Dear Editor,
Greetings on this Emancipation season, but are we really free? Now, don’t get me wrong, the abolition of slavery was a wonderful event. The day the Most High chose to end physical slavery was a great day for the African children in chains. However, this was just a small step in the process of the full restoration and liberation of the enslaved African children.
How can we be free when we are still living in the lands of our captivity? Wouldn’t total freedom entail us going back to the land where we were kidnapped from, our homeland? Are we still living under the political, religious, educational and economic system of our captors? We never went back home.
Let us examine history because it has a way of repeating itself. Israel was in bondage for 400 years and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade lasted 400 years. When the Israelites were in Egyptian captivity the God of Israel emancipated them by taking them out of their captive’s lands and gave them their own land, laws and culture. To emancipate the Israelites back then, the God of Israel used Moses to lead the captives to their emancipation. Now if God is going to fully emancipate us shouldn’t we be looking for our Moses? Should we not be praying for the revelation of the ‘Moses’ of this generation? Listen to what Bob Marley was saying in his song Exodus and meditate on it, because it provides insights with respect to our emancipation. He says, “Send us another brother Moses.” Bob must have known something that the masses don’t know. He is saying that we (enslaved African children) had Moses in our midst and we need another one to come again. Too long we have been told to look in the clouds for blonde hair and blue eyes, but let us look right here on earth for ‘Moses and his rod’ leading us to freedom. Was Bob Marley making a direct connection between us and the people of the bible? Was Peter Tosh making that same connection in his song I am that I am? “I am the son of Moses, you cannot move I at all.” Was Nasio Fontaine making that same connection in his song Wanna go home?
There is nothing like having an identity. An identity is an essential part of any emancipation movement. Yes, we are Africans but from which nation? Which language did our ancestors speak? Too long we have been labelled with words such as Negroes and blacks. What is black? Black is just a colour. Certainly, there is more to us than colours. As the Michael Jackson song said, “I am not gonna spend my life being a colour.” With an identity our young people would stop calling themselves by derogatory names.
Finally, if we examine the way society treats African culture we can clearly see that we are not emancipated. African culture is treated by most as a costume they put on for Mashramani, Christmas or even Halloween. We put on our African costumes one day a year. It is as if we are ‘allowed’ to be Africans once a year or we remember we are Africans on August 1. In Guyana, we can see companies ‘allowing’ their employees to dress in their culture only for that week, but they had better show up in their shirt and tie on Monday morning. Doesn’t emancipation mean that we are now proud to showcase and live our culture 365 days a year? After being forbidden to practise our culture by the slave master, shouldn’t we be proud to practise it now?
Full emancipation is a process that takes time and is in the hands of the Most High, Creator of everything. The abolition of chattel slavery is only part of the process. Let us continue to pray and let us live a life of unity, so that he can see we are ready for the next step. Africa unite ’cause we are moving right out of Babylon and we are going to our Father’s land.
Think about it.
Yours faithfully,
Monty Chester
