Myths: Fatherland

Chapter 1: The Purchase

The cacophony of noises was the first thing I could make out in the darkness of my mind. A heaviness was over me, restricting me and keeping me from getting up. My skin stung as I felt cold water thrown unto me, and I could make out the blurry faces of two men standing over me, "Oy, get up!" Said one whose face was beginning to come into view. "Blimey Carl! This one doesn't seem to know where he is," the other man said as he laughed, "you've gotta bring him up to speed." He raised the butt of the g*n he had in his arm to me, and for the second time since waking up, I felt another sharp pain now on the side of my head, and everything was black again.

The agonizing screams of a man woke me up from my dreamless slumber. My head still tingled with pain, and I found my hands and feet were bound in chains. Hurdled around me were others also in chains, seated and weeping, all without clothing except for loin clothes and rags across the chest of the women. I looked at myself and found that my clothing had also been removed and replaced with the same loin clothes as the others.

"Keep him still, Hugh, else it's your hands that's going to be burnt," a large, fierce looking man with his dark grey hair tied in a knot behind his head said has he held a red-hot rod to the back of a man being held down by two other slave hunters with his hands still bound in chains. I could tell from his tongue that the captive was from the lands to the west of my village's territory. The rod was thrust into his back, his flesh seared, and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. I had never before heard a man scream from pain as the man did. It seemed to echo the pains into the bones of those coming after him and fear into us watching. From behind were I laid bound, came the shouting and pleading from a woman held firmly to the ground, her hands stretched forth as if trying to grasp ahold of some lifesaver but only clutching empty air. Then I saw the train of chain bound children being led to another group of captives opposite the group the woman had run from, and there I could see the child, just entering adolescence, wailing, and trying to get back to his mother. "That's 200 ape-people Mr. Percy, do you think your ship will hold? Not that I'm complaining." Said the man who had held the rod to the back of the captive earlier. My stomach was starting to protest the lack of food, but I couldn't register the protest at the moment as the elegantly dressed Mr. Percy turned his head towards the group I was in, and then to the ship at the port, and my heart sank as I realised what was about to happen to me.

"You don't have to worry about that, my good man. They'll be put to good use both on board and on the plantations," he replied, "I'm sure they are all fit and healthy. Wouldn't want to sell me some breed who would be bedridden after the journey like last time, I'm sure?" "Ai sir, you can count on it. They're all healthy and fit as gorillas, I might add." Said the slave master as he bowed his head. At this point, I couldn't stay still any longer, I was about to be sold off! I, the son of the wealthiest farmer in town? No! They might know my father and release me, I was sure. "No, me, my father, chief, big farm! Big chief!" I shouted, getting up on my shackled feet and pointing frantically towards where I believed was the direction of my town. "Son, chief, my father." I tried to speak in their language. A fist ran into my abdomen and another to my jaw, I fell to the sand, wheezing and coughing, the slave master with the dark grey hair walked over to where I laid sprawled on the sand. He raised me by the chains on my neck, looked me in the face, his breath smelled of gin, and I recognised it as one my father always got as a gift. He pushed me back onto the sand and signalled one of his men over to me, and I was dragged across to the block the screaming man was bent on. It hit me the way the loser of a wrestling match hits the ground with his back that what happened to the man earlier was about to happen to me as well. I screamed and struggled with every ounce of strength in my body, I spoke and invoked the heavens in my native tongue to come to my aid, to show this palmwine coloured men what it feels like to dishonour their lands, the lands they protect, now being soiled by the exploits of these men who take the people as slaves, who separate the children from parents, r**e the women, burn the crops and kill the men, these men who came in the guise of friendship but turned out to be the wretched enemies of all that is hospitable and welcoming. I got dragged across the sand to the block. Beside me, another man was stirring the rod in the fire. As my chest hit the wooden block, I saw a face behind the trees, an extremely handsome face that couldn't possibly be human, and I thought my prayers had been answered, but then the face vanished almost like it had never been there. I looked frantically into the trees ahead, looking from left to right, over and over, hoping to see it again.

I was brought back to my present predicament by the words of the man now turning the rod in the fire, "Now hold still will ya?" looking at the rod still in the fire, "this will hurt a lot, I'm pleased to tell ya." I looked back at the slave master who was now talking to one of his men, and as soon as he saw me, he turned away, walking back to our soon-to-be owner, and I was sure that I had seen a look of recognition on his face when he had bent to raise me earlier. 'Was he familiar with my father? Had he been one of those who brought gifts for my father in exchange for palm oil?' A hand grabbed me by the head, pulling me forward till my chest was hard against the block. I could feel the heat from the rod behind me. I tilted my head, looking at the faces of the other captives who were soon to share my fate. Amongst them were those weeping, those with downcast faces, and those with faces full of hatred as they stared at our captors. I looked back to the rod and saw it had the letter, which I would later learn was an 'S' on it, different from that used on the man before me. I stared down at the sand below, bracing for the pain. A hand again pulled my head up and shoved a piece of cloth into my mouth, "Bite down hard." Said the slave master as he stood up and walked away. And with that, the heat rose in my back, the blood pulled in my head, my hands began to shake, and my legs grew stiff. The pain was worse than imaginable, too difficult to describe! I was let go, and I crashed onto the sand, rolled onto my back, hoping to quell the pain, but instead, it doubled! I got pulled into a sitting position by a man with a wide smile on his face as he said to me, "Hold still... don't want to get it infected, do ya?" I looked back to the wooden block laying under the next victim's chest, the view was becoming blurry and the sounds and screams were becoming muffled, the piece of cloth in my mouth prevented me from calling on to my father's name but I could see his face fading away as I slipped into unconsciousness.

The tugging of the chains on my neck brought me out of my sleep. Next to me was the man who had been branded after I was with a large metal around his neck to which a chain was attached. This chain was attached to several other metal around the neck of others. The slave hunters were carrying whips and whipping the others to their feet, and as they got closer, I tried to stand, but I felt the heavy restraints in the form of chains on my feet. A sharp pain spread across my back, bringing me close to tears as I struggled to stay on my feet. We were being led into the ship with inscriptions on it that belonged to our new owner. I trailed behind the man in front of me, and suddenly walking became a very difficult act. With every step, the chains around our ankles seemed to sap every ounce of strength, and those who stopped to plead or made gestures for rest were whipped, kicked and raised back up to continue the march of the soldier ants up to the ship.

The day had gotten brighter, and I could see the other group of captives being led into ships owned by different buyers. 'Was this it? The journey of no return? Journey to a land alien to myself and the others bound in chains? What do they do in their lands? None of those taken ever came back to tell tales! Were we offerings to their various gods? Or do they use us as labour in their farms? If so, they must live in large, close knits to need these many people.'

As I got closer to the ship's entrance, I glanced back to the lands I would never see again... my father and his frequent outbursts and his flock of friends who, together, would drink all through a moonlit night and only allow me to join in after a certain level of stupor... my mother with her long, dark braided hair and brown eyes, which we both shared... Ike and Nnoma, the bickering twins who came after me and never stopped pestering mother. Never again would I hear my father's lessons on becoming a man, feel my mother's warm smile when I go to greet her every morning, Ike's constant pleas to let him go along with me to hunt. And Uluoma, my dearest, her smooth and ravaging beauty like the river goddess.

Never again will I go hunting in the forest of my fathers! Never!! Never again, a free man!!!