THE DOOR OF RETURN,
DIASPORA FESTIVAL, BADAGRY, 2017

By: Comrade AYANRINNO DANIEL

They were taken away in chains, pains, discomfort, agony, and a terrible state of mind. Slaves taken from Nigeria and some other parts of West African were transported through Badagry.
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The first among European countries to have contact with the coast of Africa were the Portuguese. The Portuguese started dealing in black slaves from Africa in the 15th century starting from Senegal, Angola to Mozambique, Madagascar and Zanzibar, extending to Ghana, Ivory Coast, Garbon, Republic of Benin (Dahomey Kingdom), Nigeria, among others. By 1593, 12,000 slaves had already been sold to Spain and Italy, and by the 16th century, there were over 32,000 slaves in Portugal.
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Apart from the Portuguese, other slave owners include the Brazillian, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch and Darnish. The different slave owners had their baracoons which were small rooms where they would keep their slaves in Badagry, with about 40 slaves occupying a room. Each slave owners had signs with which they identify their slaves. They therefore used hot iron to imprint those signs on their various slaves.
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During those horrific days of slavery, Nigerians were trading with cowries an currency but the Europeans could not accept such, so they introduced a trade-by-barter system: a certain number of human being would be substituted for material goods. For example,
-40 slaves were exchanged for an umbrella
-10 slaves for a ceramic bowl
-40 slaves for a bottle of gin
-100 slaves for a big cannon gun, etc.
In order to get more slaves, the whites would visit different African communities to instigate war. After fueling the war, they would introduce war weapons such as guns, gun powder, arrows and bows etc to the Africans in exchange for able human beings.
When transporting the slaves via the sea, a huge number of slaves would be thrown alive into the sea to lighten the weight of the ship to avoid capsizing due to overloading. THE WHITES WERE WICKED, I DO NOT KNOW IF THEY STILL ARE.
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The slaves to be transported via Badagry would be transported with canoes across the river after which they would had to walk a very long distance to the seashore where the ship was waiting, with one slave chained to the other. Any slave unlucky to had gotten to that place stood no chance of escaping, nowonder the place is referred to as POINT OF NO RETURN. There, the slaves would be forced to drink from a spiritual well. The essence of that water was to make them lose their memory and become submissive.
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All blacks are from Africa but today, there are blacks in other parts of the world. These blacks are the descendants of those taken away as slaves, who after the abolition of slave trade in 1834 found it worthy to stay back in the places they had been taken to.
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THE DOOR OF RETURN.
The "point of no return" is a historical site that came into being before almost all of us living now were born. People now visit the site and still return to their respectives homes.
Today, another history will be made and it is to be called "THE DOOR OF RETURN."
-Over 100 black people in diaspora: from Brazil which boasts the highest number of African slaves than any other country in the world, Portugal, Jamaica, the Americas, etc will be directly linked to their source, they shall walk in through the "door of return" and we shall ceremoniously welcome them home.
Don't miss the Diaspora Festival, Badagry. Don't miss the Door of Return ceremony today, 2017 at Marina Badagry.