By Kanute Tangwa aka K(C)anute Tangwa
Ba Nti
As chamba horses charged and galloped southward bound /
Sweeping through savannah, rolling and gallant hills/
Hoofs clip-clopping on coarse terrain, rivers and streams/
Groaning as the whips of chamba warriors fell on their backs/
Splashing jets of water in their wake/
Subduing tribes along their path/
Ba Nti clutching the reins of his nyambala/
Saw beyond conquest and chilvary.
– it was a time of opportunity
– it was a time of violence
– it was a time of capture
– it was a time of exploitation
– it was a time of dehumanization
– it was a time of commodification
– it was a time of forced removal
As conquistadors, saxons and gauls cashed in on the arable lands of the Americas/
planting, harvesting and exporting/
– Cotton
– Coffee
– Cocoa
– Tobacco
– Sugar cane
– Tea
with indigenous labour the poorer of it/
began setting sights on alkebulan.
Ba Nti
Catching the times and opportunities on the rebound/
Endowed with a formidable physique and height/
– menacing mien and stout bulging muscles
With relays, scoured the grassfields/
Spreading his dragnet down to bayang kontri/
– For able human commodity fit for the plantations of the Americas
Frog matching his loot to his slave camp of mud bricks and clanking chains affixed to walls/
Sorting his human loot as a gainako sifts the best amongst his herd/
With a keen lascivious eye for luscious damsels to stock his growing harem
Ba Nti
Opened the door of his camp to the highest European bidders and intermediaries/
Who did march their human wares down to the door of no return at the shores of Bimbia.