
Program Note : In the next installment of CNN s Black in America series, Soledad O Brien examines the successes, struggles and complex issues faced by black men, women and families, 40 years after the death of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Watch encore presentation what to wear on a cruise to alaska Saturday Sunday, 8 p.m. ET
It is truly stunning to look out into the Atlantic Ocean and see the beauty of the beach and waves along the coastline of this Ghanian fishing town, and then listening to them crash onto the shores below the Elmina Slave Castle.
But if you close your eyes, you can also hear the banging of chains and the rustling of the feet of slaves bunched in groups what to wear on a cruise to alaska of 400 women and 600 men as they are held in dark, small, cramped and poorly ventilated spaces, not knowing whether they will survive this horrible ordeal and return to their tribes in this West African nation.
After venturing out from Accra early this morning on a three-hour ride, we arrived in Elmina to tour the Elmina Slave Castle, initially built by the Portugese. Our knowledgeable guide, Phillip, provided riveting, and often sad, testimony to the horrors of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, showing us the places where women were separated from men; a spot where a woman who refused to be raped by her captors was held in a ball and chain with no food until she submitted; and the holding cell where male slaves were sent to be broken of their will.
And of course, nothing signifies the finality of the slaves the "Door of No Return," the sliver in a stone wall or an actual door where African slaves what to wear on a cruise to alaska had to crouch low to the ground as they were ushered through one by one, checked off on a sheet of paper like cattle, never to see the Motherland again.
As a descendant of Africans – I've traced my DNA on my mom's side to individuals in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone – it was difficult to walk through these dark and dank dungeons, imagining hundreds of men and women packed in these rooms, forced to urinate in corners of a room; having to lay beside a weak or dead comrade; forced to endure unspeakable brutality.
This was no video or history book lesson, which allows us to learn in theory, all in the relative comfort of a classroom or home. Standing here, I could still smell the stench that is locked in the rocks, and stand on the same spot where men, women and children died.
Did I get emotional and weep? No. I spent most of the time taking pictures and shooting video, which always allows me to remove myself emotionally from any situation. My focus was to record as much as I can so I can take the images back and show my nine nieces, four nephews, family and friends, so they could witness via my trip the reality of the most devious and diabolical act committed against mankind.
Phillip said estimates suggest that a total of 60 million African came through such castles, with 40 million dying in the castles or on ships, their lifeless bodies thrown into the sea without the dignity of a proper burial.
what to wear on a cruise to alaska One of the more stunning things we witness at Elmina and Cape Coast Castle was the fact that churches were built right above the slave dungeons, allowing the Portugese, British and Dutch – it all depended on who had taken over the castle what to wear on a cruise to alaska at that time – to praise and worship Jesus Christ. The Portugese started what to wear on a cruise to alaska off with the mission introducing Christ to the Ghanaians. Instead, all they really got was evil incarnate.
People of every race, creed, religion what to wear on a cruise to alaska and sex should not assign these world landmarks to just old dilapidated buildings that don't require our time or attention. This is OUR history – not just African American or African, but Caribbean, European and Asian.
It must be recognized what to wear on a cruise to alaska that the world benefited from the horrible slave trade. African who sold their own received gun powder, liquor and other bartered items; nations like the United States were built into the superpower what to wear on a cruise to alaska it is today; fortunes what to wear on a cruise to alaska were made all over in European capitals; and its after effects – colonialism and Jim Crow in Africa and the United what to wear on a cruise to alaska States, respectively – continued what was started more than 600 years ago.
I'll end this with a statement inscribed in stone on the walls of both castles, which aptly describes what we all should do: "In everlasting memory of the anguish of our ancestors. May those who died rest in peace. May those who return find their roots. May humanity never again perpetrate such injustice against humanity.
well, unfortunately, yes. However, this wonderful what to wear on a cruise to alaska report by Rolan S. Martin stands as a modern-day virtual monument itself, in order to educate people and point them to learn more and more about the history of mankind. Some informations in this article I did not know of before, and let us hope humanity is truly going somewhere, instead of just whirling down a spiral of ultimative self-destruction. Learning in order to avoid fear of the unknown, of the diferent.
I ve been listening to the oh, woes is me from blacks my entire 51 years of life. The slavery thing is over...get over it. If we could fix it we would, but we can t so let s move on. The segregation thing looks over as well. I am tired of the belly-aching; blacks are blacks, and whites are whites. Spare me the African-American crap too...I don t go around calling myself a Dutch American. The only racism I see day in and day out is from blacks. If Obama wins, that still won t shut them up; they find something else to complain about. I could care less what the color of your skin is...what matters is do you have any common sense, and have you tried using it today?
now my last story was just to say there are two sides to every coin , my children are going to be educated at the best schools becuase they are black, and i could not and i am white i am still paying student loans and my son will have dept free coming out the door with a phd
well i am white ,well French my husband is black and my children are mixed 18 and 14 so iv seen different things both sides of it. My children have benefited by there color and i mean big like my son is going to a top five collage for engineering with all paid for just because he is black , let me tell you he was an average student they said they needed more African Americans and women and Asians . my thought was after i felt like i am white what about the whites were do they land . this was with every school he applied too and when i mean average i am going high he was like 79 and these schools required 85 to 89 to get in. i have a lot more things like this that has happen. so there to me is no excuse.
Now i have lost a job 10 minutes after they met my husband for the first time , a small company what to wear on a cruise to alaska owned by itialian women told me after they met him sorry we are down sizing and the manager position we will do , yet two weeks later they had a manager there.
I too have visited the last stop prior to the middle passage and have heard the chains. I have looked back while standing at the surf, only to realize that this was perhaps the last time one of my ancestors saw their (our) homeland. what to wear on a cruise to alaska I don t share my emotions with many people outside my family (wife, children, ect.), but I wept. As did the many mothers and father who would never see their families again. I am a active what to wear on a cruise to alaska duty military man and was stationed what to wear on a cruise to alaska in Spain for 3 years. I have been to Africa 3 times (twice on vacation, once unfortunately for business) and plan to take my entire family one day. I have seen the influence of the Moors on Europe and the influence that we have had around the world. Thank you Roland for reminding me of my heritage, thank you.
To say that all Black people came here through slavery and ignore the evidence( They came before columbus Ivan Van Serima, Africa what to wear on a cruise to alaska and the discovery what to wear on a cruise to alaska of America Leo Wiener ) is part of the world wide lies perpetuated by European scholarship . Too long we have been beleiveing the Lie that Europeans brought us over here against our will. Many of us came here on our on free will and were slaveholders!
After I posted what to wear on a cruise to alaska my first blog and reading other blogs, I went outside and asked a few of my black friends a question. I asked them why they care about the slave days that happened 100 years ago. Some of them answered by saying because they have love for their people and because of the pain and struggle what to wear on a cruise to alaska that they went through and because of what the white man is doing to them how they are holding them down. I said you have love for your people?! I f you have love for your people then why is it then your outside all day selling crack to your people, causing your people to go into poverty, killing your people, and killing many of your people dreams? what to wear on a cruise to alaska Some responding saying we don't know them. I responded by saying you didn't know those slaves either. They said to me dam fam, you working for the man now? You're Mexican, you know how it is. Yes, I do know how it is, and that's why I am going to school and not out here with all. The next thing they said was we got love for you fam, but you need to go on with this b.s. . I was once told when you are pointing your finger what to wear on a cruise to alaska and blaming someone, there are 3 fingers pointing at you.
I m Navajo from AZ. This story being read through my teary eyes is heart wrenching. I was shooken, mentally assaulted and demoralized when I read 40 MILLION HUMANS were killed for no other good reason than to selfishly prosper in the name of Country, God and self. It is still happening and all we can do is talk and watch while Sudan, Somolia and S. Africa are being raped from the inside out. I m done saying this is not my problem. My white friends all say this is Africa s problem. My Mexican friends say they are doing it to themselves and should take responsibility. My Black friends what to wear on a cruise to alaska don t really care as they feel de-humanized and institutionalized by pop culture. As anyone with reading skills knows, we, as Natives, are no exception. Europeans came to America what to wear on a cruise to alaska with a Gun in one hand and the Bible in the other...such a sad choice to make. One option less and it would ve been a life of cott
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