UOPX Wk 1 ETH 125 Assignment Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group Member

7/29/2019 UOPX Wk 1 ETH 125 Assignment Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group Member

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December 25, 1999

I have lived for more than 500 years. My eyes have seen more than any human could evercomprehend. My heart has felt pain that no living thing should ever experience. My soul will

never rest if I do not share my story with the world.

I am Omope Siene Dada Mbgasame, the daughter of King Mbgasame. I was born in WestCentral Africa in the country of Angola. I am the youngest one of 12 children and the only girl.

My father has seven other wives who have given our family 32 additional children. The land is

cultivated, our herds are massive. Our village consists of more than 100 family units. We havebeen blessed by the Gods and are the envy of every other tribe.

When I was just 12, several neighboring tribes attacked our village and my life would never

be the same. Strong men and women were all captured and sold as slaves to the white man.

Since I had just completed the rite of passage to becoming a woman I would be soon married

to a warrior. This shameful thing was not going to happen to me. I am the daughter of a king andonly a king would be worthy of me. For many nights I dreamed of escaping to the woods. I

waited for the darkest night, when the creatures cry the loudest, to steal away into the woods.

I was awaken by a sound that I had never heard before, nor do I ever want to hear again. Ipeered thru the woods to see a large group of white men with chains, shackles and large sticks

that made a terrible noise. On the ground were several men with the chains connecting them to

each other and shackles on their wrists and ankles? One of the white men pointed the loud sticksat a mighty king of the Conga. There was a loud crack that shook the birds from the trees and

echoed for what seemed like hours. Just as I turned to run from the frightening sight, one of the

white men saw me and took chase. Though lean, fast and running like the wind, I could not

escape the reaches of his long rope that stung my legs and arms.

When I woke, I found myself in a dark, cold, wet place filled with the smell of death. The sea

waters seeping in cooled my face and washed the blood and sweat from my body. My feet andwrists were shackled to a metal collar on my neck. There were people who spoke languages that

I could not understand. Little did I know that more than 26.1% of the people were from West

Central Africa.

They pulled the chain that was connected to everyone and led us to boats that would take us

to our new home land. It was July 1745; in a placed they called Virginia. This place was filled

with many white people who were sizing up the Africans as though they were cattle. There weremothers, children and fathers who were being torn from each others embraces.

I found myself along with seven others taken to a strange looking hut and made to sit down

on a cold wooden floor. A woman came to the hut and motion to herself as she said Mary. Ilearned much from her, but the only thing I wanted to learn was how I can get back home. That

question was never answered. For more than 100 years, I would not experience the sweet taste of

freedom again.


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I am a free woman now, still youthful in appearance and well educated by the lady of the

house. Everyone I knew has long died along with their grandchildren. I am not alone; I have my

memories to keep me company. Oh yeah, I am with George, husband number 6 and my 31st

child who will be born in 2 weeks. All of my other offspring have been sold and sent to farms in

South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Massachusetts. I pray that they have survived and

are alive to see freedom.

There is talk of freed slaves being sent back to a place in Africa, it is called Liberia. I longed

to go there, it is not my native country, but it is my Africa. I heard that there are people who are

helping the African Americans colonize. My husband said we can't go, because we would neversurvive. He heard that we could go to Kansas and be really free. He said he was not from Africa

and would never be happy there. What I later found out was more than 13,000 had been

immigrated to Liberia by the end of 1867.

My husband was steadfast on his decision to stay in America, so we migrated to Kansas in

1879 with the other 60,000 African Americans. Poor George didn't get to see much of Kansas; he

came down with a bad cough and didn't make it thru the winter.

It is 1940 and the 'Great Migration' to the northeast is beginning and I can't let my family go

without me. I have decided to move to New York and my sons venture off to Detroit. Although

these cities are showing progress in race relations, we are still not equal and our rights are notenforced. We can live in the same city, but are segregated from them in our schools and our

communities.

My children and their children have not been able to accept the things the way they have

been. They are working to make a better America for all, Colored people and White people alike.

It was little more than a 100 years ago when we were talking about freedom. Who would think

they would actually create the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would put an end to segregation.

The only way we are able to fit in is to assimilate. I also notice that when you have money

they don't look down on you as much. My husband, Maleek, wants to move out of New Yorkand go south.

My name is Omope Siene Dada Mbgasame; I changed it back from my slave name of Oliveto my birth name.

References

(2005, July 5). The Library of Congress African American Mosaic - Migration: A Library of

Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture. Retrieved May 20,

2008, from http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam008.html

(2005, July 5). The Library of Congress African American Mosaic - Colonization: A Library of

Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture. Retrieved May 20,

2008, from http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam002.html


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THOMAS, S B (2002). Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Lester Breslow (Ed.),Encyclopedia of

Public Health, Vol. 1(pp. 208). New York: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved May

21, 2008, from Gale Virtual ReferenceLibrary via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS

BookRags Staff. (2006). Retrieved May 21, 2008, fromhttp://www.bookrags.com/wiki/African_American_history#African_Origins.
http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/African_American_historyhttp://www.bookrags.com/wiki/African_American_historyhttp://www.bookrags.com/wiki/African_American_history

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UOPX Wk 1 ETH 125 Assignment Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group Member