A
story of pain, tears, and brutal
punishment, but above all this is a story
of hope and most importantly - freedom!
Playing
a character called Blessing for over a
year has made me readdress who I am, why
I’m here and where did I really come
from?
There
is no fluff in this story as it follows
over six generations of females from the
time they were stolen from their homeland
in Africa to the present day. You
see how they learnt to be devious; so as
to avoid the beatings and rapings by
outsmarting their masters.
Understanding
This
year is the 200th anniversary of the
abolition of slavery. A Slave's
Story is not just for now, but something
to be shown time and time again to help
people understand what pain and heartache
still runs through the veins of the
descendants of slaves.
Just
playing the character of a slave has truly
made we question what human beings are
really capable of. To write and
research a play like this would have sent
me insane, so why? I asked the
Milton Keynes writer/director Yaw Asiyama
why?
"The
impact of slavery has always intrigued me
since I was eight years old. I have often
wondered what the world would look like
today if the slave trade had never been.
What would have been the shapes of
families and communities in Africa? Would
the effect on the west have been the same?
The shape of the currency of respect for
other races? The burden of the guilt, as
an African, on whether or not my family
were implicated in this nastiness of
history. The burden carried by the
descendants of slaves. The fact that
blacks of a lighter skin tone were given
more respect and more readily accepted.
"I
looked out of the windows of Africa to
appreciate the achievements, despite
adversity, faced by the descendants of
slaves in the west, and realised the great
brain drain that slavery had been. I
observed the mistrust at times between the
descendants of both sides of this coin. I
wondered how much of this was a political
tool as opposed to the natural reaction to
buried memory. Tribes in West Africa who
still have issues with each other, which
contradict their individual histories. Who
helped or turned a blind eye when the
raiders came along. Who gained financially
from those deal? As the ships left, the
cursed that may have been rained on
families on and tribes from the morbid
cargo. Are these the scars that Africa
carries now? Are these the burdens that
the descendants carry?
"As
I travelled more, I was fascinated by
similarities in culture. Choice of colours
and rhythm. Taste in foods and spices.
Styles of dance and laughter. The fact
that I could recognise the origins of some
West Indian folk. The fact that at times,
I could recognise the tribal origin of a
face in Montero Bay, New Jersey or Kent,
only to be told these folk were not
African. At times, while in Africa, I
would hear of the return of an American
who had traced their roots back to a small
family in Ghana. The natural rhythms of
the embrace as they met. Bodies that
recognised each other in movements and
mannerisms. Family resemblances that time
and pain had not shifted.
"Those
reunions had their own eloquence. Both
sides gained. Every one was forgiven and
freed. And everyone left. Walking taller,
feeling freer. Breaking curses and losing
shackles” explained Yaw.
