#133 | Nigeria’s Rebirth: A cry for Vengeance

The Bridge of No Return

In the morning, while I was still contemplating on my project, I saw myself on the actual Bridge of No Return — not the renovated one.

I saw our fellow indigenous Akwa-Ibom people from Ikot-Ekpene; they were slave hunters and headhunters also.

They would go deeper into the hinterlands and cart off slaves, selling them at the slave port.
On the bridge, I saw a lineup of slaves, chained on their necks and on their feet.
They stood at the beginning of the bridge, the middle, and the end of the bridge.

These slaves were some who resisted and tried to flee and were captured back by their fellow indigenous Akwa-Ibom people.
Some of them were beaten or hacked to death, while others were beheaded.

As these slaves stood on the bridge, they refused and would not let mercy pass, but rather laid a curse on the land, and the curse they laid was something like:

“Mercy will not be shown to this land.
Where other lands develop and succeed,
disease and pain will ravage this land.
Our blood must be avenged,
our cries must be heard,
vengeance will be ours.”

Some of the slaves on the bridge were children, and they kept crying and wailing with some of the adults.

A curse was also placed on the daughters of the land by the virgins who had been raped, and they accused the land of accommodating the sins committed.

It looked as though an area in Ikot Abasi experiences a lot of paranormal activities, because I heard that in that particular area, there were sounds of dragging chains, moaning during the night, as well as screams and pleadings in the Ibibio language — one very different from what we speak now.

15th December 2022
Sister N.J.
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