…And she wept!
The Vice President of Costa Rica is reported to have wept uncontrollably at the slave dungeons of Ghana’s Elmina Castle on April 20.
Her Excellency Epsy Campbell Barr accompanied by Dr Natalia Kanem, UN Under-Secretary General, and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) were in Ghana as part of “The Return Mission” trip.
But the first black Vice President of Costa Rica was not the first and will not be the last to shed tears at the castle utilized to for over three hundred years by various European interests to brutalize, terrorize, and dehumanize Africans en route to a life of bondage in Europe and the so-called New World as slaves. First built by the Portuguese in 1492, the slave fortress served as one of holding pens of transit dotted across the length and breadth of West Africa.
In July of 2009, then U.S. President Barack Obama on his visit to Ghana wondered aloud when he toured the Cape Coast Castle and was struck by the presence of a church above the male slave dungeons expressing surprise on “the capacity of human beings to commit great evil”.
While slave masters would worship upstairs, captured Africans in chains and unable to freely move would wallow in abject dirt and filth in the dungeons. And it is from the same upstairs balconies that slave merchants would look down to scrutinize and select the female captives to rape and violate to satisfy their libidinous impulses.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to students of history that European slave merchants and masters had the express blessing of the Church to enslave and Christianize the “heathen” Africans. So creating a place of worship of God right atop suffering fellow human beings was nothing of concern for warped minds. After all, unbelieving Africans only deserved to be treated like animals.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade gained currency because it was sanctioned by the church, and the church was an integral and cardinal part of European culture.
It is disheartening that Africans have allowed Europeans to drive African cultures and religions literally into extinction and are even ignored by Africans as irrelevant. The introduction of Christianity in Africa was especially aimed at ensuring that African religions and cultures that were inhered with high moral values would be replaced by the corruption that came along with their liberal faith.
Among Africans, fear of the deities reduced considerably such social vices as murders, domestic violence and larceny, among several others that are today a menace. People lived in absolute safety. Doors at homes were unlocked and left ajar while residents went out to attend to daily chores.
The chief or king, as the case might be, exercised judicial power over his people. But today, we sleep with deadbolts and ear locks, and are imprisoned in our own homes with security doors and guard dogs and anything in between to prevent and protect unwanted intruder.
Gone are the days, when lost items, once found were quickly deposited at the king’s palace.
European perception of Africa, even today, as a den of corruption and tyranny is a concoction in their minds to continue to paint the continent and its people in their own warped colors. Democracy was and is still embedded in African traditional politics. Chiefs are not just installed but have to encounter rigorous process of vetting to ensure their eligibility.
Corruption has become endemic in society because the white man’s law is crafted to skirt the laws that are supposed to punish them. Euro-American definition of democracy is a slap in the face of decency as opponents clash in search of power and politicians sell their conscience to continue to remain in office.
The so-called Pentecostal and spiritual versions of the church are profit-seeking businesses taking advantage of the African’s propensity for everything
spiritual and the vulnerability and ignorance of their congregants.
Salvation is now bought and sold in churches, while the devil is chased out of possessed members with balls of fire lobbed by pastors and the so-called men of God for a price. They are answerable to no one. And a substantial number of these churches are located in residential areas but have no problem whatsoever disturbing the tranquil of the night.
Rwandan strongman Paul Kagame has closed hundreds of religious houses citing religious fraud, unsafe worship places and playing games with peoples’ faith. Further, he demanded religious leaders possess requisite qualifications in theology. He is said to have observed that if after losing close to a million people in a civil war, Rwanda has been able to pick up the pieces and rebuild thus far, that in itself is indeed blessings from above. Amandla agrees with President Kagame.
Epsy Campbell Barr may have wept at the horrified and horrendous treatment meted out to her ancestors in transit at the Elmina Castle. Many more would come and weep for similar sentiments, but Amandla weeps for the success of the European destruction of African pristine beliefs attacking our culture.
The destruction of African civilization is unfortunately irreparable, irreversible, and irredeemable!
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