And yet I'm still alive, I really shouldn't have lived this long but I can still sense trouble coming my way. I still will be able to sense it just like a hound dog would. People assume that just because I'm old that I'm deaf or that I'm stupid,and that's not true. There must be a reason why I have still survived my way through all these different lands, when others just died from bullet shots, or they shut their eyes and simply didn't live. In my earlier days when I was free I knew nothing, I used to sneak outside my village and climb straight up the acacia tree, with my father Qu’ran on my head, I thought that maybe one day I may unlock all the mystery contained in that book. I think that was the only book in Bayo.
Many people in my country are always on the move. Women were always carrying water from the river, men working hard, and boys returning from triumphant hunts. It's a lot of work that people do in Bayo, but it was in those days that I was truly happy and free and the very idea of safety never intruded on my thoughts.
To my surprise, I escaped many violent endings as they surrounded me, but the one thing I truly cared about the most was taken away from me- my children. I never had the privilege of holding on to my children, living with them, raising them the way my own parents raised me until all of our lives were completely changed. I never managed to keep my children, that's why I don't have them with me now. I wish they were here to take care of me in my old age. Other people take care of me now, and that's a fine thing, but it's not the same as having your own children. I wish they were here with me, I just want to hold onto them.
They keep me extremely busy here, they say I'm supposed to meet so many people. Plenty of people want to know about me and they also want me to change the course of history. Well we'll see about that but if I have lived this long enough then it might just be for a reason.
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I decided to re-write and shorten the first few pages of The Book of Negroes in a subconscious style. This is what the main character, Aminata Diallo, is truly thinking. Some of the changes that I made were taking out the redundant thoughts that truly showcase the meaning of her words. For example, in the text it says,”I seem to have trouble dying. By all rights, I should not have lived this long. But I can still sense trouble riding on any wind just as surely as I could tell you whether it is a stew of chicken necks or pig’s feet bubbling in the iron pot on the fire,” but in my re-write, I simply changed it to,”And yet I'm still alive, I really shouldn't have lived this long but I can still sense trouble coming my way.” This makes it way more easier to get the point across.
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