So many years ago, the land of my fathers saw a new light; a strong beam in their eyes, and their world was born a new. The land was green and beautiful and the sun was just over their heads but in their minds was deep darkness and their hearts bleeding war and terror. It was after a hunting session when the gods were satisfied with blood that a new dawn was awaken in their lives. Far away on the ocean, they saw a precious gift from the gods; a reward of dedicated worship after many years of animal and human sacrifices.
As the gods pulled the gift towards the shore, natives gathered and priests offered prayers. what is so mighty and huge like this? they kept asking themselves. And as they kept waiting to know what was contained in that huge box, men like themselves but with different skin colour got out of it and together the natives said, 'wooohh! the gods themselves have come to visit'. It was an amazing scene and they immediately named the gods 'abrofo', meaning: white men as custom demanded. They took their gods home and gave them places to sleep for the night.
The following day before the village was awake, their supposed gods were already up surveying the land. What were they looking for? not many would have asked. But the chiefs of the village sent a delegation to the house of the gods to find out if they needed anything. it was difficult communicating the message but the gods managed to tell them by sign language that they needed a place to build castles and forts and were also searching for treasures. By custom the gods are above everybody on the land and so the chiefs ordered that fertile lands be given to them. Hmmm! what are the gods up to? some of my grandfathers may have asked. In just about a week the gods have taken over everything on the land and the chiefs kept quiet because they are the gods.
The supposed gods realizing the peoples deep admiration for their skin, had to prove their superiority by letting them know what they never knew, eat and drink what they had never tasted, and see what they had never seen. They included items like, canned fish, beer, mirror, gun and others. These were amazing technologies to the people. "We can now hunt without bow and arrow, the new method is fast", one of the chiefs immediately communicated to the people. there was jubilation everywhere. The black man can now see his face. Isn't it fantastic? there was no need to fight a girl if she told you that you were not handsome. the mirror was kept in a palace and brought out at the end of harvest seasons for the people to view.
The gods increasingly became powerful till the land became a section of where they came from. surprisingly, it took my grandfathers hundreds of years to realize that the strangers on their land were not the gods but men like themselves. Fear began to set in them when the gods decided to carry some of the natives to where they came from. Many were afraid not for the fact that they were being taken away but the ocean. this made the foreigners that have long been mistaken for the gods torture and beat them as they prepared them for the sail. Many years came to pass and the land was consistently ruled by the people until some years after when the natives tough resistance drove them away. No matter how bad the strangers were, they indeed were treasures to the land. They introduced good knowledge and a good religion to the natives; something nothing could have compensated for.
Today, as a result of this amazing story this generation of the land can at least understand why we are what we are today. but the question that many still keep asking is: why did it take that long for our grandfathers to see the light when everything they needed to be enlightened was with them? even till now the natives of this land have not fully comprehended the light. although, we keep improving everyday the fundamental truth is hidden from us and completely lack the means to find it. the genes of our ignorant fathers are still alive in us today. even though there have been little alterations, it only yielded greed and selfishness.
We learn governance to be autocratic, technology to steal, kill and destroy, and even Christianity to rob the poor man. Wherever the race of my kind lives, majority are poor, and the minds of the people are never ready for change. They do wrong things with passion and right things without caution. Breaking the gene code, has been our greatest struggle.
