Ama - A Story of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade

On Sunday at exactly 8.30 p.m. live on Citi 97.3 fm, Writers Project of Ghana will host Manu Heibstein - author of Ama, A Story of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Manu is the winner of the 2002 Commonwealth Writers prize and was born in South Africa. Of course, he now has his home right here in Ghana. His book will be at the stands of Vidya's Bookstore at the Book Fair at the La Trade Fair, Accra. You can grab a copy there.

Ama is a touching story of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. I know many would say we have heard this narrative over and over; but, before you get to such a conclusion, let me inform you that you haven't heard enough. That what you have heard or read is only a paucity of the chunk; that what is in many of the history books in Africa (and so suspiciously, Europe too) are just no more than a few pages squeezing away what took centuries. Why it is so, or it remains so, still is befuddling. If we are to progress as a continent, or indeed as a global world where we all would not bother to look at the other fearfully because of their skin or language, we have to utterly embraced the gruesome shame of the past of which we all are guilty. This is what Manu brings to the table of the crumbs of history, to make a fuller meal - where he tells of the story of Ama so skillfully, sensibly and passionately with understanding.

As a student of History and a proud African, I fully endorse this. The opposers might have successfully expunged one of the most important aspect of Africa's history - indeed that of the Americas - to cover past sins, but we must all work at ensuring this is taught in our classrooms not for indoctrination against any colour, but as a reminder so that we shall never repeat the errors. Check out Ama here or read the Chapter One online. Or better still, tune in on Sunday to Writers Project on Citi 97.3 fm at 8.30 p.m. Below is a quote from Professor Akosua Perbi of the University of Ghana Department of History:

"I was part of the UNESCO Slave Route Project for a couple of years. In one of our workshops in Paris, we were looking at how the slave trade is taught in different African countries... And in fact there wasn’t much in the primary school, JSS, secondary only those who were in history and there wasn’t much, about 2-3 pages in the textbook. We realized there was a lot of work to be done. Interestingly, it was not only in Ghana; many of the African countries had the same experience. Apart from the U.S. where it was being taught seriously, many European countries didn’t either... So I think Manu Herbstein has done very well. It is a brave effort to bring this out and talk about the details which you don’t want to talk about."

[All emphasis mine].