From the Door of shame and humiliation, to the door of glory ! By Ndiawar Diop

From the Door of the ‘Voyage of no return’ to the Door of the White House!

Yesterday, January 20th, 2009, the whole world watched the nomination of Barack Hussein OBAMA as the 44th President of the United States. It was a Historical day, a day of celebration for Americans and especially for the entire black community.

Yes, yesterday, a black man crossed the doors of the White House, not as a visitor or a guest, but as a leader who will govern the destiny of the most powerful country in the world.

On this historical day, I cannot prevent myself from going back in time and from thinking about the slavery trade. While thinking about this dark page in history, only one image comes to my mind, which is that of the “door of the voyage without return” of the island of Gorée in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. 

It was through this door, indeed that thousands of Africans were taken from their native soil humiliated, treated like wild beasts and left the continent for a voyage of no return. They were torn from their country, their villages and their families, to work as slaves in plantations in America, in the Antigua, in Brazil and elsewhere.

Through this door all their projects and their dreams as young Africans disappeared. Behind them, these young, enthusiastic, strong, dynamic, energetic and vigorous people, who represented the hope and the future of a whole continent, left children, women, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters weakened by sorrow and distress.

Africa therefore saw itself deprived of its most valorous arms, of its most valiant and courageous soldiers, condemned to pour their sweat and their blood upon land which was not their own. This bleeding and cruelty lasted nearly four centuries.

By passing through the doors of the White House yesterday, Barack OBAMA to some extent restored the honor and the dignity of those first African “deportees”. 

Through a door, they left, torn by force from their land and humiliated; through another door yesterday, January 20th, 2009, a child of Africa passed to lead a country in which, formerly, our fathers and our mothers were dishonored.

Before there was shame on one side, today there is glory on the other, and the cycle is to some extent broken.

Through the door of the voyage of no return, thousands of black men passed, shouting their revolt against human cruelty; through the door of the White House, a black man passed, accompanied by his wife and their two black daughters, both radiant and joyful, appearing to erase the disrespect formerly faced by our fathers and ancestors.

Yes, through his election and his nomination, OBAMA broke all the chains, all the barriers, which people of color have felt endured for a long, long, long time.

Yes, from now on, black children will know that if they work hard, they can go to college and perhaps be someday leaders in the United States. “YES WE CAN! ”

Today, all those Men and Women, who fought to defend the dignity of black people, and often in danger for their lives, are rewarded. Their battle was not vain. Their blood, shed in defense of human rights, has helped the black community to live with hope for a new world.

Thank you, Martin Luther King, Thank you Malcolm X and all defenders of the cause of black people. As said by one African American, “Rosa PARKS sat down so that Martin Luther King could walk, Martin Luther walked so that Barack OBAMA could run, and OBAMA ran so that our children can fly. ”

Good luck, OBAMA, brother of Africa, May the prayers of all our black ancestors be with you. May the God of our ancestors’ keeps an eye on you and bless you forever.

Info: The Door of No Return in Goree Island (West Africa, Senegal) originally occupied by the Portuguese in the 1440s and a slave-trading post until the abolition of the trans-Atlantic Trade Act in 1807. In the only preserved slave house on the Island, next to the “Door of No Return” through which enslaved Africans would enter their ship bound for the Americas, the following words are written: “Through this door for a voyage without return they went, their eyes fixed on an eternity of suffering.”

By Ndiawar Diop
Then Student at University of California Riverside (UCR)
Linguistics Major and Political Science