Imagine...

Imagine

If the Ocean could cry

If Walls did cry

If the Sands could speak

If the Cells here in Cape Coast would try

To tell the tale of blood lost, of tears shed

Of souls dead

Imagine...

Imagine

If I stood where my fathers cried,

Where my people died

Where slavery tried to steal their souls

And Mother pride

Imagine what I'd feel inside

Imagine...

Imagine

The huddled masses

Sardined and wearied soul

Sweat, blood and urine flow

Like rivers of tears swollen

And the children of Africa knowin'

That the ship's a comin'

That that old ship's a comin'

And the children of Africa know

It soon will be time to go

Imagine ...

Imagine a musty cell--

Disease infested, hatred ingested--

Salt-air from the sea sifting

through slits for vents

where sunlight barely shows

Like dim-lit rainbows,

though in these holes,

the reflections in the dark

show no reflections of the dark ones here

who huddle in fear

as the end draws near.

Imagine...

Imagine the terror

The shameful error

of those who

knowingly sold their brothers and sisters

into a slavery so cruel

So brutal

So lewd

So without human rules

Imagine...

Imagine the door

The Point of No Return

The wail from hell

Where the Children of Africa fell

Oh, the hell!

I can smell the hell

Sense the hell

Feel the hell:

Seagulls crying

Buzzards flying

Sharks lying await

White men filled up with hate

Black folks beat down by hate

Black folks in shackles of hate

That old slave ship sealed up with hate

That old slave ship setting sail in winds of hate

And this old slave castle the birthplace of my fate.

Imagine...

Imagine

If I stood where my fathers cried

Where my people died

Where slavery tried to steal our souls

And Mother pride

Imagine what I'd feel inside.

Imagine.

(I visited Cape Coast Castle today where our tour guide said an average of 10,000 Africans a year were transported by slave ships in the transatlantic slave trade from this depot. Ghana's Cape Coast Castle was run by the British, and many slaves perished at this location where they were bound in shackles and dwelled in horrible conditions.)