ABSTRACT
Wibari was desperate; she could not let her friend down. She must save her! So she cleverly hopped onto a little log and paddled out to the boat, then jumped onto the back of the boat, where she hid under some ropes. After much screaming and shouting, the boat began to move. The ‘heave ho’ of the sailors as they rowed out to the large ship sent a feeling of doom down into Wibari’s stomach. She somehow felt that the heaving was a sensation that would become part of the very fabric of her soul. As they moved along, Wibari looked up to see whether she could see Kinni. She was so relieved to find Kinni had been pushed to the back of the boat where Wibari was hiding. So she tugged at her dress and Kinni looked down. Her expression revealed both surprise and sadness. Big tears welled up in Kinni’s eyes and they fell down onto Wibari’s face. Poor little Wibari couldn’t help herself, and she too began to cry. The two friends just didn’t know what else to do. Suddenly the boat jolted to a halt. Wibari and Kinni became desperate, as they both realized that Wibari wouldn’t be able to get up onto the ship. Suddenly Kinni had an idea and signalled quickly to Wibari, ‘Climb under my dress and catch hold of the tassels from my waist beads. Hold on tight!’ she whispered as she showed Wibari the traditional threads tied around her waist and the tassels of beads that hung from them. She held out two tassels for Wibari to grab with her teeth. Just as Wibari clenched her large teeth around them, a rough-looking man grabbed Kinni and flung her slim body up into the air and onto the deck. He did not notice the little animal hiding under her long skirt. Luckily, Wibari had strong teeth and held on tight even though she did get a bit squashed as Kinni landed. Then Wibari quickly hopped to safety behind a large coiled rope. Kinni was wrenched to her feet and pushed over to a group of people. She could see from their faces that they came from many of the villages up the coast, but also from the inland territories. All their faces had a look of terror – a terror of the unknown, which would eventually see them land in Richmond, Virginia in America. There they would join the slave population of the living dead that would make America so great. Just as Wibari gave a sigh of relief and began to catch her breath, she was wrenched from her spot by a set of strong teeth. Before she could make sense of her situation, she was dumped onto the ground in front of a commanding-looking sea rat. Idi was the leader of the pack of rats known as the Ocean Boys. They ran the animal slave trade, specializing in hyraxes. Idi was from North Africa, or so he told the other rats. He fancied himself as an Arabian rat with the luck of a Jinn. But in fact he was just a common bush rat from Mali. He wore a gold chain around his neck with the imprint of a symbol that stood for the hyrax. A Malian goldsmith had made it for him. He worked well with the humans: they tended to their slave business and he tended to his hyrax business, each giving the other their space. The rats stayed out of the humans’ bags of grain and other
food supplies in return for space on the ship for their hyrax cargo. Of course, the humans allowed them a steady grain supply to keep themselves and the hyraxes alive on the long trip. The rats really didn’t care if any of the hyraxes didn’t make it, as they always caught more than they needed. It meant the strongest survived; it was a kind of natural selection process. As far as Idi was concerned, if a hyrax could survive the journey, then they were made of the right stuff for enslavement by the American rats. The hyraxes that were already enslaved below were singing the Great Song to welcome the new hyraxes, but more importantly to calm them down as they came to terms with their prison in the bowels of the ship. Idi was not stupid. He knew what made the world go around and it sure wasn’t that Great Song that the stupid hyraxes sung all the time. He never could work out why they kept singing that song; all he knew was that it made them docile, and that was good for his business. Idi moved around on his podium, which was in fact a large tin can. He wanted to get a closer look at the new hyraxes being pushed onto the ship. He scanned each hyrax face as the poor animal hopped past. He had a sixth sense about whether or not a hyrax would survive – he could tell by the level of terror in their eyes. Real terror would kill a hyrax instantly, but if the hyrax was going to make it, then the terror wasn’t taking them over completely and they could survive. Then there were the ones with that look of defiance: they were born to survive – unless they did something stupid, like trying to escape. And then there was this third lot: the singers of the Great Song. A strange lot! They had a blank look in their eyes, a kind of resignation to their fate. He called them the ‘Hyraxes of the Song’. It was up to fate, as far as he could work out, whether they survived or not. Fate was their determinant, and the song was their companion along either path. He wasn’t into being philosophical or even caring; it was just something he noted. On the whole, hyraxes were considered the easiest animals to catch and control, even though they were physically bigger than the rats. It was their gentle nature that made them so easy to turn into slaves. Their naivety was their biggest weakness. They just never imagined another animal could enslave them – eat them, yes, but not enslave them. It was not in their mindset. As he strolled past the new slaves, he came to the limp body of Wibari. She looked up at him and seemed terrified. ‘Silly female’ he thought, ‘but what a beauty!’ He bent over and felt her hind legs. ‘This one is strong and well fed; she will fetch a good price, Zedd, so keep an on eye on her. She’s valuable’, laughed Idi as he turned to a mean-looking rat that was following him. Zedd was also large and strong and had a thick brown coat. He was also from Mali. ‘Just look at the sheen of her coat’, admired Zedd, ‘You don’t get beauties like that too often. I’ll keep her away from that inland lot – might put her in with Tellam. Don’t want her catching their poxy diseases!’
