Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo
A must read. An even better listen.
In the late 20s and early 30s, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, to interview ninety-five-year-old Oluale Kossola aka Cudjo Lewis. Cudjo was the last known survivor of the last known group of Africans to be shipped over as slaves. She wrote about her visits with Cudjo in "Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo.”
The book failed to be published back then because they wanted Hurston to "clean up" Cudjo's dialect (she refused) and a few "black intellectuals" were uneasy about the truth it exposed regarding the Africans' involvement. Hurston was shocked as well.
After all these years, it was finally published in 2018. And it is quite the read/listen.
Here's the gist of how Cudjo was caught: The neighboring kingdom of Dahomey sent over three men to Cudjo's kingdom and demanded half of their crops, or there would be war. The people of this kingdom did not have time to grow their own food because their main business was kidnapping others and selling them. Cudjo's King told them to take a hike. After some time, a traitor among Cudjo's people went to Dahomey and gave them the scoop on the village. Then one day, at dawn, male and female warriors showed up. The female warriors ran through the village, chopping off the heads of the elderly and tying up the young. The young who were able to escape to the gates were met by the male warriors. Cudjo's King, Akia'on, refused to leave as a "slave," and a woman chopped his head off.
Cudjo, around 19 years of age, was then marched to the coast and sold to a "white" captain from Alabama. While they marched, Cudjo had to see the chopped heads of family and friends carried as trophies. The smell got so bad that they finally smoked them. When he got to Dahomey and saw the King's house, he said it looked like it was built with skulls and bones.
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There is so much more to the book. It is definitely worth your time. I wanted to share how Cudjo got captured because it’s a side of the African Slave Trade that you rarely hear about, especially firsthand. And you can see why.
Bonus: This is a local (Mobile, AL) news interview with Cudjo's great-great-grandson. Pay close attention to what he says toward the end. It is not the narrative that the race hustlers want you to hear.