ROI  with tools of gentleman's trade- pix by atabey 2004

[A] CAR- GOES with descendants

This poem was written in commemoration of International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition August 23, 2002 - As the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition was recently celebrated worldwide , UNESCO continuous implementing its Memory of the World Slave Trade Archives project, one of its many initiatives related to the slave trade. I tried to show the links between the nexus of the human condition...

in Birmingham

on the rea banks

ambitious dissenters, zealots,

an’ metal workers

set to work without guild

near a ring

where bull deer

were reared

generations, centuries later

came Austin

wherever the car[here] goes

migrant workers never forget

bajan, kittian, Jamaican toiling

at longbridge…

nor scottish,welsh, english, polish, asian

irish peoples plying their trades

in the wake of the birth of an industrial heritage

is was and still is

going to B

uk’s first black city

taylor,sturge, wesley

would smile at lloyds

brindley’s glittering canals

more miles than Venice

never forget though

the nameless orphans

some offsprings of despised

canal-boat dwellers

except for those smuggled

to Canada for adoption

black country furnaces

ports of Bristol, Liverpool

cities like Manchester and London

unto guinea coast and

port royal xymaca

(2)

cargoes

sugar coffee tobacco

rum molasses cotton

gold and ‘staple’ humans

shackled; 90% of this

trade orchestrated by mercantile

giants in Liverpool, Bristol

where also slavers, buccaneers and even privateers

recruited openly sometimes

in deception of those hired

there…everywhere

watts’ steam engines transferring

more than technology, trade

with

ever attendant greed

never before since cargoes

virgin vistas witnessed such

wanton pillage

man made flames

blood-letting

of innocent and guilty parties

on

all sides

slate from mountain tops of wales

ferried along worcester carnal

to trade with ‘de indans’

restraining irons…groating pudding

maize cutlery..pottery…

finery for the mistresses

nails, pig iron, coal, blankets

to trade with ‘de bandits’

paid for

by god fearing enterprising

forward thinking philanthropic scientists

who dared to query..

as albion Jacobins…lunar friends

Unitarian dreamers toying and fermenting

Sugar chocolate coated oats

Bullets, medals, coins

etal supporting far away

Harriet Tudman; listening

To discourses on

Equality, Dignity,

A human’s right to

liberty;

The likes of Equiano

Francis Barber

Peter Stanford- Methodist Minister

Isolating oxygen…colour spectrums

Hosting Jefferson an’ Small

Priestly’s timely hurried departure

To Pennsylvania heralded by

Loyalist riotous mobs on broad street

to ole’ moseley lands

----

[B] Descendants of CAR- goes

cargoes of edgewood carriages with

Birmingham flint guns blasting

american wars… asante kingdom. apache, chaka zulu,

fuzzie wazzie, nubian, karifuna,tasmanian, boer an’ biafrian

franklin, wesley and day

understood

abolition of this precious trade

and the consequences

Are these humans capable of “higher thought ? “

Among themselves these learnt men

Owners themselves of such chattel

Aware the booming “noble” slavery trade

of Boston & Maryland. Yankee slavers

plying their trade from Brunswick, New England

to Zanzibar despite

abolition decades prior

Cargoes

wanted posters proclaim

irish, welsh, english Scottish

indentured labourers…fellow Christians

albeit protestants, objectors and some catholics

on the run with afrikan slaves,,,

today in Moseley

handsworth, newtown (not guinea coast) an’ Aston

live multi racial

descendants drive cars

their familiar surnames

occupying

dwelling houses

whose facades have not changed…

 

back