[WSMDiscuss] Barracoon: The Story of the Last Slave

[Umakant]

Dear Friends

Greetings! Pleaseclick on the link given below to read about a book, “Barracoon: The Story ofthe Last Slave”, written in 1930s, but published only recently. 

 

It is an amazingstory of a slave abducted/transported from Africa and brought to America. Do pass it onto others in your circle/network. 

 

Why theextraordinary story of the last slave in America has finally come to light 

Afua Hirsch, TheGuardian, May 26, 2018  

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/26/why-the-extraordinary-story-of-the-last-slave-in-america-has-finally-come-to-light

 

ZoraNeale Hurston’s Barracoon was written in the 1930s, but has only just beenpublished. Why has it taken so long for the remarkable story of Oluale Kossolato be made public?

 

“We stand as livingmonuments,” wrote the historian Len Garrison, of the black British descendantsof slavery and empire. “For those who are afraid of who they must be, are butslaves in a trance.” For Garrison, the idea of the African diaspora as “livingmonuments” was to some extent figurative. But a new book makes it literal. Barracoon: The Story of the Last Slavepresents the remarkable fact that there were people alive in America who hadexperienced abduction from Africa – being examined, displayed, traded andenslaved – well into the 20th century.

 

The book is the storyof Cudjo Lewis; a man born Oluale Kossola in the Yoruba kingdom of Takkoi. Kossolawas the last survivor of the last known slave ship to sail from the Africancontinent to America with a human cargo. Written in the 1930s, but hidden awayfrom a public audience until now, it is also perhaps the last great,unpublished work by the Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston. 

 

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With Regards and InSolidarity 

Umakant, Ph. D 

New Delhi 

 












My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can lose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality. 
B.R.Ambedkar
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