EP 5 Breffu - No Prisoners! | Women And Resistance

In this episode of Women in Resistance, host Adesoji Iginla engages with Aya Fubara Eneli, who embodies the spirit that is Breffu - Queen of St Jan. and delves into the historical struggles of the Akan people, their legacy, and the impact of colonialism and slavery on their identity. 

Aya embodies Breffu’s spirit of resistance, recounting the rich history of the Akan, their fall from power, and the brutal conditions of enslavement. 

The chat shifts to planning and executing a revolution against their oppressors, highlighting the enslaved people's resilience and strength in their fight for liberation. 

Furthermore, Breffu discusses the historical context of enslavement, the resistance strategies employed by enslaved people, and the importance of community and unity among descendants of Africa. 

She emphasises the need to acknowledge past struggles and mend divisions to build a stronger future. The dialogue also touches on the spiritual connections to ancestors and the impact of betrayal within the African community.

Takeaways

*The Akan people had a rich and structured society.
*Colonialism led to the downfall of great civilisations.
*Enslavement was marked by brutal conditions and dehumanisation.
*The legacy of resistance is vital for understanding identity.
*Historical narratives often downplay the strength of enslaved people.
*Unity among enslaved groups was crucial for planning revolts.
*The revolution was a response to unbearable oppression.
*The fight for liberation lasted for months against superior forces.
*Understanding history is essential to avoid repeating mistakes.
*The spirit of resistance lives on in contemporary struggles. 
*All technological advancements were tested on marginalised communities.
*Historical enslavement practices varied significantly across cultures.
*Resistance was not only physical but also strategic and spiritual.
*Knowledge of the oppressor's routines was crucial for rebellion.
*Spirituality and ancestral connections played a vital role in resistance.
*Division among enslaved people weakened their collective strength.
*Choosing dignity in death can be a form of resistance.
*Modern struggles reflect historical patterns of oppression.
*Unity among descendants is essential for progress.
*Community building and strategy are vital for overcoming challenges.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Women and Resistance
01:31 The Spirit of Resistance
02:06 Legacy of the Akan People
03:04 The Fall of a Mighty People
07:18 Colonial History and Its Impact
09:35 Conditions of Enslavement
19:12 Planning for Freedom
22:25 The Revolution Begins
29:20 The Fight for Liberation
31:23 The Experimentation on Marginalised Communities
32:01 Historical Context of Enslavement
34:20 Resistance and Survival Strategies
36:30 The Role of Knowledge in Rebellion
39:07 Spirituality and Ancestral Connection
40:54 The Impact of Division Among Enslaved People
43:44 The Choice of Freedom or Submission
45:36 The Consequences of Surrender
47:24 Choosing Death with Dignity
49:

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:03.362)
Yes, greetings, greetings, and welcome back to the Women and Resistance podcast, where we uncover the stories of women who fought, seen and unseen, for Africa's liberation across the world. I am your host, Adesuji Iginla, and joined, as always, by the brilliant Ayae Fubera NLASquare, before she goes into character, where she will be embodying the spirits

of Brefu, the Queen of St. John. Welcome.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:31.32)
They can take my body.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:35.86)
They can't take my spirit.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:41.6)
No, they can't take my spirit.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:52.63)
They call me brave fool.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:58.103)
I am out there, Cuomo people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:06.21)
We are part of those who are called the Akan.

residing in modern-day Ghana.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:17.762)
We were a great people. We are a great people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:23.905)
We ruled.

We had our forms of government.

We had our structured societies.

and we were fearsome warriors. Men and women alike.

Aya Fubara Eneli (02:52.078)
Part of our legacy is that we did conquer some of the other peoples around us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:04.814)
We did enslave people, but not in the manner of what we experienced on these here Danish land, 24 square miles, 24, that's it.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:22.136)
How do a mighty people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:26.956)
governing themselves for centuries.

become slaves. This cloth, this cloth around me covering me, do you know that these people would have us work absolutely naked?

Aya Fubara Eneli (03:46.086)
Not a nakedness of where you are revered as a human being, but a nakedness as though you are a wild animal. And they treated us as such.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:04.31)
in five years.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:10.53)
these people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:15.342)
Because unlike them, I will acknowledge that they are people, though they were certainly animals in their behavior.

They captured us and on that small island.

We outnumbered them 6 to 1.

They kept capturing and bringing us to feed their insatiable greed. We grew everything. Sugar, tobacco, and cotton.

Aya Fubara Eneli (04:53.378)
How do a great people become the slaves of animals walking on two feet?

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:07.136)
we too must contend with where we went wrong.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:16.97)
our conquests and our own greed and how we started to fall away from the culture and the values that had kept us one and strong.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:33.26)
And so we had fights over succession that weakened us. And we had neighboring groups that we had angered. And eventually.

these people made their way.

Aya Fubara Eneli (05:57.977)
to our lands, our people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:05.304)
Thought that they could get a different kind of freedom, liberation from us by joining forces with the one they knew nothing about.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:23.518)
overtaken by machines of war. We found ourselves shackled.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:33.966)
and princesses and members of the royal family.

shackled alongside those who had served us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:48.654)
thrown into the bowel of what they called a ship.

Aya Fubara Eneli (06:56.312)
Headed for lands unknown.

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:18.602)
It was 1733.

Saint John.

controlled by the Danes. Today, colonized by the United States of America and called the U.S. Virgin Islands.

When you go on your vacations, do you know the history? Do you care to know?

Aya Fubara Eneli (07:55.491)
the blood of your ancestors that fertilize the fauna by which you stand and take your pictures for your social media, that's what you call it. Do you know?

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:17.768)
I breathe who was taken as a slave.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:26.03)
Do I look like I can be somebody's slave?

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:42.22)
these people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:49.046)
would feed us like you would feed animals.

Aya Fubara Eneli (08:55.722)
only to keep them strong to do your bidding.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:03.138)
They would offer us no coverings, not even when it got a little cold and windy. For they wanted, they preferred, for us to huddle together to seek the warmth of each other's bodies. Because that way, perhaps, we would bring in more human beings for them to enslave.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:35.704)
Can I tell you about our conditions?

Adesoji Iginla (09:39.768)
Please do.

Aya Fubara Eneli (09:42.859)
on this island.

where most white people did not want to be sent. Many who came to these islands.

were the degenerates who could not survive amongst the white men of their own ilk.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:10.151)
One of them, he would write repeatedly asking.

the powers of his country to let him come home. But they would never respond to his letters. And they eventually promoted him to governor.

Let me share with you some of what he had to say.

Aya Fubara Eneli (10:45.336)
Philip Gardalyn.

risen from the post of bookkeeper and merchant for the company. Because you see, it was corporations that drove most of what they call the slave trade to us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:12.878)
all across Africa. was these corporations from these now called Western countries.

Aya Fubara Eneli (11:23.736)
void by their religious orders like their so-called Catholic Church.

But he was first a bookkeeper and then a merchant for the company at St. Thomas.

one of their colonies.

and he was eventually promoted to the position of governor because it was felt that if he could come and last as long as he did, he might as well be promoted.

on Saint Thomas many of these.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:08.28)
degenerate men, they died from the bites of the mosquito.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:22.286)
on September 5th, 1733, in the midst of a prolonged drought.

on this island.

He issued a mandate.

Aya Fubara Eneli (12:43.21)
of such severity which really made it impossible for us to continue.

and not fight back.

enslaved people.

His mandate provided that liters of runaways should be pinched three times with red hot irons and then hanged.

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:23.224)
Have you ever had just a little singe from your iron or from your oven or from a hot pot?

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:38.54)
I hear some of you today in the name of.

Adesoji Iginla (13:45.347)
What?

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:46.126)
fraternities you call it. Willingly subject yourself to branding.

Aya Fubara Eneli (13:58.008)
Hmm.

What happens to a people who do not know themselves, who do not stay connected to their spirituality, to their gods, to their ancestors? What happens?

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:15.712)
is beyond a tragedy.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:20.608)
It is the thing that keeps me sorrowful even on the other side.

Aya Fubara Eneli (14:30.996)
A Negro under his mandate found guilty of conspiracy was to lose a leg.

unless the owner requested lightening the sentence to 150 lashes and the loss of the Negro's ears. My God.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:00.558)
Slaves failing to report a plot of which they had knowledge were to be branded in the forehead and to receive 100 lashes besides.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:15.978)
Informers of Negro plots could secure cash premiums and have their names kept secret all the ways they have us divided amongst ourselves.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:35.424)
Runaways caught within a week were to be punished with 150 lashes. Those of three months standing were to lose a leg. If they remained away for six months, it would cost them their lives because there were many maroons that were being fought.

Aya Fubara Eneli (15:55.17)
thievery and assistance of thieves and runaways were to be punished by whipping and branding. A Negro raising his hand against a white man must be pinched three times with a hot iron, whether he should be hanged or merely lose a hand was left to the discretion of his accuser for just standing up for your humanity. And a woman naked and pregnant.

work in the fields, what's to like an animal, lay down, have her baby and get back right back to work. my God.

Can you understand?

A burden so heavy.

Aya Fubara Eneli (16:45.332)
that you must fight.

For what type of life is that?

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:03.35)
A Negro meeting a white man on the road was to stand aside.

until the ladder had passed him. Some of you are still stepping off what you call sidewalks because it seems ingrained in you now.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:23.818)
always bow down to those who have proven to be less human than we.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:35.074)
having sticks or knives. So-called witchcraft amongst Negroes, any attempts to poison, any dances, any feast, any music, any loitering in the village after drumbeat, all were provided against.

Aya Fubara Eneli (17:53.964)
And if you happen to have become one of the very few free Negroes and you were in any way implicated in a runaway plot, you would be deprived of liberty and property. And after receiving a flooding, be banished from the land.

This mandate was 19 paragraphs long and was to be proclaimed to the beat of our drums.

three times each year to strike terror into the hearts of the enslaved.

the half famished Negro population.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:12.6)
drums called, speaking a language they couldn't understand. And we met in secret for months, planning, figuring out how we were going to bring about our freedom.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:34.486)
We of the Aquamu tribe, as they would call us, we did not call ourselves a tribe.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:45.74)
We had military institutions.

Aya Fubara Eneli (19:52.066)
We were an empire. We were skilled in warfare, iron work, and governance.

And we took the lead with planning our revolution.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:12.642)
We were a matrilineal community.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:20.266)
It was not at all surprising that a woman such as I would be at the forefront.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:43.374)
But there still some things that we hadn't quite worked out.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:52.332)
as we planned.

Aya Fubara Eneli (20:57.954)
with members of other ethnic groups, the Congo, the Igbo, and others.

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:12.524)
Stories of who we were in our ancestral land also circulated. And there was a concern amongst some of us, the enslaved.

that should we prevail?

Adesoji Iginla (21:33.006)
Thank

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:35.38)
We would set up a system.

mirroring the system we came from, that we would enslave the other Africans.

Aya Fubara Eneli (21:57.998)
Perhaps we should have been aware that first we needed to address...

the possibility of these divisions amongst us before we took on our common enemy.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:25.498)
hours of November 23rd 1733

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:36.238)
according to our plan.

Aya Fubara Eneli (22:45.934)
yes, I killed those who thought they were my master and mistress. And their children too.

and their guests.

terror briefly flickering in their eyes as the blood gurgled.

out of their severed tracheas.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:28.962)
And all across the island, we began to do what we had planned to do.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:43.628)
Many of those people, so-called enslavers, they lost their lives that night in the wee hours of the morning.

Aya Fubara Eneli (23:58.392)
but not all. Some were able to make it to the harbor and to escape to the other islands.

on the afternoon, was a Monday afternoon, November 23rd, 1733.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:18.998)
one of the soldiers.

some others who had escaped from St. John. They appeared at the fort in St. Thomas.

and poured into the ears of the devil incarnate, Godlinda Governor.

Aya Fubara Eneli (24:43.854)
the most fearful tale. They were always very afraid of us and what we could do, which is why they worked so hard to keep us afraid, hungry, unarmed, to stoke divisions between us, even as they bred us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:13.026)
The best of them he considered himself.

a more benevolent master.

Sometimes he mused that he would actually like to see us free, but he could not conceive of a world where he did not have us to do his bidding. These lazy pieces of human excrement.

Aya Fubara Eneli (25:47.532)
They still can't stand to see us free. They still cannot imagine a world, their own existence, without our bodies.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:01.368)
their beck and call. It's still about controlling us. I don't care what you think or how long you've lived or how much better the clothes on your body may be today.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:20.642)
You must listen and learn from your ancestors. You must learn the lessons or you will repeat them and you will stay enslaved.

Aya Fubara Eneli (26:42.54)
We destroyed some of the places that needed to be destroyed, but we largely kept things intact because we were going to create a place for ourselves.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:10.818)
We had carved knives from pieces of wood. We found whatever weapons we could. And when we overpowered them at that armory, we took over all their ammunition.

Aya Fubara Eneli (27:30.286)
Some said we were naive. We didn't have a sense of.

how they would muster other forces against us.

Of course, most of the stories told about what they call our rebellion, our revolution, are stories told by them. So of course they will tell the stories in a way.

Adesoji Iginla (28:00.524)
That belittles the effort.

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:02.894)
and that keeps us doubting what we are capable of doing. Should we unite?

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:23.156)
and they came at us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:40.75)
and we overcame the Danes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (28:48.366)
And then they got more reinforcement. Now the British. And we fought. Their fear being if we lose St. John.

and it might be St. Thomas and then it might keep going because we would no longer fear them. We would believe in our capabilities to free ourselves. It was imperative that they crush us.

Adesoji Iginla (29:13.763)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:20.002)
For almost eight months, we held out against their superior weapons.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:30.978)
But let me pause.

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:35.778)
Do you know?

Aya Fubara Eneli (29:43.874)
that these sorry excuses for humans.

These people who in the history of the entire world have to be the ones closest to the animals they called us. Cause you know what they do. They project. They call you what they know they are. Lazy. Shiftless. With no morals. Do you know?

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:18.808)
that they would have us.

stand around their beds, fanning them all through the night to keep the mosquitoes away from them.

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:38.584)
so more of us died.

unprotected than they did because we were their protection. Can you believe that?

Aya Fubara Eneli (30:58.754)
In what ways, my sons and daughters, are you still their protection today?

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:10.862)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:15.16)
Who do they send to fight their wars?

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:23.096)
Who do they experiment on?

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:36.59)
all of their technological advancements were tried out on us first.

Adesoji Iginla (31:45.091)
there.

Aya Fubara Eneli (31:50.05)
Brown, black, yellow, red. They try them out.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:01.932)
And without us, they would kill themselves because it's in their blood. Yeah, it is. It has to be.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:15.778)
Because though they might argue that we too, my group, our empire, the Kwame Empire, that we enslaved people.

You must understand.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:34.52)
that that word means different things in different places. We never stripped anyone of their humanity. We never attached a status to the offspring of those people for eternity.

Aya Fubara Eneli (32:57.056)
We never forbade people from rising to still be who they could be in their God-given rights.

It was not a lifetime sentence and it was certainly not one that got passed down to your children. We did not breed people as animals.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:36.46)
on set.

of our rebellion.

Aya Fubara Eneli (33:45.11)
even the cats and dogs.

roamed around with blank stares.

dazed out of their minds from hunger.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:01.902)
Many of the animals had been killed to provide some sustenance.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:20.034)
Our bodies long denied the sustenance that we needed to be strong. Nonetheless, for many of us, our minds were strong, but not full.

Adesoji Iginla (34:36.397)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:42.442)
Many of the whites who got away were aided.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:49.538)
by some of us Africans.

Aya Fubara Eneli (34:58.508)
Nonetheless, we held them off for almost eight months.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:11.246)
And then they brought the reinforcement from the French.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:18.158)
promising these men.

what would be the equivalent of thousands and thousands of dollars promising them land?

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:38.986)
men who had no hope of any fortune in their homelands.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:50.125)
make a life.

Aya Fubara Eneli (35:54.86)
out of our corpse.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:04.662)
my children. Does this not still sound familiar to you today?

Adesoji Iginla (36:13.262)
So.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:14.392)
What are you going to

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:30.656)
I was in domestic service.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:36.533)
under.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:43.608)
These good for nothing human beings.

Aya Fubara Eneli (36:49.056)
I managed movement between plantation spaces. And every time I got to move around, I took note of the terrain, I took note of the land, I watched them. I learned everything about them. I knew them better than they knew themselves.

We utilized all kinds of means.

sabotaging work in the field, poison sometimes. Don't ever believe that we did not resist. They tell you that to make you a docile, easily managed, easily manipulated people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:39.21)
I had knowledge of all their routines. I listened. I observed.

Aya Fubara Eneli (37:50.41)
I knew where their weapons were and I knew how to access them.

And I was such a great servant that they permitted me to move and they had no suspicions whatsoever.

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:14.52)
Do you announce your every move?

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:21.282)
Must the whole world know what you are planning before you execute it? Who are the strategists among you?

Aya Fubara Eneli (38:37.912)
There's a time.

make a noise and there's a time to move in silence.

And the ones who will lead the revolution are the ones who understand what the times call for.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:07.214)
We did not move alone. We did not act alone. We depended.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:18.024)
on the ways we moved in our ancestral lands. We sought out our ancestors. We were known for ancestral veneration because we understood that we were connected to something more than ourselves, both from the past and in the future, which is why I'm talking to you today and I hope you are listening.

Aya Fubara Eneli (39:45.068)
I served as a spiritual intermediary. I could hear from both sides the spirit world.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:00.994)
The ones who had gone, the ones who had returned.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:08.268)
and I could speak to them. I could carry the messages back and forth.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:19.456)
I was a ritual leader. Their words, not mine. We had our ways of doing things. And I remembered and I honored and I practiced them. And that helped to strengthen us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:40.044)
and I was a leader of my people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:49.314)
But there came a time.

Aya Fubara Eneli (40:54.318)
7 plus months of unrelenting.

pressure.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:08.142)
those divisions.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:12.568)
They started to crack wider.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:23.278)
They had other Africans coming and whispering. You know what they're going to do. You're not going to be free. They're just going to be your new masters.

Aya Fubara Eneli (41:40.386)
There was division between those of us who were more recently enslaved and could still remember and connect to our ways and those who had now been.

red. Some of them calling themselves mulattoes, thinking that somehow that white blood in them was going to save them.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:21.432)
They're going to enslave you. You're not going to be free.

Aya Fubara Eneli (42:52.504)
for too many of us because even one is one too many.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:07.682)
We seemed to think, even if it were true that the Aquanus led by Brefu was going to enslave you, we felt better to be enslaved by the white man.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:27.917)
of InBio.

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:44.566)
Is it that we had forgotten our gods? Is it that we had bought into their gods? What is it that will make a people?

Aya Fubara Eneli (43:58.83)
I won't serve my brother, even if that were the case.

But I would rather...

be an animal to a white man.

Adesoji Iginla (44:16.154)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:36.15)
many others feeling that our resistance was futile and believing

Aya Fubara Eneli (45:47.34)
The words of this eternal liars that if they surrendered, they would be spared. They marched willingly and gave themselves over to the people who had never in any way shown them that they could keep their word, not to us and not even to themselves. And what did they do?

Some would be headed on the spot and paraded.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:24.46)
Some were sentenced to work in chains for life.

Aya Fubara Eneli (46:52.174)
according to their records.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:02.424)
And when we knew that there was no way out, rather than giving them the satisfaction of taking our lives.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:16.559)
We determined how we would die.

on our feet as men and women.

as defined beans.

And even in that last act.

Aya Fubara Eneli (47:40.162)
We were instructing future generations.

I did not fear death that day. It's inevitable.

we, you, all of us in the physical realm will all die at some point.

But can you have the courage to choose your death? Will you be on your knees?

head handed to them on a platter.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:17.72)
There's only one thing they're ever gonna do. They're gonna cut you off one way or the other at some point of the, once you are no longer of use to them.

Prove me wrong from the history books. Prove me wrong.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:41.932)
We saw them approaching. We knew we were.

Aya Fubara Eneli (48:48.482)
completely cornered.

We also know that these are just physical bodies, that our spirits cannot be contained.

We watched with tears in our eyes as members of our groups betrayed us, told them where we were hiding, gave them all the information they needed.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:11.489)
into false hope.

you

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:41.9)
We affirmed who we are as human beings, as warriors.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:51.458)
We call the name of our ancestors.

Aya Fubara Eneli (49:58.306)
bid them to welcome us with open arms.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:06.966)
We told them about our struggle and they told us how proud they were of us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:18.412)
And as they closed in on us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:25.804)
I looked one of them in the eyes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:31.182)
Let's see him licking his lips.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:45.016)
suppose like a cat would when they're about to pounce on a mouse that has nowhere to run.

Aya Fubara Eneli (50:56.6)
But I had the final say. And so did all of us in that circle as we stood with our backs to each other.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:39.182)
courage in our hearts.

sears in our eyes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (51:51.758)
That was thwarted.

not necessarily because of the might of the white man.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:05.068)
But because of the virus, they had introduced into our minds.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:27.374)
And when we fight, unify.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:39.406)
Today, they write with glee.

Aya Fubara Eneli (52:50.53)
that besides what is known as the Haitian Revolution.

they were able to quell every uprising, every slave revolt.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:19.552)
I heard.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:28.096)
that they are another group of people.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:33.942)
Many with the blood.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:39.168)
of Africa running through their veins, whether they realize it or not.

who are even today being threatened.

Aya Fubara Eneli (53:55.896)
think that area is called Venezuela. I hear that today there are group of people with the blood of Africa flowing through their veins.

Adesoji Iginla (53:59.041)
Right, yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:17.634)
who still have not learned who they are, who are collaborating.

I think that place is called Trinidad and Tobago.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:35.542)
I hear that wherever we, the children of Africa, are today.

Adesoji Iginla (54:43.342)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (54:46.082)
that we still haven't figured out. We must mend the divisions between us.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:02.562)
I did not come here today to just talk about myself or the things I did or how I died.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:30.722)
that it seems to me that not much has changed.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:44.78)
little extra food here, a little extra access to something over others who look like you and that.

Aya Fubara Eneli (55:57.23)
causes you to be so afraid of losing what little niceties you have acquired?

that you would.

separate yourself from those who look like you and decide that siding with your enslavers because you're still enslaved makes more sense than overcoming the differences with your brothers and sisters and working together.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:35.0)
I wonder if I were to look into your hearts today.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:43.904)
What role would you be playing?

on that island of St. John.

Aya Fubara Eneli (56:55.746)
Would you have been fighting with us?

Would you have been a spy sharing information?

What would you have been? Would you have been one of those buying into an idea that if you just sell enough of us out, you would be okay?

Adesoji Iginla (57:20.3)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:36.214)
We must return.

Aya Fubara Eneli (57:43.854)
to a time.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:01.258)
We must.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:05.664)
Acknowledge.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:10.786)
that the ma'afa, the slave trade, the African Holocaust would never have happened if we were united.

Adesoji Iginla (58:24.494)
So.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:31.438)
You must go and make peace with your brother, with your sister.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:45.582)
We cannot control others.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:50.934)
And so if there are those amongst you.

Aya Fubara Eneli (58:56.59)
who have shown themselves to be treacherous.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:10.614)
You must not let them into the circle. They must not know what you are planning because they would be the first to sabotage.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:29.762)
my children.

Aya Fubara Eneli (59:53.922)
You must know where the water is. You must know how to coax a fruit from a plant. You must know how to produce

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:33.858)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:12.226)
because though we took our lives that fateful day.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:01:42.092)
so it may counteract the virus.

Aya Fubara Eneli (01:02:15.662)
come from a long line of women who knew their strengths.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:38.978)
Thank you for coming through. And yes, that was Braveful, Queen of St. John. You've heard the call to action, which is try and build bridges with your brothers and sisters, go into communities, the land, strategize.

Learn to keep your lips sealed. Loose lips cost lives, as they would say. And yes.

That's it. I first of all have to say thank you to everyone for coming through, for again joining us on Women and Resistance. And a special mention will go to Sister Sweetie and Miss King915 for the gift. Thank you very much. And I would also like to announce that

Sister Ayafubara NLE, when she is not embodying the role of the women we put on a pedestal week after week, she is also a and, you know, established author. And she has just written another book. And this book is titled Kwanzaa.

a celebration for home and community. And I will have you know that the was launched, was released today and available for purchase on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. And so, yes, congratulations to you. And it's also a welcome aspect in the fact that one of the key, one of the seven tenants of

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:46.766)
Kwanzaa is the right of self-determination, which is what we're trying to do with these stories here. The idea that we do not need anyone's permission to be who we are. So again, it could be the perfect gift for people in this Kwanzaa season and any other social structure season. But the title of the book again is Kwanzaa, a celebration for home and community. Available.

as of today on Amazon. That said, we've come to the end of another episode of Women and Resistance. But as is customary, next week we'll be looking at the lives and times of Marian Anderson. The lives and times of Marian Anderson. But today, back to today, we have to thank our ancestor, Braifu, for coming through.

giving us the call to action as if we need any in this life and times that we now exist in ever more so, that we now have to strategize. We have to strategize. Cannot stress that pointing off. Build community wherever you find them. And it's important to also guide yourself against outside infiltration. So that said,

Miss Briffle, thank you for coming through. From myself, Adesuji Yiginla, it's good night and God bless. Until next week, see you in them streets. Good night.