More clearly, the Atlantic racial slavery comes up for reflection. Reminding us first that
part of the end goals of the obnoxious trade was to silence that which was culturally
African after sealing an agenda of dehumanization of Africans. The centuries of
severance from African homeland, for the victims of slavery, should be ordinarily enough
to wipe out the vestigial remains of the tradition of a people. This would subsequently
accentuate, with a monopolistic ego, that which was essentially White and western. The
process of executing this comes most convincingly to the fore in the award-winning
novel of Manu Herbstein, Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slavery.^32 In the poem, the poet
argues that where the measures of white racism against the black race have been most
strident, there too has black diasporic culture triumphed undeniably:
And in all small alleyways of old London and Paris and Lisbon
And in all harlemways of New York Chicago New Orleans
in Kingston-Jamaica Havana in Cuba Atlanta in Georgia
on voodun shores of Haitia our Haiti oh Haiti!
on voodun shores of Haitia Oh Haiti! our Haiti
you’ll find footprints running backways
into lives once lost to sharp rhythms of Panther’s greed
lives all lost to cold embrace of Atlantic waves...And those who took away our Voice
Are now surprised
They couldn’t take away our Song (42)The unflappable spirit of the black race especially as persecuted during the slave trade
accounts for why Gilroy (1994: 16 ) contends that “history...continually crisscrossed by
the movements of black people [is] not only [about humans as] commodities but [as
32
The horror and the torture together with the suppression in Bahia, Brazil after some of the slaves arrive
are already bad enough. But their case is worsened by the forcible imposition of Catholicism. Nevertheless,
the stolen moments of the votaries of African religions and the creative blend of biblical accounts prove a
potent weapon in the prosecution of a liberation struggle, making African deities stand the test of time.
More practically, the event assists in upstaging white hegemony and finally serves to attain manumission.