will not be fed. I'd rather starve then go through hell of a life that awaited me.
    The man tried prying my mouth open but I kept a good grip. Then he grabbed a machine from his side that looked like a clamp. With it he pried my mouth open. He smiled with satisfactory. He was about to pour the slop in my mouth but the clamp came loose and I was able to spit it out. I lifted my head up as far as my shackles would let me, and bit his finger as hard as I could.
    When I finally let go, the taste of blood filled my mouth. I couldn't tell if it was from my mouth or his hand. The white man lifted his hand making him drop the slop-bucket. He held onto his hand and I saw that there was blood pouring from where I had bit him. He ran out yelling in his weird native tongue.
    “Why did you do that?” Chidi asked.
    “I'd rather die than go through what's awaiting us at our destination,” I answered.
    “That was very brave of you.” We then saw someone else come walking to me. He unlocked my shackles at my feet and unchained me from the floor but kept me shackled at my hands. He led me out into the night sky. The clouds forming in the sky and I could tell that it was going to rain. I could smell the salty sea, I'd rather stay up here in the fresh salty air then go back to my so called cell. He took me to the edge of the ship on the poop deck. At first I thought he was going to throw me over board and put an end to my misery.
    But instead he chained me to the winch and let me stand there wondering what was going on. I finally found out what was happening when I felt a sharp pain go across my back. There was a loud snap before the next slash. I've only heard of these never had I seen this happen, let alone feel it. I knew that he was fogging me repeatedly. The pain made me fall to my knees. The rain pouring down on my face. This was absolute torture, I wished he'd just kill me and not make me go through with this. By the 200th wip he finally stopped. I cried from the pain that I had just received.
    The rain never stopped, instead it got worse. The rain drops pounding on my cold, injured body. No one came to take me back to my cell, they just kept me standing there to die. Shivering cold and wet from the storm. The only light that helped me see what was going on was the flash of lighting. I watched the sailors tug and pull at the sails. The captain at the wheel keeping us from crashing. I never got to sleep that night, for I so focused on memorizing the action that happens when we're under the ship.
    I watched the sun rise above the clouds, the storm starting to lift. A beautiful set of purple, pink and orange brought me hope. The light washed over my face as if a kiss from heaven. Sadly it didn't last long, I was quickly taken down below the ship. As I walked down there I saw I man being carried out and into the sun. At first I thought they were going to put him through what I just had. But as I looked closer at him his body was limp, lifeless. I held back a sob not for his death but that I wished I was blessed with the same fate.
    You see before I was captured I found death a sickness that I hoped I would never receive. Something I was afraid of, but now that I'm going through this torture, death seemed to take forever to come. It was one of the only things I wished for. To die and go to the place beyond and there I will once again be reunited with my family.
    I was soon shackled to the ground right next to Chidi. The rough wood dug into my fresh wounds. I winced at the pain, there was nothing I could do about it.

“Hey what happened when you were brought up deck. I thought they were going to kill you,” he whispered.
    “I'd rather die than go through that again.”
    “What exactly did they do to you?”
    “They fogged me about 200 times on the back and left me standing in the rain all night.”
    “Rough.”
    “One thing good did come out of it though.”
    “What?”
    “I watched them sail the ship. What happened when one rope was pulled and when the wheel was turned. I-I think I can sail it, but we need to break out first.”
    “But how are we going to do that, we can barely move and inch?”
    “We pray for a miracle.” We laid there for who knows how long. Everyday people got lucky by being blessed with the dark sickness of death and left this hell hole to the great beyond. One night the waves seemed to be crashing harder and higher to the dock then usual. That's how I could tell yet another storm was upon us.
    The dark was conquered by the light coming from the dock. At first I thought that it was feeding time already but I realized it was a little early. I heard shackles clank to the ground and gasps, followed by murmurs. When the man came to us he grabbed our shackles and freed us. I rubbed my wrists and ankles with relief.
    “My name is George Karendal. I am freeing you from this place,” said the white man in Ewe.
    “How do you know my language? Why are you doing this?” I asked.
    “I’m an interpreter I know all your languages. I'm freeing you because I believe that slavery is wrong no matter what the person has done.”
    “Then why are you taking us Africans for slavery?” asked Chidi.
    “So that I can free as many people as possible. I've been undercover on many slave ships and saved many people's lives. Now hurry, get up. There's a crate of weapons and ammunition over there. I'll go back up there and distract them. That will buy you guys sometime before someone gets suspicious.” He then quickly left up above deck. I found the crates and stood on top of one of them so I could talk over the crowd.
    “Everyone, it is time to rebel for our freedom. Under me is all the supplies we need. There are guns bullets and daggers. Today we will win, we will be free, we will win!” Everyone cheered but not too loud so that the white men wouldn't hear us. We worked together to pry open the crates and just like what George said, there were weapons of all kinds.
    All the weapons and to ammunition were handed out evenly among us. Then we quietly crept up the ladder to the upper deck. I looked up and saw that no one was on deck. George must be distracting them in the quarter galleries. We walked up to the for deck where the wheel was.
    “I'll turn this baby around,” I whispered. I walked up to it and grabbed the handles.
    I felt like a captain sailing the seven seas. I turned it towards the right and spinned it like a disk. Like I expected, the whole ship turned all the way around, back home. We heard the doors crash from the quarter galleries and many white men started barreling out. We, unlike them were armed. There were shots fired and screaming of rage. The white men fell like flies.
    Chidi stood beside me, slashing any man that got too close to me. Rain poured on us making my vision a blur. Then after Chidi’s last kill he turned to me and smiled, “I think we’ll make it home brother.” The man he had killed stood up and slashed his throat. I had no time to warn him, his body went limp to the deck. He still had the smile of victory on his face as he fell.
    The man came to me slowly, like a lion creeping up to his pray waiting to pounce. Just as he pounce I heard a gun fire. He dropped on top of my body, lifeless. I pushed him off and in the dark I saw George with a gun pointed at were the man was. He pointed the gun downward and nodded slightly. I had no time to grieve over my new friend’s death for I had a ship to sail.
    The raid raged on through out the night. As dawn reached us we had most of the crew dead, we lost some of our people but we still outnumbered them 20 to 1. We kept one white man alive to help us sail the ship. They brought the man to me for judgement. His beard red from blood of both our men and his.
    “What is your name!” I said and George translated.
    “John Tisson,” he said.
    “Will you help sail this ship and bring us to freedom?”
    “Yes sir.”
    “If you don't obey than you shall be put through the torture that you put us through, you hear!”
    “Yes sir.”
    “Good, now can I trust you to take hold of the wheel.”
    “Yes sir.” I nodded to the person holding him captive to let go. John took the wheel from me and steered us homeward.
    Now you are probably wondering, hoping that we got back to Africa safe and sound free for the rest of our lives. I do too, but sadly that's not how the story went. Instead at night when we all went to sleep John betrayed us and turned us back where they were taking us. So here I am, sadly I lived to tell the tale. Where am I now, I'm where I belong. In a field with my own kind.
    Cutting our fingers from the cotton, cotton pickers is what they call us. Not a day goes by without me wishing I still had Teni and Akon in my arms. Yes I'm sad that they are gone but at least they didn't become a cotton picker, a slave, a nothing in this new world besides free labor.

Fin