As the ship cascaded through the water, the captured Africans inside knew exactly where they were going and why. That their enslavers had something terrible waiting for them. But they also knew that they could turn the tables!
With chains still on their necks and ankles, they climbed their way up to the ship’s deck – and attacked! They overpowered and then drowned the enslavers, who had so arrogantly underestimated them, and watched their white bodies slide into the ocean.
When the ship finally landed on the shores of Savannah, Georgia, they clambered off that cursed boat. They didn’t know their way back home from there, and soon more whites would arrive to see the carnage they had done. They would never allow themselves to be recaptured – but knew they were outnumbered. There was only one choice to make.
They walked into the water together, choosing liberty – even in death – over enslavement! They would never bow down to those white people. According to myth, African mermaids swam to their rescue and took them home!
To determine our own fates is our birthright. The Igbo people on that ship knew this; they knew that the madness of chattel slavery was not a life worth living. They chose a dignified death, on their own terms, rather than enslavement!