The Stolen

The missionaries became fearful.  The villagers who lived among them began to talk among themselves; they knew that they made a grave mistake in forsaking the ways of the Orisha, their ancestors’ traditions for thousands of years.  When the villagers tried to leave the missionaries tried to stop them; telling them that they would be committing a great sin against god and there would be no salvation for them in heaven and they should stay, but the villagers did not care, they left to find the Babalawos the high priest to make offerings and ask forgiveness from their ancestors, but what they did not know was that they were followed.  That night there was a ritual taking place.  Those missionaries, slavers and soldiers defiled what was sacred and they were doomed and didn’t even know it; by capturing the most powerful Babalawos and Egungun people their fate was sealed.  The slave ship that they were taken to was the Henrietta Marie, a ship that was cursed.  Many days before the raid the Babalawos and Iyalawos put a curse upon that ship so that nothing would work aboard it. They asked Shango, Oya and Yemoja to destroy it for stealing their people.  And they asked Olukun to swallow it with those responsible.  Not long after the ship had cast out to sea it all began.  The crew became sick with malaria and small pox.  It was during one of the rituals that Babaluae was invoked.  The crew became weak with fever. The shackles and chains that had been used to imprison the priest had corroded with rust from the sea air.  All day the Babalawos and others prayed to the Orisha Ogun to give them strength and finally when the time was right Ogun possessed them, and chains were pulled from the beams, and shackles were broken, now they were used as deadly weapons. In the darkness one by one they made their way up to the deck, concealing themselves in the shadows of the ship.  They quickly noted their position by the stars; it would be the stars that would guide them back home.  They remembered how they were brought aboard on the small boats. While they were searching the ship for the small boats one of the crew had gone below deck with evil intentions.  Reaching the cargo hold he saw that the chains no longer held the captives; sending him running and screaming for the crew, suddenly the crash of thunder shook the ship followed by strong and powerful winds; a violent uprising was underway.  The sickened crew was no match for the power of the Orisha possessed Africans.  It was the arrogance of the missionaries to underestimate the powerful religion of the village they invaded; thought of as ungodly heathens fit only for enslavement.  The chains that had bound them were used as weapons splitting open skulls and strangling the clergy who preached of their enslavement as gospels with sermons of servitude. Those that were left alive to weak to fight were left lying in their own vomit.  Others lost limbs and drowned in their own blood.  The captain and remaining crew were taken below deck and chained to the dead so they would know the feel of such cruelty.  Lightning struck into the ship like daggers.  When the boats were finally dropped from the ship strong currents carried the boats away from it.  It was said that you could hear the screams of the crew below deck in the holds of the slaver.  A final lightning strike sent the ship up in flames. Shango’s fire was a blaze that night while Oya’s winds fed his fire.  The fire found its way below deck partially burning the crew because Yemoja’s waves took the ship to Olokun. 

This was an excerpt from a Cultural-Sy novel titled Spirit Walk I hope you enjoyed another weekly segment of Another reality written from my 3rd eye for your 3rd eye. Please visit me at www.wix.com/soyinkaiyabo/chaoschronicals