Sally Island 19

Sheba's mistress was now so dependent on her and grew very lazy, she found it difficult to do anything on her own and doesn't feel fine when Sheba was not around. Her husband being a sailor and a business man was never home. She knew people had their eyes on her  since she was the wife of one of the major key men of Mafaa Island. When she wants to have fun, she doesnt even know how and since she wasn't really free to mingle with her slave, she sat by the window most afternoons and thought about her husband and when he could possibly come back to her. "Do you know how long it is to sail to Africa and back?!" Her mistress would ask, "nah madam I don't". Knowing fully well that slaves are not supposed to know how to read.  Sheba often stares at the words she found in books, she often wonder how the Oyibo were able to say things off head without looking at the signs and symbols on leafs. But that was when she just landed and got sold to her Masters. She started catching up after some years, she would regularly stare at Mungo Park's Travels in the Interior of Africa. It wasn't easy but she often peeped from windows of school classrooms and learnt words being taught the Oyibo children. An educated slave risks loosing his or her life, so even if Sheba knew the answer to her mistress's question, she wasn't at liberty to express her knowledge. She took all the left over meals from the kitchen and snuck out the back door every evening. 

Reading had widened Sheba's mind, she started unlocking her mind to things she could even do to help other slaves that weren't as privileged. Those that worked in the farm had a different mini settlement in Mafaa island and most times weren't given nutritious meals. They mostly fed on carbohydrates that leaves them only strong for the farm work. Her mistress was beginning to loose her mind again, it often happens when her husband is away for too long, she often feared his ship had sank on the Atlantic Ocean, or he has been attacked by a certain Buccaneer and his company of anti slavery army of deck hands. His myth was known across nations and he was often called 'A certain Buccaneer'. Sheba's mistress would dwell abjectly on thoughts of her husband's  survival and get lost in her mind. At such times she will be talking to herself while Sheba will sneal away from the back door carrying food down to the settlement. Through the bushes and down the narrow road leading to the settlement, she would sneak, letting her mistress sulk well in her dismay and fear of 'a certain buccaneer'. 

The buccaneers were originally pirates who attacked Spanish ships in the Caribbean Sea. The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate. Originally, buccaneer crews were larger, more apt to attack coastal cities, and more localized to the Caribbean than later pirate crews who sailed to the Indian Ocean on the Pirate Round. Years ago some Frenchmen who were driven away from the island of Hispaniola fled to nearby Tortuga. The Spaniards tried to drive them out of Tortuga, but the buccaneers were joined by many other French, Dutch and English and turned to piracy against Spanish shipping, generally using small craft to attack galleons in the vicinity of the Windward Passage. Finally they became so strong that they even sailed to the mainland of Spanish America and sacked cities. In London, buccaneering was a low-budget way to wage war on England's rival, Spain. So, the English crown licensed buccaneers with letters of marque, legalizing their operations in return for a share of their profits. The buccaneers were invited to Jamaica to base ships at Port Royal. The buccaneers robbed Spanish shipping and colonies, and returned to Port Royal with their plunder, making the city the most prosperous in the Caribbean. But that wasn't the tale of 'a certain buccaneer', his tale was different. 

He was a disciplined man, serving under the command of Uncle Sam's cousin, John Bull. John Bull was ruthless as his cousin Uncle Sam and their grandfather Brother Jonathan. A certain Buccaneer served under him, he called himself Mudshark but the tales over the lands knew him as 'a certain buccaneer'. That was after he rose to fame, Mudshark was the only son of a slave woman who was constantly raped by her master, he was the result of the constant rape, growing up, he wasn't really loved by his old mother because he reminded her of the ugly experiences she had when serving her master. He looked more like an Oyibo than other slaves, at times when his hair wasn't grown, he was even mistaken as one, this was because his mother was also half Oyibo as she was born into slavery by another slave woman who faced similar fate as she later did. Being more Oyibo than others, it was easy for Mudshark to sneak into classes and learn with other kids. Before he became a teenager, he already knew how to read and write. One day, news got out that he was the son of a slave woman and so also a slave and slaves weren't allowed to learn how to read. Mudshark posed as a threat to the Oyibos and he was declared wanted and was even sentenced to death before he was even caught. One of the darkest nights he had been hiding, his mother advised he fled from the town away to a place he won't be found. That night, Mudshark made a chemical mixture he learnt from a book he read that straightens his hair, he applied it on his hair for a disguise and took off in the dark, far away to another settlement where he met John Bull. John Bull was a sailor popularly called Captain Blood, that needed capable hands to form a crew, and noticing Mudshark was intelligent enough, he roped him in. Mudshark always hated slavery and planned on fighting against it one day, but he couldn't, because he was now involved in the trade. 

Waiting for a good chance to break away from John Bull's pirate ship and form his own crew, he knew he now had enough men who were loyal to him, and he was the brain box of John Bull's ship, he gave sail orders most times and related in a  friendly manner  with the deckhands more than John Bull who most of the times stayed in his quarters raping selected slave girls, instead of manning the ship like a captain should. Mudshark really wanted a way out but waited for the right one. He was a loyal Sailing Master, he also assumed the role of the Quarter Master. John Bull sent him on most of the errands, tasking errands that would take more than one person to run, like delivering shipped in slaves to buyers, John Bull let Mudshark do all the work and would later take the glory. At times it takes at least three days for Mudshark to clear off sales before returning to his home. But on this day, he returned a day earlier than he was supposed to, he had met retailers from New France who wanted many salves, so it was quicker than usual, so he returned home. Walking with his bottle of rum, getting high for a good night with his wife, as he opened the door to his door, he saw his wife riding John Bull. 

Story: Nnagoziem TheVyrus Udensi 

Illustrations: Jospeh Kenedy and Chevelin Pierre