The pains of home coming

Before the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, slavery was practised in ancient Egypt from about 1550-1175 BC. The enslaved Israelites never returned to the same land from where they migrated to Egypt. God promised them another land that was flowing with milk and honey. Home coming was not easy and realistic for the Israelites especially for Moses who led the people out of Egypt. As if slavery was natural to Africa, some African empires got involved in Child slavery to pay debts or earn money to survive. The African slaves were captured by Africans during inter-tribal wars. For some African traditional rulers, Intra-African slave trade was a big and lucrative business. This gave rise to the middle passage of triangular trade where African slaves were bought and transported to Europe and America. The Atlantic slave trade defined the movement of slaves from Africa to Europe for a long period of time through the Atlantic Ocean. During this long voyage millions of Africans died as a result of diseases like dysentery, scurvy, smallpox, syphilis, and measles. There was no good food and portable water. Some slaves died out of depression and nostalgia for their native homes. Those who managed to escape were called contrabands. They were recaptured to work for the Union Army. The first African slaves arrived in Hispaniola in 1501. By the 18th century, the peak of the Atlantic Slave trade was marked by raiding the interior of West Africa. In 1619, a Dutch Ship transported twenty Africans to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia (https://www.google.com/search).

After so many years of human trafficking and slave trade, Maximillian Robespierre led the first elected Assembly of the First Republic (1792–1804) that abolished slavery in law in France and its colonies on 4th February, 1794. In 1833, Slavery was abolished in most of the British Empire through the campaign of William Wilberforce who died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured. On 25th March, 1807 the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act received its royal assent, abolishing the slave trade in the British colonies and making it illegal to carry enslaved people in British ships. Even when on 25th March, 1807, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act entered the statute books, trafficking between the Caribbean islands continued until 1811. With the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, slavery was abolished. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on 8th April, 1864, and by the House on 31st January, 1865.   On 1st February, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation. In January 1863 the Joint Resolution of Congress had submitted the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. Lincoln paid with his life when John Wilkes Booth fatally shot him (https://www.google.com/search).

Great Britain in colonial Nigeria waged the campaign to abolish the internal slave trade in the Bight of Biafra and its hinterland from 1885 to 1950. Mauritania became the last Africa nation to abolish the slave trade in 1981 with a presidential decree without passing criminal laws on slave dealers to enforce the ban. It was only in 2007, “under international pressure”, the government passed a law allowing slaveholders to be prosecuted.  Despite being illegal in every nation, slavery is still present in several forms today (https://www.google.com/search). Having freed the slaves, the pain and chance of ever seeing their native land was deep. Many did not even know their roots given that their fathers and mothers have died. The African slaves who gained freedom from America were settled in a place called Christo polis that was renamed Monrovia after the American President, James Monroe. The colony as a whole was formally called Liberia in 1824 and was granted independence in 1847 from the United States of America. Unfortunately, Liberia, the oldest republic in Africa was engulfed in a terrible civil war that started in 1990 and this affected Sierra Leone and others around them.

Haiti and Sierra Leone are other West Africa States that were founded by former slaves of Great Britain. In 1787, British philanthropists founded the “Province of Freedom” which later became Freetown, a British crown colony and the principal base for the suppression of the slave trade. By 1792, 1,200 freed slaves from Nova Scotia joined the original settlers, the Maroons. Descendants of the freed slaves who settled in Sierra Leone between 1787 and 1792, are called the Creoles. The Creoles play a leading role in the city, although they are a minority of the overall Sierra Leone population. During World War I, Freetown became a base for operations of British forces in the Atlantic (https://www.google.com/search). From this historical narrative, it is evident that a lot of families in Liberia, Haiti and Sierra Leone could have been natives of Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan, South Africa and other African countries where slaves were captured and exported to Europe and America. This is why it is very sad and painful that Africans are still fighting and killing fellow Africans. What a deep sword in the heart of Africa? Oh Africa, unite and let the sun rise upon you!

Many African nations are now evacuating their citizens from South African. Citizens of different countries in Africa who survived death in the desert and Atlantic Ocean in the efforts to escape the hardship of their native countries to Europe and America to seek greener pastures are being deported home. The Federal Republic of Nigeria ordered the immediate evacuation of all Nigerians who are willing to return home from South Africa following the xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals. It has been disclosed that 640 Nigerians in South Africa had registered to return home following the willingness of the Federal Government to evacuate them to safety (https://guardian.ng/news/buhari-orders-evacuation-of-nigerians-from-south-africa). Once upon a time, it was evacuation of slaves from Europe and America. In our own time it is evacuation of African nationals from Africa to their native African countries.

The early generations of African slaves were comfortable in their native homes. They never wished to leave home and they never thought that one day, they would sing: “Home my home, home my home, when shall I see my home, when shall I see my native land, I shall never forget my home!” Unfortunately, they never saw the native home of their dreams again. The African slaves of the present century were forced out of their homes by lack of social amenities and all that is required for healthy and fulfilled living. They left their homes to source for better opportunities elsewhere because those who are talented and hoped to actualize their latent potentials had their dreams killed and aborted by the leadership and structural injustice of their various countries. So they escaped or travel to wherever life could give them meaning. This is a wakeup call by South Africa: “To your native tents oh Africans!” The pain of this home coming is to go back to a home where they would be victims of kidnaps, terrorism, rape, unemployment, lack of electricity, bad roads, insecurity, corruption, greed and less hope for the future. May this call for a painful home coming inspire every African country to make available all that is required to make our people stay and work at home. On us Oh Lord have mercy, and grant us your salvation!

Rev. Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua is the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) ([email protected])