Cudjo Lewis (born Oluale Kossola) was from Guinea, West Africa. The documented stories of his Middle Passage journey on the ship Clotilda in 1860, years of enslavement in Alabama, and longing to be return Africa is a national treasure.
After more than 60 years in Howard University’s library, where only scholars had access to them, this piece of history, recorded by Zora Neale Hurston, is now in “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” (Amistad 2018).
Author and anthropologist Hurston made attempts to have this work published in the 1930s, but the manuscript was rejected, according to Tracy Sherrod, director of Amistad at Harper Collins during a 2018 NPR interview. “They wanted to publish it, but they wanted Zora to change the language so it wasn’t written in dialect and more in standard English. And she refused to do so.”
The unique rhythms and song of Lewis’ vernacular remains intact. Hurston understood the importance of Lewis’ language and how it was key to understanding him, Debra Plant, editor of “Barracoon,” explained to NPR. “We’re talking about a language that he had to fashion for himself in order to negotiate this new terrain he found himself in. Embedded in his language is everything of his history. To deny him his language is to deny his history, to deny his experience, which ultimately is to deny him, period. To deny what happened to him.”
Zora Neale Hurston was a renowned author and anthropologist in the 1920s and 1930s. Public domain photo.
Hurston began her research for “Barracoon” in 1927, holding interviews over several years. It was then that she’d met Lewis at his Alabama home, where she would arrive bearing offerings such as Virginia ham, baskets of Georgia peaches and late-summer watermelon.
When Hurston first met Lewis, she called him by his African name: Kossola; he was thrilled to hear it again. As one of the last captives to be brought to this country aboard an illegal vessel (the international slave trade was banned in 1808 in the U.S.), Lewis poured out his memories to Hurston. He was almost 90 years old at the time, and was believed to have been the last survivor of the last slave ship.
Hurston explains in the book’s introduction that Lewis is “the only man on Earth who has in his heart the memory of his African home; the horrors of a slave raid; the barracoon; the Lenten tones of slavery; and who has sixty-seven years of freedom in a foreign land behind him.”
That heartfelt literary connection to history and culture makes this book special because, as Plant explains: “Most slave narratives focus on life in this country: It is so unusual, it makes “Barracoon” a national treasure.”
Hurston wrote in a letter to Langston Hughes that she was “tired of seeing Black people through the eyes of white playwrights . . . I am almost sick, my one consolation being that they never do it right and so there is still a chance for us.”
Barracoon is “done right.”
Lewis died in 1935. He had been Clotilda’s longest-surviving human cargo.
Tamara Shiloh
Tamara Shiloh has published the first two books in her historical fiction chapter book series,
Just Imagine…What If There Were No Black People in the World is about African American inventors, scientists and other notable Black people in history. The two books are
Jaxon’s Magical Adventure with Black Inventors and Scientists and
Jaxon and Kevin’s Black History Trip Downtown. Tamara Shiloh has also written a book a picture book for Scholastic,
Cameron Teaches Black History, that will be available in June, 2022.
Tamara Shiloh’s other writing experiences include: writing the Black History column for the Post Newspaper in the Bay area, Creator and Instruction of the black History Class for Educators a professional development class for teachers and her non-profit offers a free Black History literacy/STEM/Podcast class for kids 3d – 8th grade which also includes the Let’s Go Learn Reading and Essence and tutorial program. She is also the owner of the Multicultural Bookstore and Gifts, in Richmond, California,
Previously in her early life she was the /Editor-in-Chief of
Desert Diamonds Magazine, highlighting the accomplishments of minority women in Nevada; assisting with the creation, design and writing of a Los Angeles-based, herbal magazine entitled
Herbal Essence; editorial contribution to
Homes of Color; Editor-in-Chief of
Black Insight Magazine, the first digital, interactive magazine for African Americans; profile creations for sports figures on the now defunct PublicFigure.com; newsletters for various businesses and organizations; and her own Las Vegas community newsletter,
Tween Time News, a monthly publication highlighting music entertainment in the various venues of Las Vegas.
She is a member of:
- Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
- Richmond Chamber of Commerce
- Point Richmond Business Association
- National Association of Professional Women (NAPW)
- Independent Book Publishers Association (IPBA)
- California Writers Club-Berkeley & Marin
- Richmond CA Kiwanis
- Richmond CA Rotary
- Bay Area Girls Club
Tamara Shiloh, a native of Northern California, has two adult children, one grandson and four great-grand sons. She resides in Point Richmond, CA with her husband, Ernest.
www.multiculturalbookstore.com
