So where do I start? Of all places to think about slavery, I chose the bathroom to do it this morning. If am not wrong, October is black history month in the UK which inadvertently includes a reference to the slave trade. So why the hell was I thinking about the slave trade in June with lather all over my body? Well it must have been the Monday morning blues as I was trying to convince myself that slavery is not over yet. Its got to be slavery if I have to wake up at 6:30 am to go and push the pennies doing what I hate and what I don't wanna do. I tried to compare the slavery 200 years ago to now. Now, one deliberately subjects oneself to slavery while 200 years ago people were forced into it.
Perhaps I got depressed that I will no longer have the pleasure to catch city boy's 'squaremile' gossip column any more as he quit for a better life. Well City boy is an investment banker. He makes shit load money and as we talk he has £3million in bank...that's just a million shy of what the company I used to work for had in bank. His slavery paid off big time. He worked graveyard hours, doing hideous tasks while having to kiss asses of clients he really hated their guts. To show his disgust, he wrote his article every week in the London paper breaking banking codes and exposing well kept secrets of city workers. We his avid readers pitied him and at the same time envied him. Well city boy packed it all in last week after he made sure his fattest bonus ever had been banked. Now I really wish I had that kind of a choice.
While I was depressingly having my shower, my life flashed in front of me and I just didnt like the fact that I was going to that job. I know y'all will be like this parakeet sef, she whinges too much but welcome to the life of a 26 year old London gurl who still lives at home. Candidly, I thought extensively about the slave trade and the monotony that has become the life of many and I just wondered what the way out was. Not content, I linked the slave trade to nuclear power and the dominance of the West in world politics and the simple question I asked was, if at the time the west invaded africa and saw how helpless our forefathers were and instead of helping them, took them for slaves, how are we to trust that if the continued to advance on the nuclear power production, there wont be a repetition of the slave trade albeit in different ways? Are we to trust that where their fore-fathers were lacking in conscience that the new generation will have in abundance. Did I hear someone say food for thought?
Well I moved on from there and got angry at our forefathers, why didnt they fight? Why did they just subject themselves to these people? Surely it is better to die once a valiant than die nine times a coward. But then I was like what do I know? As if I was there to be really sure and again I discovered that most of the things I know today of the slave trade were written by foreigner or shall I say scholars in the West. My history, written by someone else? How am I suppose to know the real truth behind the black race, of their struggles and there triumphs and it seemed to me like I have been cast into an abyss...I mean who knew that stories like that of the Great Debaters existed before Oprah and Denzel came together to tell it? I cant recollect where my trail of thoughts stopped but I marvel at my mind. Gosh, how did I manage to think of so much in the 15 minutes it takes to have my bath?
Anyways all said and done, I had a good day even though I had a slow start too the day. I have been happier these past few days as well, as I have learnt not to commit things to heart too much. I think that is what drags me down and am glad I've come out on top of it now. Meanwhile am looking for my cousin...I will introduce her in my next post.
Have a good week everyone and keep smiling.
30 comments:
Im first! I think?! Off to class but will be back to read
I am first!!!
Ok...going to read now...
Honey...this is indeed food for thought. Our history is very tainted by slavery..it is still a hard pill to swallow. But hey...we are still here and fighting to get to the top and i believe we are winning...it may be slow but it is happening
I'm glad you are feeling happier...keep smiling and have a great week....xxx
I believe I know the cousin u r looking for.
It takes u 15min to have a bath, thats a long time.
Aspa slave trade, what can i say... just watched panaroma exposing primax employing children 2 make clothes.
Be filled with water, juice an wine 2 entertain bloggers 4 years 2 come.
I marvel at your mind as well... Those early morning thoughts are where revolutions start... :)
As far as your blues go, we all go through it at some point or the other... Actually, it's rather cyclical... Don't be too alarmed by it. Just think of it that way: "the process of shedding skin is probably painful but at the end, you get a shiny new one".
Take care, dearie.
I would wish to be first buh mehnn..Ollay this comment moderaztion ting id very depressing o...in any case...
I bind every spirit of word drought in ya life o..ahnahn..at how old na...
Then as to the slavery issue...well said if u ask me...I need not add more except to ask how do we sincerely break free from this bondage of neo slavery
interesting point of view..and for the blues? it happens to the best of us..I am all about finding one's calling and passion..There you can wake up in the morining and not feel like slumping back on the bed...BUT, you might not get as much dough as you are getting in your slavery JOB but happy nonetheless
Lolll...all this in 15 minutes? What a brilliant mind.
It's true, as far as we know, we can never tell what really went down when our forefathers were taken from their land.
That being said, I believe we all have the responsibility to annihilate slavery for good (and I mean the modern type of slavery). Slavery of being driven to extreme heights at our jobs, and slavery of being labeled to a certain race/color/way of life. But it takes a hard-working innovative person to break these chains...someone whose heights will cause people to marvel...
Obama is kinda breaking some chains right now in the U.S, if I may add...
Nice post! :)
my dear, drought is normal o. daz where dat shitty tag thing comes handy. i think i will b saving my tag rounds till d time i have nothing 2 say
but u've plenty 2 say. abt d slave trade. d way i like 2 think abt it is dat, what has been done has been done, now let's move ahead. but nigeria is still stuck n d mud. we haven't even learnt d lessons of 2 years ago, much less centuries ago. it's well, my dear
abt d moderation thing, seriously i still ask: y? i really don't get it!
Drought is only fair.
We all experience it at some point.
The most important thing is that You will eventually come back.
Keep keeping it real!
Babe, I would give anything right now to be £3m miserable…lol…beats being £350 miserable don’t it???
As for the words drought...babe it happens to even world renouned (abeg i no fit spell am) writers like stephen king...it will pass...
Looking for your cousin???
Thats Monday mornings for you. I always get random thoughts in the shower too though. Lol - the slavery thing? Hmm... I think that oral history back home will probably tell you more, but then even that I'm not too sure... do you think the history writers were honest or is our history lost?
While I join others to tell you the drought will pass and identify with the morning blues I can not help but wonder how the heck Oluwadee can know the cousin you are looking for even before you introduce her.
NOGO, oral history back home wont help o! pls dont be deceived.
my mind wanders all the time so i understand ur mind's workings this early on a monday.
drought yea? it too shall pass babe. even in drough u manage to give us sum'n to think about!lol
as per the job? ahem... makes two of us!
Wow! All of that in 15mins. lol. What can I say... the human mind works wonders.
I'm curious about ur cousin... keep us updated.
slavery was wack but the more painful slavery is the mental slavery
Parakeet,
You know a budding writer blushes when his work is commended. especially when such comments come from a better writer. I'm flattered by your comment on the Obama Speech. He probably doesn't know your blog. He could have engaged your service instead ;)
How u dey?
its so funny how how the human mind works n of all places to think such deep thoughts, the bathroom!
well said(or written)!
Thanks for dropping in...
u dont have email so i'm sorry i have to write here...
thanks for sharing your thoughts
i have a section called "conversations with a babe"
and with your vast experience in love,life,dating and relationships...you'll do
i would like you to contribute in it...
you could check samples on my blog
tell me what you think
most say 15min well spent. and u call that drought? thats a whole lot of scense on this post...
but yeah we all get to that point and trust me it wud come back flowing and blog vile cant get enuf !!!!
Food for thought indeed. The slave trade thing is very complicated. Sometimes I think black people should forget about it and just move on, but sometimes I realise the legacy of the slave trade still remains embedded deep in our mentality. Even now in modern times, many people are still slaves to something. Can we ever really be free?
Babe if you hate your job, you have to take proactive steps to find what you love doing and learn to make money from it! A series of small steps can lead you to a big outcome not too far in the future.
Regarding your question on my blog, send me an email and we'll talk.
You'll be shocked at all the hidden and lost info about our race.
You think the white man is a more intelligent race? wait till I spill some beans in a coming entry...
you are from a race of geniuses in dark skin
i agree with you..... i think about similar things sometimes and its just frustrating esp when work's just pissing and everyone is getting on my nerves......
Hmmmmmmmm, our forefathers/mothers did not fight back cos they didn't know how. Remember how Hitler wanted to take over the world and he used a lot of unthinking men to kill a lot of innocent people? Too bad.
I am not being unreasonable but I think something good had eventually come out of the slavery case. Black men and women are now taking over the world.
Look on the brighter side now mi-lady.
...its amazing how and when the mind will decide to explore such intense and frustrating issues...any drought ending with such a rich piece is one well worth waiting through...
...its unfortunate that a lot of what we know about ourselves is based on research and perspectives of a people who mostly didn't and still doesn't understand us...and the colonized minds of our own people...just means we must dig deeper and more purposefully...
look at u..drought of words and u now wrote one essay here..lol
slavery is a sad thing its horrible that it still goes on in our world..although in different forms..
how are u?
Im back! With regards to the question about a repitition of the slave trade: what do you think the visa lottery is?!!!!
You this Parakeet sef-your mind is truly a busy highway! And I thought mine was chaos!!LOL
Why do you think the slave trade is repeated in the visa lottery?
@Jarrai...u're very right, we're fighting and winning the fight. I am very well thanks. Hope you rare too.
@Oluwadee...I believe we've cleared up the cousin bit. I hear about the peanuts big retailers pay factory workers in India to make those clothes. Its the only reason we get them so cheap. May God save the world. Thanks for the prayer.
@Ms Sula...loved this quote "the process of shedding skin is probably painful but at the end, you get a shiny new one". Thanks very much.
@Charizard...cos I love you, I'll remove comment moderation. As per neo slavery as you aptly put it, there's not much we can do about it as long as we have capitalism because capitalism breeds inequality and sadly inequality is a fact of life!
@Zephi...you so right. The fact that people may not make money from following their dreams is the reason most abandon it. May God help us.
@Jaycee...yea its ultimately up to us but there are some institutive ideologies that have been there for centuries, how does one penetrate those?
@FFF...yea but oyinbo people wont let bygones be bygones now, they keep referring to Africa as the dark continent and making inferences about our abilities as a race so even that makes it difficult to forget. As per comment moderation, its to weed out spam!
@Tobe...thanks. But am beginning to think this is more than drought...rather laziness. How u dey?
@Afro...I feel u jare. Let me have money first and the rest miserable things can be sorted out later. Yes my cousin, but it looks like I dont have the energy to blog about her jare.
@Nogo...dowe still have tales at moonlight? Oral history telling hardly exists these days. Its hard to tell if the Historians I've been biased in telling Africa's story but I wont be surprised if they have.
@30+...lol @ Oluwadee, it was just a mix up she's cleared up now.
@Sma...tell me how many peeps are happy with their jobs?
@Aijay...yea my mind...my cousin. I shall keep u guys posted.
@TLKS...hmm, mental slavery. I think I know someone who is. The sort of people who dont have independent thinking and just takes all the oyinbo man tells them as gospel. God forbid bad thing.
@Aloofar, when are you gonna enter the competition for world's no 1 flatterer? Not many will contend with you.
@Buttercup...God is the one whom we shud really be in awe of...for being such an impeccable creative
@Tanko...checked ur blog. Couldnt see the the posts
@Paradigm...maybe I need to come pick your brains a bit o cos this drought, hmm
@Favoured...my job right now is a means to an end. I'll email you re the other stuff.
@Funms...I feel you my sis
@Standtall...u right, its always better to see the cup as half full
@Gnaija...this quote is spot on "we must dig deeper and more purposefully..."
@unwritten...you're so right but like others have suggested, we must fight it!
@NDQ...the visa lottery is indeed some sort of slavery because I heard most of the able bodied men get drafted into the army to fight illegal wars.
@Nogo...the visa lottery is a sort of slavery because their lure you with the promises of a better life while taking away home-grown professionals. Instead what you get is diminished community and leisure time, breakdown of family life, lengthy work hours and higher taxes.
"... got angry at our forefathers, why didnt they fight? Why did they just subject themselves to these people?.." - I remember when I was taking US History and there was one guy that went on and on, how he wished he was back in those days, he would have killed all those white bastards, he would have done this and that. And he's the type of guy that when its time to fight he would be MIA.
I'm still trying not to dwell on things too much either its not easy.
Hope you had a good weekend too.
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