Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Assin Manso

Sacred Earth, Air and Water. Elements. Keepers of Memory. Passageways into Our story for those who return to Assin Manso. This place, this meeting point, largest of its kind in this land WE now call Ghana. Assin Manso - a gathering place for captured Afrikans. Where WE were chained and sold. A brief resting site after the long march leading to coastal cells of death and torment. Assin Manso, WE walked here, from Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Niger, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, from all corners and all places to arrive at the place where the rivers converge. WE walked and walked and walked after violent captures, struggles to resist and kill Our captors. WE fought, and WE were overcome. Many of US died, fell sick from fatigue and broken hearts. Many were the bodies strewn along this path, left for dead, killed for Our defiance, Our bodies left for vultures and leopards to feed upon. The weight of Our soles beat paths into Asaase where there were none before. This is how WE came to Assin Manso - gathered together under the death bringers guns, whips and chains. WE converged here and bathed at Donkor Asuo – thousands, millions all passed over this ground, sacred ground, connecting death trails to cold, cruel coastal dungeons and the sea that brought the carriers of death among US. WE washed Our wounds here, let the living waters cool Our bodies and clenched the earth in Our palms...Assin Manso

Sankofa. i have returned to place my feet on this soil and remember. i have returned to pay homage to my Ancestors. To remember. To hear, smell, feel Our suffering and hear the voices beckoning for avengers, warriors and healers. This is sacred ground channeled by sacred rivers like Donkor Asuo, the river whose very name keeps the memory of Our suffering. i bathed in the river just as unfathomable numbers of Our Ancestors did. My feet tread the ground beaten into a path by the millions of soles that suffered the long journey to the coast. The very path, hidden in thick bush, connecting lands from Wagadugu to Oguaa and Edina. My own feet stood on the path. i drank the water from the Okyi Asuo, which still flows, and let my feet sink into its moist bed…

Assin Manso

Assin Manso - Ghana, West Afrika




























Photo taken by Nkenge Ayo































































Photo taken by Nkenge Ayo














Photo taken by Nkenge Ayo