I work with non profits in the US South, in the land where slavery reigned. I work in particular with a client who is collecting the oral histories of the former slaves and documenting where atrocities were committed against them. The former slaveowners are then presented with this evidence and apologies are given, mostly. And if these original slave owners have died, then the apologies come from the sons, their daughters, or their grandchildren.
The land and the people can only heal if there is an admission of the terrible and degrading brutality that was wrought against them. Denying a people their humanity because of the color of their skin is something that the US embraced and exhorted, and built their nation upon. Generations that have come and gone will not take away the original cruelty, only forgiveness can. Otherwise the "bricks and stones themselves will sing" until all of creation sits up and takes notice.
At. this. time. in. our. evolution. this kind of forgiveness is not a "feel good" thing, but mandatory. The law of the circle applies powerfully at this juncture, whether the ills have been committed against another person in thought, word or deed, or committed against an entire people.
In Spain, where my Poet lived, shopping malls have been built atop mass graves as the Spanish government and its people are only now coming to terms with the Spanish Civil War and the thousands of people murdered by the Falange, my Poet being one of them. The collective amnesia that has covered this country is now slowly lifting as everywhere you sit in Spain, sipping your sangria or watching flamenco, contains the anguished souls who were unceremoniously executed and buried like detritus. Unless their voices are heard as well, this country will never heal. My book, however humbly, tries to address this by giving the Poet back his voice, and bringing him back to life.
Every country has its atrocities that need to be addressed, and in some cases these continue: the former Soviet Union with its gulags and the cruelty of Stalin, Germany with its former hatred of the Jews are good examples of this, and the list is long.
And Canada and Nova Scotia, unless you feel immune from this, remember the First Nations People, whom you colonized and decimated. Nova Scotia, remember what was done to our beloved M'ikmaw. We would also like to remember the Beothuck people of Newfoundland, who were completely exterminated.
I remember going to an open air market in Essaouira, Morocco with a friend a few years ago, and we marveled at the bright happy colors and the piles of spices, ocher, red, yellow, piled high like sentinels and spilling over into the stalls. In spite of the happy buzz of human interaction, some might say a festive feel to the air, I felt a terrible disquiet as I stood there, as though something or someone was crying out in anguish, as though they were in terrible pain. I turned to my companion and asked what this place was in history and he replied that it was once a slave market where human life was bartered and sold. And I realized that no amount of color and laughter and camaraderie could obscure these voices, they could not be covered over or hidden. They rose up into the heavens and demanded recompense.
Unless the wounds are cauterized and healed, they will continue to fester forever.
The land and the people can only heal if there is an admission of the terrible and degrading brutality that was wrought against them. Denying a people their humanity because of the color of their skin is something that the US embraced and exhorted, and built their nation upon. Generations that have come and gone will not take away the original cruelty, only forgiveness can. Otherwise the "bricks and stones themselves will sing" until all of creation sits up and takes notice.
At. this. time. in. our. evolution. this kind of forgiveness is not a "feel good" thing, but mandatory. The law of the circle applies powerfully at this juncture, whether the ills have been committed against another person in thought, word or deed, or committed against an entire people.
In Spain, where my Poet lived, shopping malls have been built atop mass graves as the Spanish government and its people are only now coming to terms with the Spanish Civil War and the thousands of people murdered by the Falange, my Poet being one of them. The collective amnesia that has covered this country is now slowly lifting as everywhere you sit in Spain, sipping your sangria or watching flamenco, contains the anguished souls who were unceremoniously executed and buried like detritus. Unless their voices are heard as well, this country will never heal. My book, however humbly, tries to address this by giving the Poet back his voice, and bringing him back to life.
Every country has its atrocities that need to be addressed, and in some cases these continue: the former Soviet Union with its gulags and the cruelty of Stalin, Germany with its former hatred of the Jews are good examples of this, and the list is long.
And Canada and Nova Scotia, unless you feel immune from this, remember the First Nations People, whom you colonized and decimated. Nova Scotia, remember what was done to our beloved M'ikmaw. We would also like to remember the Beothuck people of Newfoundland, who were completely exterminated.
I remember going to an open air market in Essaouira, Morocco with a friend a few years ago, and we marveled at the bright happy colors and the piles of spices, ocher, red, yellow, piled high like sentinels and spilling over into the stalls. In spite of the happy buzz of human interaction, some might say a festive feel to the air, I felt a terrible disquiet as I stood there, as though something or someone was crying out in anguish, as though they were in terrible pain. I turned to my companion and asked what this place was in history and he replied that it was once a slave market where human life was bartered and sold. And I realized that no amount of color and laughter and camaraderie could obscure these voices, they could not be covered over or hidden. They rose up into the heavens and demanded recompense.
Unless the wounds are cauterized and healed, they will continue to fester forever.