Transcendence 

By Emmanuel Somtochukwu Ferdinand

At the door leading into Badagry Museum, I was stirred by the somberness of the black air. Every whoosh of the wind was the lamentation of the dead. All the ghosts that had travelled through past events welcomed me, their necks adorned with clusters of rusty chains as pendants. They seized my wrists, thrusting me through the dark corridors of time, charting a map from the ripples on the Atlantic’s waves. As we walked along the path, I was confronted with sad stories: brothers sold into bondage in exchange for mirrors, cowries, and sugar cane. In these thin lines of history, I learnt how our ancestors, in a foreign land, poured their grief into dirges in their native tongue. This means that language cannot be silenced, even with a knife pressed against its throat. When their voices were gagged by fear, whittled down by whiplashes, a narrow opening formed between their lips, enabling secret exchanges. Here, a boy forgets his dialect and calls it foreign, only to be torn between indigenous languages in school curriculum.

BIO:
Ferdinand, Emmanuel Somtochukwu is a young emerging Nigerian poet and essayist. He has written a number of poems that have brought him to literary scenes and contests such as the Champion Educational Poetry Competition which he came out as the first runner-up. His work was also shortlisted for DKA Annual Poetry Contest. He is a scholar of language who has a keen interest in arts, humanities, and literature and also a  journalist for Lasu Conscience, a media outlet in Lagos State University (LASU).  His poems and articles appear and forthcoming in Wingless Dreamer, Eboquills Magazine, Brittle Paper, Arts Longue, D’ LitReview and The Nigerian Voice. He is currently studying English Language at Lagos State University.