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There I would be met by a member of the resistance who would lead me through its dank subterranean tunnels. We slaves had to walk everywhere or use bicycles anyway. I used to hope that the celebration of Voodoomass would be the one day off in the year for us slaves. Oh, yes, Bwana trusts me alright.
I had been taken from Europa when I was eight years old, yet I still had such vivid memories of my parents, our little flint cottage on the farm and my adorable cocker spaniel, Rory. They were probably dead now, if they had survived the raids by warriors from the neighbouring tribe of New Castle Land, who had been my first captors.
About Take Me Home Oh Lord Song
We’re encouraged to breed merely to increase the workforce and, like I said, my five were sold on. Frank was the father of the last three. As I gave birth to each child it was immediately taken out of my arms and into the hands of a wet nurse. I didn’t discover their sex and I never saw them again. Frank had been my one true beau for many years. He was such a gentle soul, but his mistress, Madama Subria, while having one of her sweaty menopausal turns, accused him of feeling her up and reported him to her husband in hysterics.
I was one of the Stolen Children. So, in between Europa and the plantations of West Japan is this country in the tropics, the world’s greatest imperial power, the United Kingdom of Great Ambossa & the Canary Islands . It’s part of the continent of the mainland of Aphrika, which lies just over the Ambossan Channel to our right, which we also know as the Sunny Continent, of course, on account of it being so bloody hot here. The avenues have been swept smooth of yesterday’s sandstorm, and the hawkers selling takeaways - grilled corn on the cob, roasted chestnuts, fried plantain and little packets of fu-fu wrapped in leaves - have been sent packing. Gaana is the one-stop solution for all your music needs.
"Take Me Home" lyrics
We had a few at our compound, but in our case dear Madama Comfort made them pay for their birthright. Not a drop of Aphrikan blood in me. Internet banking makes revenge more sophisticated, you know. It was typical of the Slave Escape Transport System , which we in the know cynically nicknamed The Set-Back Service.
No slaves were allowed out unaccompanied at night, although there were some freed slaves in the city. The Bwana in question is Chief Abimbola Abayomi Akobundu Akinlabi Ajibade III, whose company is in the top 10 of the Fortune 500 list. Camel-drawn carriages driven by men in kente-cloth livery deliver stush party guests to our neighbouring compounds.
Torgeir Waldemar - Take Me Home Lyrics
Another carriage rattled past with a laughing couple inside. It was that evil Madama Subria, she who got my Frank sent away. I had watched her with tears pouring over my heart as she had watched him strung up to a tree and whipped.
I walked on through the market, then turned off into Paddinto District, where the crowds thinned out. In a few minutes I would be at the station. The sun had gone down hours ago but it was as if I could feel its hot tongue on my neck.
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At first I thought she was sorry for Frank, then it dawned on me that she was brimming with self-pity. You see, we were generally invisible to the Ambossans - something we cultivated, to blend into our surroundings, lessening the chance of being singled out. I can see how they have hardened their hearts to our humanity. They convince themselves that we do not feel as they do, so that they, of course, do not have to feel for us. It’s very convenient and lucrative for them, isn’t it. I wish my heart would ice over like that.
But how I longed for those grey skies, the constant drizzle, the harsh wind slapping my ears. How I longed for my warm winter woollies and wellington boots. How I longed for Mum’s cheese-and-pickle sandwiches and hot minestrone broth. How I longed for a house of my own. How I longed for Sunder Land, the far northern district whence I was taken. Sunder Land, where my tribe were quiet farming people.
I always hoped I would need them one day. For bribes, for food, as a relocation allowance when, if, I mean when I reached Europa. I quietly shut the door and looked around. I needed to take some food for the journey but I couldn’t risk going back to the main house. I crept up the garden and snuck through a spot in the bushes that led to a back alley.
I went to their Voodoo ceremonies and prayed to their pantheon of gods. I even worshipped my ancestors in spite of the fact I’d hated my miserable grandparents who’d lived long enough for me to remember them. They may have enslaved my body but, oh boy, did I try to hold on to my mind and Jesus Christ Our Lord Who Died On The Cross For Me. Madama Subria, I realised, had lost the hope of something sweet and sexy to keep her entertained, that was all. Her husband must have forced her to attend the whipping because these Ambossan women never got their fingers dirty.
The men wear flamboyant kaftans and their glamorously fat women try to outdo each other in extravagant head wraps of peacock or leopard prints which are tied up into massive bows. New Order took the title for "Blue Monday" from an illustration, which read "Goodbye Blue Monday," in the Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast Of Champions. The image referred to the invention of the washing machine improving housewives' lives. The Ambossans called Europa the Dark Continent, on account of the skies always being overcast.
The thoroughfare was littered with nut shells, tobacco butts, camel droppings and the debris of city life. I tried to walk quickly without appearing to hurry. I tried to walk straight-backed. I was tall anyway, which gave me a natural majesty when I worked it. I had 20 minutes left to get to Paddinto Station. It was going well until I came upon a group of raggedy whyte men, free, who were playing dominoes on a mat.
And nostalgia would not get me to the station on time. I flew out of Bwana’s office and rushed across the compound, across the green lawn studded with huge cacti which looked like men with their arms raised to the sky. I entered the hut which I shared with four of my female “colleagues”, knowing they would be busy elsewhere in the house. Even when it seemed that every job had been completed, Madama Comfort, Bwana’s imperious No 1 wife, demanded we all get down on our hands and knees and scrub her cherished marble floor - with soap and a nailbrush.
It was always breaking down because of increased demand from escaping slaves wanting to cadge a ride out of the city, to begin the long journey back to the motherland of our dreams - to Europa. Sure, it was a pipe dream for most of us, but it was one which offered an impossible hope that somewhere out there was a place to which we could return, a home. I have always tried to console myself with the fact that, such was the demand for sugar, the price of a sweet tooth was a toothless smile. Such was the demand for sickly sweet coffee that they ended up with an irregular heart beat, osteoporosis and withdrawal headaches.
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