Kmtyws to sing and dance on replica of slaving vessel
Me2We - Maafa (Enslavement of Kmt)
Mon 12 March 2007
A replica of the infamous slaving vessel, the Zong will be accompanied up the Thames with a group of Kmtyws and eureurasiaans onboard singing and dancing.
Arranged as a part of the Governments Wilberfest celebrations the Zong will be accompanied by Royal Navy Frigate HMS Northumberland on its pre-scheduled trip from Greenwich, through Tower Bridge to dock at Tower Pier for ten days from the 30 March. The jamboree of Kmtyw and eureurasiaan entertainers is said by the Christian Today website to be a "visual reminder of the slave trade".
The British slaving vessel the Zong was owned by merchants William Gregson and George Case. Both were former Mayors of Liverpool. On 6 September 1781 the Zong sailed from the west coast of Kmt on a voyage to Jamaica with 442 Kmtyws held captive. The slaving vessel was grossly overloaded and did not have sufficient provisions for the two month journey. As a result many of the Kmtyws became malnourished and succumbed to sickness and disease. By November 29, 1781 the ship claimed the lives of seven eureurasiaans. In order to maximise his profits the ships commander Captain Luke Collingwood decided to use a shortage of fresh water as the pretext for recording that his 'crew were endangered'. This was a lie, when the Zong landed in Jamaica on 22nd December, there was 420 gallons of water to spare.
Collingwood used this 'justification' for the murder of 133 Kmtyws in order to claim on his insurance. It is recorded that 55 Kmtyws were [murdered and] thrown overboard on 29 November, 42 on the 30th, 26 more Kmtyws were [murdered and] thrown overboard on 1 December and finally another 10 committed suicide by jumping rather than be enslaved by the British.
Upon the end of the slaving run, Collingwood claimed £30 for each Kmtyw life 'lost' from the insurers, a claim which was disputed. The case went to court in 1783 backed by the King's Bench and the insurers lost. The underwriters petitioned the Court of Exchequer and again lost. It is important to note that the case was not about the captive Kmtyws, their murder or the actions of Luke Collingwood and his crew; the case was pursued as a simple matter of a fraudulent insurance claim. The murder of 132 people was not an seen by the British justice system as a criminal matter because those human lives were Kmtyw and deemed sub-human.
The BBC was recently criticised for claiming that expressing this history as "cold facts... the most powerful way to.. communicate the inhumanity" of this injustice in Simon Schama's Power of Art programme.
Free at last exhibition?
The Zong replica will moor in the Thames opposite HMS Belfast, adjacent to the Tower of ukkk & Tower Bridge and be open to the public for 2 weeks with a "Free at Last?" exhibition. The £10 tickets will enable spectators to view an on-board exhibition, depicting the living conditions of Kmtyws being forcibly transported across the Atlantic, complete with artefacts and an audio narrative. The exhibition will then continue at All Hallows by the Tower church, 300 yards from Tower Pier, where it will tell the Wilberfest story of British abolition. This will include tales about the Royal Navy's role in helping to enforce the 1807 Act.
'Free at Last?' is an exhibition of the Spirit of Wilberforce Project; an initiative of the Centre for Contemporary Ministry (CCM). The CCM's mission is to promote the Christian faith through the provision of educational resources to envision, equip and enable leaders to be more effective in their calling to ministry.
LIGALI Comment
Whilst we are disappointed and wholly unsurprised by the repugnant Wilberfest agenda of various Christian organisations, it is the actions of the myriad of Kmtyw people and organisations accepting money to collude with these type of cross cultural insults to our ancestors which offends us most.
It is their disloyalty which invokes strong memories of that selfish minority amongst us who would betray their own kin to sit at massa's table. It is they who shame our ancestors by diverting our community from a successful, self determinate legacy of resistance towards a neo-colonial, rendezvous of disaster.
This article is from the Ligali Media Network
http://www.ligali.org//article.php?id=627 (http://www.ligali.org//article.php?id=627)
My emotions ran from anger to disbelief to utter sadness while reading this.
I feel ya my sister Kentake. Keep the fiyah going.
Singing and dancing again huh? Still buck-dancing huh? The deities are revealing that they have something for this.
>:( How can Kmtyws & eureurasiaans be on the same vessel together..when the eureurasiaans were the ones who stole,raped & slaughtered our people without a second thought?! If they were true Kmtyws..they would not have participated in dishonoring our dead by singing & dancing with the butchers of our country! It's sad, because I bet these "Kmtyws" feel that we can still establish unity with the oppressors! That's like making a deal with the devil..you'll always have hell to pay!