The Truth

This week I'm going to discuss my song "The Truth". It is from my CD called "A Chapter of Roots" and was written during a period when I was going through hard times. Life was very difficult for me and things just didn't seem to be working out. I'm sure everyone reading this can relate. Some of us think we have our lives all planned out but things just don't turn out the way we expect. People look at you from the outside and think that everything is fine but inside you are going through a lot of pain. During these times we all find that thing that will reduce the pain. Some people turn to drugs and alcohol, others get overly religous etc etc. My strategy to reduce my pain was to attempt to minimize my daily struggles by viewing them in the light of my universal reality. I told myself that whatever I was going through can't be that bad because suffering is relative in many ways. What is considered suffering today can be seen as a blessing tomorrow. It's all a matter of perspective. I felt that changing my perspective on my life and existence would help ease my pain. I believed that the magnitude of my daily challenges would be diminished if I saw myself as this soul that lived on this tiny planet that revolved around the sun in the vastness of our universe with billions of suns. Our sun is just one star and do you realize that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand in all of the beaches in the world? Picture that for a minute and then you'll gain some perspective on your earthly struggles. It might sound silly to some but it worked for me and my struggles suddenly appeared insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

 As a singer/songwriter it has always amazed me how I can have a song in my mind, bring it into reality in the form of a recording and affect those who listen to the lyrics and melodies. I see this as a very powerful force and I've always considered humans as "magical" beings in many ways.

It is this type of thinking that strengthens my faith in God and myself and keeps me going through hard times. I try to extract from these experiences that which will help me become a better person and help me move closer towards my goals. I'll never give up my dream regardless of the circumstance in which I find myself. I refuse to allow myself to be defined by my present circumstance. I always tell myself that I'm going through a phase. Several years ago I started researching and writing......searching for the truth about my world and my existence. This song "The Truth" was borne out of this experience. "The Lord is my light and my salvation.... whom shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid". This was taken from psalm 27 which many Christians view as a powerful psalm to be read in times of difficulty. I continue "but sometimes I wonder why life's so hard....sometimes I wonder why life's so rough... and I cry". This crying has led to a lot of thinking about my life, our world, our reality and what really is the truth.

I was raised as a Christian and I love science and philosophical thought. I use them to help me understand my life and the world around me. I believe that when Christianity says that God created us in his likeness and image it doesn’t refer to our physical likeness but our ability to be creators... to bring into existence that which is in our minds. Look at the world around us and that seems very clear. What we take for granted now would have been considered "magic" not too long ago. Imagine telling a cave man that you can let him/her know what is in your mind without speaking. That is what writing does. It transfers our thoughts to other people without uttering a sound. Imagine telling someone a few years ago that you can talk to someone in a distant land across the seas and actually see them at the same time. It would be considered "magic" but that is what our technology can now do.

In "The Truth" I teamed up with a brilliant young African American poet called Khaos 9x who approached the song from an Islamic perspective to discuss the suffering that we all go through in our lives. Everyone reading this has gone through difficult times and hard struggles and it does make you wonder and ask the question why me? Why is there so much suffering and pain in the world if there is a God? I believe these are legitimate questions. I've come to the conclusion that the reason for pain and suffering in the world is for us to understand love and goodness. Imagine a world where everyone was feeling love. In that world we wouldn't know love as we now know it because it would be the norm and wouldn't be considered special. Love becomes the love we know and respect in the presence of evil and hate. If you look at the force that holds the universe together it is the force of gravity. Gravity is a force of attraction. I see love as an aspect of that same principle. Love is what can hold humanity together and it is an attractive force. When you love someone you want to be physically close to that person. But the force of attraction can only be understood in the presence of repulsion. When you hate someone they repel you and you don't desire close physical contact with that individual. These are some of the universal principles that I believe exist on  different levels. Again... a matter of perspective. You can only understand the power of light when faced with darkness. These emotions that exist beyond the realm of the material is what life is about. In the words of Bob Marley and the biblical verse of Ephesians 6 verse 12, it is said that we don't face a battle against flesh and blood but of spiritual wickedness in high places. I think that in the realm of consciousness lies another aspect of the truth. Just like there is an electromagnetic field that permeates the universe, I believe there is a field of consciousness that permeates the universe. It is in this field that the battle for our minds and souls exist.
　
What is the truth? In this case I’m talking about the truth about the reality of our existence. What are we as human beings? This has been an elusive pursuit from the beginning of human existence. Religion, spirituality, philosophy and science have all been used to seek the truth and in many cases they have been able to uncover certain aspects of the truth but we still don’t know anything close to “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”. In my song “The Truth” I sing about “The teachings of Jesus, the teachings of Mohammed, the teachings of the Torah, the teachings of Buddha, the teachings of philosophers, quantum physics, photons, neutrons, quarks….so much confusion about religion”.

One thing that we have to understand is that as human beings we have limitations in the understanding of our universe. We depend on this understanding through our five senses (smell, taste, touch, hearing, sight ) and some may say a sixth sense (intuition). As humans we can only hear sound that falls within a frequency range of about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. We can’t hear anything beyond that without some external device to detect it. This doesn’t mean that the phenomenon we call sound doesn’t exist beyond these frequencies it just means that we can’t hear them. All of our senses can only respond to a slice of the reality of our universe which begs the question can we ever know the truth?

People who claim to have all the answers need to step back for a minute and chill. We all need to reclaim some basic humility. There was a time when scientists thought they had discovered the truth by claiming that the universe worked by obeying Newton’s laws and Einsteins theory of General Relativity. The amazing thing is that it is part of our truth and experiments have been able to demonstrate it. However, it is only the truth when we deal with large objects of matter. Scientists figured out that when it comes to smaller aspects of matter in the subatomic world these laws don’t apply. They thought they had figured out the truth but they were wrong. They came up with new laws and a field of quantum mechanics that describes how matter and energy interact at the subatomic level. The holy grail for scientists is to reconcile both of these very different laws into a universal law. They think they can find the answer. I’m not too sure about that and my reason is simple. Our premise is that there is this one truth for everyone and everything. How do we know that is the truth?

What I find most fascinating about quantum physics is the fact that matter at the subatomic level exists both as a particle and a wave form. In fact the weird reality of our universe is that sub atomic material exists as waves until observed by human beings. When we look at subatomic waves they "magically" become particles. In other words we participate in the creation of matter. This is real science which tells us that our reality is actually stranger than fiction. Scientists have been trying to figure out what is in the nature of these subatomic particles that make them behave the way they do when observed by human beings. For me it begs the question what is it about human beings that can convert subatomic waves to particles by just observing them. Observation is just the activity of our consciousness so it is our consciousness that creates these particles. Hmmm.......

If we look at religions like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, they all claim to know the truth. They do help us understand certain aspects of the truth but most people are becoming aware that religions don’t answer all questions. I do believe there is a God and my logic is quite simple. I find it more strange to believe that we are the only conscious entities in this universe than to assume that consciousness is in some way a fabric of our universe. The universe is much too vast to assume that it is only earth that has this most amazing thing called consciousness. Think about this for a minute. Find one good reason why consciousness should be only confined to earth? If we assume that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of our universe then it would be logical for consciousness to manifest itself in other ways. Without getting into too much detail you can see where I’m going with this. I see God as the grand superior consciousness of our universe. This is an aspect of the truth as I see it. Enough of this for now....lets get back to the music. I have to figure out what my next posting is going to be. Until then have a wonderful time.

Heal Our Nation

The idea behind this blog is to give current fans and potential fans a unique insight into my music, my experiences, my thoughts and the stories behind them. This is something that you may have never experienced before from a singer/songwriter. I will take one of my songs and walk you through the lyrics and the stories behind the songs. I will also discuss my perspective on ideas relevant to the song in question. In the process you will get to know more about me and my music. I hope you will enjoy these postings and share them with family and friends.

As we go on this journey together we will go beyond Sierra Leone and explore other issues and themes but I think it fitting to start off with my home, Sierra Leone  and branch out from here. My first blog was about The Black Loyalists, refugees from the American Revolutionary War who became the founders of Freetown. This blog post will be about a song I wrote called "Heal Our Nation" and my visit to Sierra Leone this year. This particular song is dedicated to Sierra Leoneans and friends of Sierra Leone. "Heal Our Nation" was recorded live in September 2010 at the Montgomery College Performing Arts Theatre in Silver Spring Maryland.

In the summer of 2010 I got a call from Dr. Fuambai Ahmadu, an anthropologist, and also the owner of the Miss Sierra Leone USA Pageant. She is a big fan of my music and asked me to perform at her Miss Sierra Leone USA pageant in September. She wanted to bring a different vibe to this years event, and had previously interviewed me for her magazine SIA. I agreed to perform.

SIA




As I was putting together my set list for the concert I dusted off one of my old songs and decided to rework it. This song became "Heal Our Nation" and is being officially released with this blog. The pageant was quite successful and a new Miss Sierra Leone USA was crowned, her name is Marie Mansaray. In April of this year I got another call from Fuambai, inviting me to join the Miss Sierra Leone USA delegation in a homecoming visit to introduce Marie Mansaray to Sierra Leone as part of Sierra Leone’s 50^th Independence Annivesary celebrations and to launch some local community initiatives. Her organization MSLUSA (Miss Sierra Leone USA) was trying to promote a corporate/community/diaspora collaboration with the diamond company Koidu Holdings that underwrote the trip.
Sierra Leone is celebrating or commemorating, depending on your perspective, its 50^th year of independence from Britain and throughout 2011 there are many events that have been scheduled. The theme of this homecoming visit was called "Heal Our Nation" which was quite appropriate considering what our country has been through over the years. This is definitely a time when all different factions and segments of our society need to come together to focus on our future, and the development of our nation.

April 19th 2011
I left the United States on April 17th and spent a day in Ghana. When I was in Ghana I spent the night at a friends house. His name is Kwame and he lived near the airport which was very convenient. Kwame was introduced to me by a mutual friend Irvine King, and while I was there I gave Kwame a copy of my Black Loyalist CD. There is a reason I mention this. Anyway, I left Ghana on the 19th and travelled on the same flight carrying Marie Mansaray, and when we arrived at Sierra Leone's Lungi airport we had a pleasant suprise. We were met by native bondo dancers who traveled all the way from Kono to welcome us. They gave us a lovely and enthusiastic welcome. We then squeezed into a local water taxi (which was a very adventurous trip) with a Chinese delegation and Mahen Bonetti, the director of the African Film Festival in New York. She was also in town to take part in the official 50th celebrations. The water taxi took us to Freetown.



Freddy Shabaka and Dr. Fuambai Ahmadu

 We stayed at one of the local hotels called Barmoi where we were well recieved by the staff. Our stay at the hotel was very interesting as we met a lot of fascinating people including hollywood actor Isaiah Washington formerly of Grey's Anatomy. Isaiah Washington had done DNA testing that showed that he was a Sierra Leonean and he was in Freetown to take part in the 50th celebrations and also to promote his new book called "A Man from Another Land".



Freddy Shabaka and Isaiah Washngton

April 20th
We spent the day resting and at some point I decided to get some swimming lessons at the hotel's pool (yes I can't swim...I had a traumatic experience when I was 11 and stayed away from the water). A young man who was also staying at the hotel saw me struggling and offered to give me some free lessons. I readily agreed and for the next hour I became his student. After our lesson I asked him what he was doing in Freetown as he had a British accent. He told me he was a film maker and his name was Adrian Cline-Bailey. He was a Sierra Leonean who left as a young child and this was his first time back. He was in town to film a documentary about Sierra Leone and the 50th celebrations. I told him that I made music and gave him a copy of my CD's. Later in the day he sought me out and told me that he really enjoyed my music and wanted to interview me that evening as he was leaving for London in a couple of days. We did the interview and he decided to text his father who lives in Europe. He told his father that he had met this musician in Freetown and was doing an interview. The next day he literally ran up to me to tell me that his father knew me from the Freetown music scene in the 1980's. I then found out that his father was the drummer for our band in college. Some friends and I had formed a band called "Fusion" at Fourah Bay College in Freetown and we had a drummer called Melody. My swimming teacher was Melody's son....this blew our minds. What a strange coincidence.



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April 21st
We visited SLBC (Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation) where I gave them a copy of my "Heal Our Nation" video and Miss Sierra Leone discussed her homecoming and maternal health campaign called "Yeri we cry" which means "Hear our cry". We also paid an official visit to the Vice President of Sierra Leone and met with the 50th Anniversary Committee organizers. The day had been very busy and quite productive and we got back to the hotel late in the afternoon. When I arrived at the hotel I recieved a very interesting call from Ghana. It was from the King of Aburi, the Ghanian ambassador to Equatorial Guinea and the Vice President of Ghana. Apparently they were at the Kings palace jamming to my Black Loyalist CD (The CD I had given to Kwame) and they called me to tell me how much they loved my music. It was then that I found out that the King of Aburi and the Ghanian ambassador to Equatorial Guinea were Kwame's brothers and he had taken my Black Loyalist CD to the King after I left. This really made my day because thats the reason why I make music in the first place, so I can touch the souls of those who listen.

April 24th/25th
We went to a couple of fashion shows and pageants and we saw some very beautiful Sierra Leonean women. I have to say that the judges in one of the pageants really got it wrong. The young lady who represented Kono district was clearly the smartest and prettiest among them but she didn't win 1st, 2nd or even 3rd place. What a travesty!!! Nearly everyone ended up complaining and questioning the motives and judgement of the panel. This young lady was clearly the winner.

The Sa Lone beauty that should have won

                                                                       

 
April 26th
We went to the official state banquet where Miss Sierra Leone was to play the Sierra Leone national anthem on her cello. I was not scheduled to perform but I did accompany Miss Sierra Leone USA, Miss Kono USA and Dr Ahmadu to the event. When we arrived at the banquet, the MC for the event, Agibu Jalloh,  told me that he was going to put me on the spot. He is a Shabaka fan, and demanded that I perform that night. I ended up singing "Heal Our Nation" for the President of Sierra Leone, the First Lady, the Vice President of Sierra Leone and other distinguished guests including some heads of state and about 1,000 other guests. After the performance many people came up to me and expressed their appreciation for the song and its lyrics acknowledging that our people and our leaders needed to hear this message.

Marie Mansaray (Miss Sierra Leone USA) playing the cello at the state banquet

Freddy Shabaka singing Heal Our Nation at the state banquet



Freddy Shabaka singing at the state banquet





April 28th
We attended the Women of Excellence Awards at the Country lodge in Freetown. It was organized by a childhood friend of mine Isha Johanssen and it was quite a glitzy affair. Marie also played the cello at this event and was joined by another childhood friend of mine and an incredible jazz musician Gwyn Jay Allen as they sang the Sierra Leone national anthem. There were several distinguished guests at the event including the First lady of Sierra Leone, the Vice President of Sierra Leone and Hollywood Star Jeffrey Wright of Casino Royale and Source Code fame. He is now serving as Sierra Leone's "Peace by Piece" ambassador for the 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations.

Sierra Leone's First Lady entering the Women of Excellence Awards

Marie and Gwyn Jay Allen performing at the Women of Excellence Awards in Freetown

We had a lot of fun during our visit to Sierra Leone and when I got back I was asked to sing "Heal Our Nation" for the annual NOSLINA (National Organization of Sierra Leoneans in America) awards banquet. NOSLINA is the pre-eminent Sierra Leone organization in the United States. On May 28th I was also asked to sing "Heal Our Nation" at the official Sierra Leone embassy banquet at Martins Crosswinds in Greenbelt, Maryland where we were graced by the presence of NFL football star Madieu Williams and Hollywood star Idriss Elba, both of whom are Sierra Leoneans.

Freddy Shabaka singing at the Sierra Leone Embassy banquet for the 50th anniversary celebrations

My little "Heal Our Nation" tour ended a few weeks ago and now I'm ready to really get the show on the road. In the song I call on Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora to go back home. Many of us came to the west to better ourselves with the intention of going back home and for one reason or the other we got stuck. For some of us it is understandably not a practical proposition, but there are those of us who can make some adjustments in our lives and make the transition. In talking to people I do sense a strong desire to go back home and I also believe that there is a reverse exodus from the west that will continue to grow. I'm sure it will continue over the next decade and beyond. Sierra Leone needs us, Africa needs us.  Our country needs all the resources we can bring to bear so we can make it the place that we want it to be. But first we have to “get off this plantation”, “decontaminate our minds" and “we have to change the way we live and care for one another”.  I believe that the main problem we face as Sierra Leoneans is the state of our collective minds. We really have issues. However we do need optimism and have to believe that things will be alright if we are going to change the state of our nation; children are suffering, people are dying, teachers can't teach if they can't get paid and it goes on and on and on. We have our share of problems but one thing that cannot be taken from us is our power to change our own reality. This is not blind optimism but an enduring faith in the human spirit and our ability to change our actions by changing our thoughts. This is where we must start. I have faith in Salone people.

In my next blog posting we'll look at a song called "The Truth" from my album "A Chapter of Roots". Until then have a wonderful time.
 

The Black Loyalists

 

As we celebrate American Independence on the 4^th of July I think it fitting to write about the founding of America and the founding of Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone, especially given that this year marks the latter's 50th Independence Anniversary from British colonial rule. The relationship between these two events and how much they are intertwined gets lost on us as we let an important slice of history fall between the cracks. The founding of Freetown came out of the seeds of the American Revolution when then Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation that promised blacks their freedom if they crossed the lines and fought for the British against the patriots led by George Washington.
At the time, the American colonies were resisting British imperial rule and were determined to fight for their liberty. This, of course, had its contradictions as these Americans had enslaved Africans who were in no stretch of the imagination considered liberated. Even though Thomas Jefferson and many of the founding fathers appeared to abhor slavery, they were slave owners themselves and resisted freeing their slaves. Although the founding fathers appeared torn with this contradiction of slavery, their slaves were fully aware of what liberation meant. So, following Lord Dunmore's proclamation, thousands of slaves rushed to pick up arms. Lord Dunmore was no abolitionist; this was a tactical move on his part considering that the British did not have enough troops. The patriots were terrified of the prospect of a slave rebellion, which would have been a military disaster on their part. They reciprocated by allowing blacks “under certain conditions” to fight on their side. Thus, the main question for the slaves was, “should I fight for the Americans or should I fight for the British”. The slaves that fought for the British were called the Black Loyalists, some of whom later became the founders of Freetown.

It is interesting to note that among the slaves who went to Freetown was Harry Washington, who was owned by George Washington and was around 60 years old when he arrived in 1792. Another Black Loyalist was a slave called Ralph Henry who ran away from Patrick Henry in 1776. You may remember Patrick Henry from his famous statement, “Give me liberty or give me death”.  Another Black Loyalist was David George who was one of the founders of the first Black Baptist church in America. There were many others including a blind preacher called Moses Wilkinson who was known as “Daddy Moses” and Boston King who was a carpenter and ship builder.  However, my focus today is on the Black Loyalist leader, Thomas Peters.

Thomas Peters

Thomas Peters was captured in Nigeria in 1760 and brought to North Carolina as a slave. He was a very rebellious slave and refused to accept his predicament. He was sold several times and then one day he heard the proclamation of freedom made by the British. He crossed enemy lines and became a sergeant in the black British regiment called the Black Pioneers. As we all know the British lost in 1783 and these Loyalists which included both blacks, whites and Indians, were evacuated to Canada to a place called Nova Scotia. What I find interesting is that in the history that we are taught in Sierra Leone, the founding of Freetown starts in Nova Scotia.  Most Sierra Leoneans fail to ask where Nova Scotia is located and how did these blacks get to Nova Scotia? Indeed, they were refugees from the American Revolutionary war. The relationship betwen Sierra Leone and Nova Scotia cannot be understated even though there has been little contact between both communities. I was in touch with the development manager at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Nova Scotia, John Hennigar-Shuh, and he played the Black Loyalist video at the official reception for the 225th anniversary of the Black Loyalists arriving in Nova Scotia. He said that the people loved it and it helped to "globalize our celebrations". It is incumbent upon us as Sierra Leoneans to further explore our historical ties.
When the Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia they became extremely disillusioned as the promises made by the British went unfulfilled. The blacks had been promised land and basic sustenance but ended up living in poverty and in some cases as indentured servants while the white loyalists received the large portions of land and food. Some blacks were actually re-enslaved as the whites refused to treat them with any respect or dignity. The Black Loyalists refused to accept there condition as they had shed blood and fought valiantly for the British in return for their freedom and they were unwilling to accept anything less than what was due them. They vigorously protested their situation and chose Thomas Peters as their leader. Below is a link to the actual petition written by Thomas Peters.


http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/black/blkpet1.htm
(The Online Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies)


In 1790 Peters was sent on  a mission to take the petition to London and demand that the British honor their promise. Peters traveled to London to deliver this message at an enormous risk to himself as the slave trade was in full force during this time and he could have easily been captured and sold back into slavery. When he got to London he was able to find his former commander General Henry Clinton who used to be one of the leaders of the British forces in North America. General Clinton felt obligated to introduce Thomas Peters to the leading abolitionists of the day. During this period, as the slave trade was wreaking havoc on the African continent, the abolition movement in England was gathering steam with people like Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and others. These abolitionists had thought of a scheme to create a settlement in Africa where blacks and whites could live together in equality. It was their sense of what a “democratic” nation should look like. A botanist by the name of Henry Smeathman who was doing research on ants in Sierra Leone between 1771 and 1774 suggested to the abolitionists that the country would be a perfect place for their new settlement. Smeathman at the time lived on Banana Islands which was governed by the Caulker family.

Granville Sharp

As the American Revolutionary War was raging on, many white loyalists left America with their slaves to go to England. Many of these slaves were able to run away when they got to England and became known as “the black poor” because they were living on the streets; destitute and homeless. This was so because in 1772 Chief Justice Mansfield had ruled that it was illegal under British law for a slave master to forcibly remove his slave from England and sell them into slavery. This decision came down after Granville Sharp took up the case of a runaway slave called James Somerset. The abolitionists seized upon Smeathmans idea and in 1787 Granville Sharp and the others sent the first set of “black poor” to Sierra Leone and called the place Granville town. This perilous journey included a little over 300 blacks and 100 whites and they called their new home the “Province of Freedom”. These settlers included a runaway slave from Philadelphia called Richard Weaver who became their governor and chief magistrate.

The mission was unsuccessful and Granville Sharp's dream failed. There was chaos in Granville Town; the settlers faced extraordinary hardship as they tried to build huts in the jungle with wild animals roaming about and preying on them. The rains were treacherous and disease spread quickly. The settlers were dying daily and to compound their problems there was a conflict with the local Temne chief, King Tom, who is reputed to have sold two of the settlers back into slavery. His successor, King Jimmy, burned down Granville Town after some British sailors burned down one of his towns. As the conflict raged on there were also stories of some of the settlers escaping the chaos of Granville Town and going to work at the slave depots on Bance island.  It is important to note that even though King Tom and King Jimmy wreaked havoc on the new settlement and were actively engaged in the slave trade, King Naimbana, their leader, was opposed to the slave trade but conceded that he didn’t have the power to stop it. In fact one of the settlers named Elliot Griffiths became the interpreter for King Naimbana and married his daughter. Naimbana was a savvy leader and realized that "western" education was crucial to enable them to interact effectively with Europeans because of their predominant influence in trade.  He sent two of his sons to Europe to study.

King Naimbana

Granville Town had become a failure and Granville Sharp was looking for new blood when he met with Thomas Peters.  When Peters told Sharp that he wanted to take his people in Nova Scotia to Africa it worked perfectly into the abolitionist's plan. Thomas Peters left London in 1791 with John Clarkson who was the younger brother of Thomas Clarkson and also a Navy Captain. The abolitionists chose John Clarkson to lead the mission because he was needed for logistical purposes as it was a tremendous feat to organize these ships and the journey. They also concluded that the young Clarkson was also needed because he was white, and the  Nova Scotian officials would not have looked kindly on a black man leading such a mission. This became evident when Peters and Clarkson arrived in Nova Scotia and started rallying support for their trip to Sierra Leone. The response from the blacks was tremendous as many of them fantasized about going back home. They saw this in biblical terms and talked about “going back home to Zion the promised land”. The churches were packed and blacks traveled for miles to hear Clarkson, Peters and the preachers like David George and Daddy Moses talk about going home and being free. The Governor of Nova Scotia quickly realized that if he didn’t undermine this trip nearly all of the blacks would leave and this would have devastated the economy so he did everything he could to sabotage the journey. However, on the 15^th of January 1792, Thomas Peters and John Clarkson led 1,196 blacks in a flotilla of 16 ships, to found a new settlement, which they called Freetown and which is now the capital of Sierra Leone.

John Clarkson

When they arrived in Freetown there was an instant leadership struggle between Peters and Clarkson as both of them saw themselves as the leader. This struggle often became intense and Clarkson challenged Peters to a duel under the cotton tree in the middle of Freetown as he felt extremely threatened by Peters assertion of leadership. Unfortunately, Peters died within six months of their arrival and Clarkson was prevailed. Our history books tend to focus more on Clarkson's leadership and belittle the role played by Thomas Peters who was the one appointed by the blacks in Nova Scotia to represent them in England. I personally feel that we should not forget the legacy of people like Thomas Peters who went through an ordeal we could only imagine, to achieve their dream. He and the other Black Loyalists embody the true resilience of the African spirit which has made us hopeful and fueled our survival even when during moments in our history that we could see no light at the end of the tunnel.

On a personal note, I stumbled upon the story of Thomas Peters when searching for my slave ancestor Thomas Bright, who is my maternal grandmother's (Mama Amy) grandfather and who came to Sierra Leone as a preacher. After I wrote the song I went to a good friend of mine Adrian "Netty" Fraser who does graphic design work for me and told him about my exciting discovery. He then told me that he was a descendant of Thomas Peters. His now late mother put together a family tree which he gave me. As I was looking at the family tree I noticed a common relative. My mother had told me that Thomas Bright married a Mrs Peters whose husband had died. I later figured out that my ancestor Thomas Bright appears to have married the widow of Thomas Peters. It is amazing how the spirit of our ancestors lives on through us.

There are several books that tell the Black Loyalist story including the most recent one by an associate professor of history at Harvard University, Maya Jasanoff. Her book, "Liberty's Exiles, American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World", was published by Knopf (a division of Random House) and released this year (2011). The book's focus is more on the White Loyalists but she does tell the story of the Black Loyalists quite well and I'm proud to have made my little contribution to her effort.



There have been other books like "Rough Crossings" by reknowed British Historian, Simon Schama, who teaches at Columbia University. It was Schama who said that the reason Thomas Peters is not in the pantheon of African American greats like Frederick Douglas is that he fought on "the wrong side" during the revolutionary war. Another fascinating book is by an Australian Professor, Cassandra Pybus, called "Epic Journeys of Freedom" and she goes into detail about the stories of "runaway slaves" of the American Revolution. These books were all published within the past few years so their appears to be a resurging interest in this "untold story" of the American Revolution. There are other books that have been published including "From Slavery to Freetown: Black Loyalists after the American Revolution by Mary Louise Clifford, John Peterson's "Province of Freedom, A History of Sierra Leone", James Walker's "The Black Loyalists, The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone", and many others. There is even a work of fiction by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill called "Someone Knows My Name" that tells this story. I will try to give a complete listing of books and websites about the Black Loyalist story and I'm sure I'll get help from readers. It is important that we keep these stories alive as we carry the blood of these people in our veins. As part of Sierra Leone's 50th anniversary celebrations in December 2011, we have embarked on what we call "The New Black Loyalist Project", which will bring together Sierra Leoneans,  Sierra Leonean descendants, and friends of Sierra Leone who live in the Diaspora, for three days of festivities in Freetown. There will be several events that will both entertain and educate as we celebrate the Black Loyalist story and other aspects of Sierra Leone history and culture. The festivities will also include music concerts that will also feature me and my band. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

This is my first blog posting and over the next few months I will be taking one of my songs and posting a blog about the song, its lyrics and any behind the scene stories or issues surrounding the song. I hope you enjoy my postings and my music. The CD is $12 and you can purchase an individual song for just $0.99. Click on my music store below, register with cdbaby, and enjoy the music. Please stick around  and join me for this ride into my world of edutainment.



　
　Shabaka Sounds website   http://www.shabakasounds.com/