By Anote Ajeluorou
ALTHOUGH it was one of the most traumatic experiences in
world history, the dispersal of blacks all over the world through the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade ought to have placed Africans on an evangelising
mission of sorts, with African values firmly planted wherever they reside. But
the reverse is, however, the case, as the stigma of second-class citizen, engendered
by slave mentality, still taints the world-view of Diaspora Africans.
But a much-travelled
Nigerian author, Mr. Chux Onyenyeonwu, his debut novel, The Sixth Finger, has taken the daunting task of chronicling the
slave trade experience in the lives of some individuals in an epic narrative
that spans all the continents Africans are now dispersed as a result of the infamous
trade. Clearly, Onyenyeonwu’s book is first of its kind in its wide-ranging
setting and narrative in knitting together disparate peoples albeit from the
same continent who experienced a common trauma.
According to
Onyenyeonwu, The Sixth Finger is a
historical fiction he started back in 1996 and which only just came out. The
length of time, he stated at an unveiling at Umutu Coffee, MM2 Airport, Ikeja,
Lagos, was so he could balance the facts and fiction of the story together, as
it required a lot of research. In fact, when he started writing the book, the
Internet was still some years away in Nigeria. So, he patronized libraries, but
the space widened when Internet arrived and facilitated his research work on
the book.
He noted, “I did a
lot of research; I needed to ensure whatever I’m putting down has to be proven.
I spent so much time in libraries; Internet also helped. I was concerned with
doing a watertight narrative. I was fascinated by Alex Haley’s Roots’ main character, Kunta Kinte, who
defied all the suffering just to cling tight to his African name.”
Also, Onyenyeonwu
said Haley’s film which he saw when he was young inspired him to write the book.
He stated that the title for the book “is one those uncanny things that knitted
the tale together.
“Although the slave
trade is over, the aftermath is still there. Blacks have not been fully
integrated into their respective Diaspora societies in the U.S., Cuba, Brazil
and elsewhere. Blacks over there still have the mental attitude of slaves; they
need to free themselves mentally. The
Sixth Finger covers the history of the lands blacks are domiciled”.
Although not
necessarily a spiritual book, Onyenyeonwu, who is also a pastor, said, “God was
aware of the enslavement of blacks, just as He is involved in all the affairs
of man. It’s by God’s hand that blacks are in Cuba, Brazil, America”.
Onyenyeonwu is not
happy with the state of affairs of the black man, even though he has contributed
immensely to the development of world civilizations. He laments that blacks in
the Diaspora are not accorded their rightful place as they are still put down
in their host societies. Without black labour in the plantations, Onyenyeonwu
said, America would not be the great country it is today. He decried modern-day
slavery disguised as America visa Lottery through which blacks enslave
themselves anew by working menial jobs considered too demeaning for whites.
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