Africa's Children

   Africa's Children

For more than three hundred years

midst cries of anguish

Mother ‘Africa gave up her children to the New World

Reluctant sons and daughters, snatched from her warm tropical breast

cast naked upon the cold shoulder of the Americas.

Like pawns they were callously moved about in a game of greed

sanctioned by presidents, clergy and kings

Thousands perished, their branded bodies cast

without ceremony or remorse into trackless Atlantic waters.

Betrayed and brutalized

by a society dedicated to elegance and leisure.

Survivors of Middle Passage chains

were transported like cattle

into hostile lands they did not know

lands that refused to know them.

Homeless, denied even the comfort of their name

they labored without reward

in forest, field, city and sea.

Africa's children cleared the land in a new work they had not chosen

planted the fields, rocked the cradles and gathered the harvest

for another's table.

They built a banquet

but dined on scraps in a land where no law respected them.

Restrained and restricted

their bodies and minds were bound by chain and by law.

Yet the spirit of their ancestors could not be destroyed.

The joie de vivre that is their unique heritage

survived generations of repression and hardship

survived and evolved.

Africa's children took their meager scraps and created culinary triumphs

their skills in farming , fishing and metal,

their stories, music, art, dance, inventions and language

melded into and enriched American culture

becoming so completely  interwoven and intertwined

that Africa's children forgot their history.

They no longer recognized their mother.

But their Mother never forgot them.

She remembered and mourned her great loss.

A NKele © 1994

Africa today is far less than she might have been, while the America's of today have been greatly enriched and enhanced by the forced migration of our ancestors so long ago.  I want my brothers and sisters in America to know that the children stolen from Africa were not forgotten.  Even today, the loss of family members during slavery days is still remembered and mourned .  In my own family my mother told me of a great uncle who was stolen and sold into slavery.  sometimes in America I will someone who resembles my family and I think of my mother's story and wonder if that person is a descendant of my uncle.

In 1991, I began a series of wire sculptures that would chronicle the history of my people-from pre-slavery days in Africa to modern-day America.  This is a work-in-progress that numbers approximately 200 pieces, some of which evoke strong emotional reactions from viewers.  But the events I have illustrated are taken from history books.  I did not make them up.  This story of our ancestors must continue to be told, again and again.

When the Jewish Holocaust Museum opened in Washington DC people were saddened by the exhibitions.  But most agreed it's important to document those terrible times and try to prevent them ever happening again.  It is equally important to remember our own holocaust. 

I hope my work can be a small memorial that will commemorate some of the sacrifices African people have made to the Americas.  I hope it can be used as a teaching tool to raise awareness of their contributions to our society.  I dedicate it to all oppressed people everywhere, both past and present...Augie N'Kele, 1994