Diary Entry 2. 6 July 1945. Remember when I told you about the fish last time?

Well, this time, I am the fish. I was taken by force. Also remember when I said there were people starting to go missing. I found out why they were. Before the sun rose, I took an early stroll as usual. But this time, something was different. Everything was quiet, too quiet. I heard fire crackling and footsteps. People were whispering to each other but I couldn t hear them properly. I snuck outside and tried to make as little sound as I could. What I saw was utterly horrifying. There were the white people dragging people out of their homes with another hand clamped over their face. The tribe leader, Azikiwe was just looking at them while receiving metal goods from the white people. I knew that there was something fishy about the white people. I knew it. A whimper passed out of my mouth and I immediately shut my mouth. But too late, someone heard it and started to chase me. I ran for my dear life, as I passed through fields and ran and ran. After all the hunting, running this fast became not much of a problem, but those white people can really run too. They also sent another wave of slaves after me. Each of them was coming from different direction. All alo ng, I was gripping the wooden carving as tightly as possible in my hands until my knuckles turned white. I tried to escape them, but there were too many people. I got cornered and they shackled me together with the other slaves. I tried to resist, but they were too strong, so I screamed at them. They just whipped me in return. There were children and women as slaves too, how could they do such a thing? They saw that I was gripping something in my hand, so they forced me to open it by whipping my arm. I dro pped the carving as the whip hit me. It hurt a lot. They laughed at me and threw the carving away. I shouted at them and which resulted in them whipping me again. They chained me with some sort of special necklace around my neck with the other people. I ov ercame with grief and pain so I did not rebel against them. Our feet were also chained together and we had to move as one. It proved to be quite difficult. All of us kept stumbling over each other. Some of them were crying, some of them were defiant. When some of the defiant people shouted at the white people, the white people laughed and lashed out their whip at them. I cried, afraid of unable to see my family again, afraid of unable to give my sister the carving, afraid of not being able to have my own li fe. How could anyone be so cruel? I thought to myself. Perhaps it s because they think they re higher than us, higher in the food chain, which worries me, because thinking that they might eat us is not much of a pleasant thought. We had no choice but to move on. The heavy necklace and feet shackles made it a lot harder. I did not know how much further did we need to walk. A guy in front of me called Modupe talked to me. He asked me if I was okay. I replied to him yes. He told me that he heard that we are going to get on a very big ship. I wondered how big the ship could be. It must be a pretty large ship to fit

everyone on there. We talked for a little while, but everything was so depressing we could not talk much. It was torture. Whenever someone falls o ver, the white people would kick and whip us. They treat us like animals, like we are under their control. Their pets. I decided. I hate them. I hate them more than anything. Anything in this world. They took me away from my family, whipped and beat us lik e animals and took away all our freedom. They whipped us all the way until we reached a building to stay for the night. It was a very large enclosed building with no windows. We went through the door reluctantly, afraid of seeing what is inside. I took a d eep breath and strode in. We went in saw that it was empty. We sighed with relief. But the relief didn t last long as the white people came in and locked the doors. Any chance of escaping is now gone. All of us hid in one corner as the white people ushere d us in by whipping us. They laughed at us and started to whip us more. They handed us fruits to eat and I thought that they might be nicer. But I was wrong; they would lick the fruit first then hand it to us or crush it in front of our eyes. Some of us st are at them in disgust, which results in more whipping. After tormenting us, they didn t seem satisfied and started to rouse us up. They started whipping our legs, making us jump which made them laugh even more. They think that pain is funny. Well I would like to see them in our place. After they were satisfied, they stopped bothering us and started to talk amongst themselves. I heard a few words, as they say vermin and rotten dogs. I was going to jump up and attack them but I knew they were going to whip me, so I stopped and just looked away. All of us started talking to each other and they silenced us by whipping us. Some of us started crying and I was one of them. I was most afraid of what would happen to my family, afraid of the white people capturing them. But most of all, I miss my family; I miss them more than anything in this world. I wondered what they were doing, what were their reactions when I disappeared. And slowly, slowly I cried myself to sleep.