ZANZIBAR (SONNETS OF A SLAVE CHILD'S QUEST FOR THE PEARL OF AFRICA) I

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"The Cross, the journey, the apology. My journey begins at this cross that once was ZANZIBAR'S whipping post for slaves - here mother was whipped to death. Here DAVID LIVINGSTONE begun the quest for the FOUNTAINHEAD OF THE NILE. 'Find the fountainhead of the Nile and you end the slave trade,'  LIVINGSTONE said. This tree of the living Cross grew out of LIVINGSTONE'S buried heart in CHITAMBO. I must walk his footsteps to CHITAMBO, then to the fount of the Nile in search of the PEARL whose loss sent my mother to Zanzibar, a slave. The evil trade is ended, the world has apologised - but not SIAYA, not my fatherland. Dying, mother named me AL NUWR w' AL JAZEERA, Sacred Flame of the ISLAND."






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