See now hear (feel) in the dark

So see now hear (in the dark) feel

"...was blind, but now I see"

John Newton : "Amazing Grace"

See now hear feel

Feel now,

hear sea Here

now feel see,

now feel hear an'

see in the dark (refrain)

buckra...guineas dosh...massaare

they who plunder an' rob

any different than those

who trade inhuman cargoes?

Lock, stock an? barrel

Eternal triangle retraced

from Whitehaven, Liverpool,

Bristol, Gloucester, Cardiff,

Birmingham an' London

a few prospered

so cups

may be filled

with rhum?

Raleigh ensured tobacco may

smoke first in Devon

Asphalt still pave roads

of trade, Commerce, banking with insurance

established pirates, buccaneers,

cow killers, privateers

Slavers out to sea, religious zealots

Archaic laws of eighteenth

(which) century?

Gold, emeralds, diamonds,

bauxite

cocoa, guns, shackles,

sugar, cottonpineapples, papayas, timber,

coffee, tomatoes, chocolate

filthy as mined coal

brandy parties,

St Giles' stinking drunken stupor

nursing gentlemen's

trade of wretched human cargo

Even locals pressed-ganged as crew

Spirited chimney boys, convicts,

those indebt, screaming kidnapped

daughters condemned as accomplices

for this trade starved on sail to

gold coast

Precious kidnapped cargoes

albeit humans

Chained afraid are some/none

on atlantic separated fading

memories of baobab denied

rights of passage or kinbeaten,

shackled in irons

Never to return!

so accept the sacrifice of Quamina

feel words of saved Rushton at this shrine...

as familiar names survive,

histories so entangled

Global deceit, new millennia

will but forced emancipation

did not end chattel slavery

as today showcases and brochures

brag post modern conveniences

dependant on supply of shackled labour in afrika,

asia unto lawless jungles of americas

Even in the kitchens of europe and middle east

pathetic excuses of abominable existence

before european's arrival

then legal, so no compensation

to daten benefactors pay no reparations

drinking blood like milk

Feel here now,

see now

hear /here

feel

Failed safe if only one is in captivity

None is free!

No dignity without equality!

No humanity

Without justice and liberty!

roi kwabena

2004/09/06

Commissioned by Braunarts for

the Birmingham launch of The Dark Exhibition 01.09.2004

© 2004