No Going Back

Afi? Afi!? Afi! Kwaku woke from a deep sleep yelling for his sister. His heart
was pounding and his body was wet with sweat with his face full of horror. It was the
middle of the night and everything was pitch black. There was only a faint light coming
from the moon that shined through an opening to his right. A fourteen-year-old girl came
running through the low entryway.
What's wrong? Afi asked in a gentle voice as she lowered to a knee next to
Kwaku.
I had a nightmare where these ghosts had weapons that spit fire at the speed of
a cheetah. They burned the entire village to ashes. The blood stained the earth, there
was dust and smoke everywhere! The dust was kicked up from people trying to escape.
Loud bangs came from the weapon causing people to fall to the ground. With another
bang mama and papa fell to the ground, and.. and they killed them...killed them both.
They chained our hands behind our back and long wood sticks with spikes jabbing into
our throats. We then walked for hundreds of miles to a soft, pale, dirt area with large
water mounds crashing on the silk like ground. And those who stopped walking... were
left behind to die, Kwaku said in a shaky voice as he started to cry.
It was just a dream, Afi assured him. Get some sleep. Tomorrow we celebrate
our new chief, Fiavi. Kwaku slowly lowered back into the hammock his dad had woven
for him and stared at the ceiling.
Kwaku realized he was still awake after several hours. He had been trying as
hard as he could to get the image out of his head. As a distraction, he decided to get
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some pineapple for breakfast. Kwakus favorite food was pineapple. He loved
everything about pineapple. From its natural sweetness to the way it would get stuck in
his teeth. He ran to where the pineapples grow in the forest, keeping an eye out for any
ghostly people. Birds sang as he grabbed as many pineapples as he could hold in his
arms. His bare feet slowly collided with the ground as he walked back on the hard, red
dirt while roloway monkeys chased each other from branch to branch with their long
black beards and white stomachs swinging in the air. Kwaku started running back
stumbling to his hut realizing that the sun was rising over the thick forest. He ran back
into the village to the hut made out of mud and sticks on the south side. The chief's hut,
made of the finest wood, sat on the east side facing the sun. There were sogo drums
and atoke bells next to the other huts for tonight's ceremony. In front of the chief's hut,
there was a teepee of sticks for the bonfire. Kwaku ran into his family's hut tripping over
a rock in front of the entry way and dropped all four of the pineapples, making them
bruised, cracked and ruined. Afi came to the entrance of the hut seeing Kwaku with the
pineapples.
Look at the mess you made! Afi yelled disappointedly.
It wasnt my fault! Kwaku explained. Their mom walked to the front of the
entryway and told them, Only the one who kindly accepts to fetch water may
accidentally break the pot. Now help clean this up before breakfast. Afi and Kwaku got
on their knees and started picking up pieces of pineapple with their mom.
Later that day, Enyo and Foli came to Kwaku's hut and asked, Hey Kwaku, can
you come out and play?

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Kwaku turned his head and asked Mama, can I go play with Enyo and Foli?
Sure, just be at the ceremony before the sun sets. She responded from the
floor above Kwaku
Thank you Yawo! Foli yelled as he ran off to catch up with Kwaku and Enyo. As
they were racing to the coconut trees, Afi was starting a new piece of kente cloth. Each
piece of kente cloth had an animal symbol on it and had great value to that person.
Kwaku has a kente cloth with a turtle on it passed down through generations.
Kwaku, Enyo, and Foli loved to race up coconut trees and look at all the animals.
Enyo was the first one up and he saw a herd of elephants dancing in the distance. Foli
saw Antelopes chasing each other, while Kwaku closed his eyes and just listened to all
the birds in the forest. Enyo, Foli and Kwaku relaxed at the top of the tree, letting the
sun shine on their faces and the animal sounds flow through their ears.
That didnt last for long as a loud Bang! echoed through the entire village. All
three of them looked down to the village in the distance and saw smoke rising from the
huts. They climbed down the coconut tree and hit the ground running. As soon as
Kwaku got there he knew his nightmare was coming true.
Men with the skin of goats milk had long sticks that spit fireballs. Everyone was
running kicking up dust making it hard to see. Afi came running through the smoke
bleeding from her left shoulder. RUN! Afi yelled. Kwaku started running as fast as he
could, Bang! another shot went off. Kwaku looking behind him saw Afi on the ground
no longer moving. He ran to Afi collapsing to his knees like pray that was attacked,
whimpering Afi get up! Please! letting the smoke and dust surround him he dropped

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his head and let the warm tears drip down his face. Three more shots went off..then two
more. Kwaku knew that his mother and father did not make it. Defeated Kwaku sat next
to Afi letting the ghosts put the chains on his hands and the heavy wooden yoke around
his neck.
Once the smoke cleared and all who survived were chained up, Kwaku could see
all the children that died and all the families that were lost. The dirt was redder than ever
before. The huts were burnt to ash and everything was lost.
With a whip to Fiavis back and a shout of pain, the line started moving. They
walked while the hornbills beat their wings like a funeral drum. The clouds in the
distance were dark and stormy but they kept walking towards them. Everyone kept
walking, some stumbling and being whipped in the back till they stood up. Kwaku stared
at the back of the guy in front of him. His back was scratched from being whipped and
covered with splotches of opened wounds. Kwaku, just by looking at the guy in front of
him, could tell he was weaker and older than everyone else. His wrinkled, coppered
colored skin, hung from his muscleless body. Behind Kwaku was someone he could not
see, but he kept coughing on kwakus neck. Groans came from ten people with every
step they took.
Water started falling from the sky turning the dirt into mud and making it harder to
walk. Kwaku, one leg at a time, pulled his feet out of the mud with struggle. Kofi, in front
of Kwaku, fell again and one of the toubabs came up, untied him, and shot him in the
head right then and there. Everyone stopped and the toubab whipped Kwaku in the

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back nearly paralyzing him as he yelled out in pain before moving again. The yoke
seemed lighter without Kofi.
They kept marching. In the distance, lions were chasing each other. They were
happy and free. The hornbills in the tree were laughing at the long line of enslaved
people as if they understood that they had nowhere to go. Kwaku looked up at the birds
and then said to himself, I wont give up.

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