First scenario

 

We come to you in the name of God and his majesty king Philip the second, ruler of the Spanish empire, we come to you in peace, we are honoured by your hospitality, we are in your lands and therefore in your hands, and we wish to establish peaceful trade terms with your kingdom, please take us to your king.

  And the Africans replied, ‘’we have no king’’ it’s every man for himself; we harbour no desire to be dictated over by other men.

On hearing this,  captain Santiago smiled and whispered to his men, these people have no king therefore they are weak and by God this lands are already ours.

And then he turned to the Africans, what is the name of your kingdom?

 The Africans shrugged, our land has no name, every family owns land and we call it after the name of that family.

What is the name of your tribe?

The Africans once again replied we do not have such thing; we that speak the same language call ourselves brothers.

Then Captain Santiago mounted his horse, drew out his sword and pointed it to the skies, listen you savages, from today and forever these lands are under the control of his majesty king of Spain.

The Africans dismayed but not yet aggressive asked, what does that mean?

  It means the laws of the Spanish empire apply here, you shall have a leader appointed by the Spanish throne and you shall pay tribute to the Spanish treasury and you shall worship the one true God and his son Jesus Christ, you shall fight in Spanish wars, you shall protect the name of the king and in doing so the name of God, God almighty.

From today onwards you shall be called the Yorubas, I named you such because it means nothing and you are nothing, you shall obey every word that comes out of my mouth, you shall heed to instructions without delay, you shall bestow upon your children generations to follow the fear of the great, mighty Spanish empire.

  You shall pray in the name of Jesus and Gods true servant the pope, leader of the catholic church, you shall honour this noble agreement or be put to sword, every last one of you, every rebellion will be crushed and in doing so a hundred innocent more put to sword in display of our no tolerance for ambitious fools. You were savages and now you are people. Spain expects your gratitude.

The worthless and strong among you shall be slaves, sold from master to master and your freedom deprived forever together with that of your children.

And the Yorubas hearing this were enraged, they violently  grabbed captain Santiago together with all 13 of his men and  threw them in boiling palm oil, and went back to their farms.

                      The end

 

SECOND SCENARIO

We come in peace, we come with good intentions and goods, we intend to make trade, beneficial trade between our two great kingdoms, please take us to your king.

   I am king chaka of the zulu kingdom, ruler of all these lands, as far as you can see and travel, leader of the great zulu army, I own 20 wives and a hundred sons, I am the weathiest man in south Africa, I control the rivers and all that is it, I own the forests and their contents, I own five thousands slaves of both sexes,   I am immortal, I am great, I am powerful, I am a god in flesh and blood  I have tamed wild beast with my own hands, I have torn men to pieces with my bare hands, I drink wine from the skulls of kings who once stood against me. I kill men for sports, I draw blood for recreation.

   I have annihilated tribes, I have captured great chiefs and had them kneel before me, I own the air you breathe and the skies above us, now tell me stranger why you are here and why you have sought audience with a god like myself.

  Thankyou great god, we are from a faraway land, seven seas away, we come in the name of queen victoria the great monarch of  England, we come here to establish mutually beneficial trade with your great kingdoms, we bring, spices, guns, steels and many other things of great value, we hope your kingdom offers us something as useful in return, we heard your land is rich in gold and diamonds, we wish to trade by barter with your kingdom. Great god forgive us for overstepping but we also wish to establish some level of presence in your lands and that privilege accorded only to anyone who comes in the name of the English throne.

  Bring forth the items you speak of commanded king chaka,

And Englishmen from the chests they carried brought out guns, steel, mirrors and spices.

  When chaka the zulu saw what the other party had, he knew he didn’t have the resources to equal the value of items the Englishmen had presented, he knew very well his lands had no gold or diamonds, the diamond rich fields were still under the territory of king jaja of opobo, his arch enemy to the north.

  So he made a proposal, well my friends, i must say I am impressed by the items you have presented but I hold nothing of equal value so may I propose that I give you a thousand men to be your slaves in exchange for one of those boxes? My men shall get them readied and deliver them to the seaside where I heard your boats are ported to be transported back to your kingdom to work as slaves to your queen.

It was a fair deal, a thousand men if healthy would build an entire kingdom, so the Englishmen accepted the deal, and the first phase of slavery in Africa was established.

   Africans were sold into slavery by African chiefs and kings, slavery was a norm in the world at that time and even Africans kept slaves, this would be evident later when with the help of the guns procured from the westerners, king chaka defeated kingdoms and many other establishments and all of the spoils with were mostly unprotected villages full of young children and women were all handed over to the Europeans in exchange for the jewels of the world ‘’the evolutionary guns.’’  

The Europeans didn’t know Africa and Africans kingdoms were long established invading was a suicide mission. In this book we shall discuss slavery and Africa, we shall also understand things about the supposed invaders and ultimately decide for ourselves the answer to this long avoided question. Enslavement of Africans by the west  was whose fault?

                                                Mee Arumun ‘s The father