Negroes
We have been betrayed.
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Thousands of us.
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Hearts have been bruised and spirit crushed. We are lost in a place we are not sure is home. Place tangled with spiderweb threads of pains and agonies.
They ventured on our land and ridiculed our language and skin.
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We tried to evade but they got hold of us and compelled us back in chains. When we plead and shout they tame it as an urge to satisfy their needs. We experience a dreadful suffering we saw was our doomed future, as our hands were tied in willow twigs. Assimilate they would say, become whiter and forget your language. But never did we listen to them. We fought to stay alive; so as to tell you, who sold us into this place of servitude, how strong you made us.
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Did you know?
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Some died from dehydration,
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while some from starvation.
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Why the comfort now?
Never tell us light at the end of the tunnel for it looked dark even when it seemed near.
You aped in this colourism, by toning your body to lighter skin.
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Each nightfall saw us on a rusty ground narrating tales of home. Tales of seas and birds, which we thought maybe we could, fly like this eagle that hovered into the humid sky, but we can’t. So patiently, we wait for the day we could thrust the forces that held our feathers from flapping at its speed.
#WriterPrompt is a flash fiction event run on our Facebook page. Writers post stories, then workshop the stories with other participants and members of the SSDA team. We spoke to #WriterPrompt 7 winner, Ezeuchu Jovita Amaka.
Tell us a bit about your writing and what brought you to #WriterPrompt?
EZEUCHU: I started writing in July last year. I would say my writing instinct and passion started during my NYSC* year. Probably, because the serene atmosphere provided an avenue for that.
I write flash fiction and lately I have been into short stories as well.
What brought me to #WriterPrompt is the chance to ignite my creative imagination. To understand WHY I penned down this story and not the other one. Because with the provided photo a slew of ideas would roll in my mind, waiting to be crafted into a story.
And also, I have understood that in #WriterPrompt the more you practice, the better you'll get.
If you could have dinner with three authors, who would you pick?
EZEUCHU: Cat Hellisen, I simply love her craft in Serein.
What are you currently reading?
EZEUCHU: Likely To Die by Linda Fairstein.
Ezeuchu Jovita Amaka is a graduate of Mass Communications from Anambra State University. She is an aspiring writer.
*Editor’s note: National Youth Service Corps
Participate in #WriterPrompt by following Short Story Day Africa on Facebook.
Interview by Tiah Beautement a.k.a @ms_tiahmarie