May 14, 2019 Tuesday
Bedtime Story
Mutiny on La Amistad
Once free of their metallic shackles these
Mende people who had been kept as captives for months revolted arming
themselves with cane knives which are something like a machete but specially
designed for harvesting sugarcane.
The cane knives are widely used even today
in the major cane-growing countries such as Cuba, Jamaica, Philippines, Peru,
Brazil and even in some of the states of the United States such as Louisiana, Florida
and Hawaii.
One significant way where it differs from
most other similar agricultural tools such as sickle or scythe which most of us
are more familiar with is that its deep broad blade ends with a sharp hook at
its tip that is useful in picking up the cane that has been recently cut.
The sharp fine hook at the tip can
sometimes be even more lethal as after the blow has been struck fiercely not
only would it lead to a deeper gash but on withdrawal would also rip out more
flesh or internal organs causing lasting irreparable damage than would occur
with a simple sharp blade.
Armed with just these cane knives and
desire to be freed and be returned to their homeland the Mende natives attacked
the crew killing the captain and some of the crew but sparing two of their
owners who had purchased them so that they would help them guide the ship back
to their homeland.
The revolt of the Mende tribesmen was led
by a man who is depicted in the movie as Cinque (this was his Americanized name
his real name being Sengbe Pieh) and who in the film almost single handedly
depicts the trauma of an entire Continent.
Though he is often shown to be either
silent, angry or tense and morose he in sum packs everything that Africa as a
Continent was going through.
The actor who played the role of Cinque was
Djimon Hounsou who is a Beninese-American model and was nominated in the category
of Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama in the prestigious Golden Globe Awards.
As I had said earlier the Mende captives
during the course of the mutiny while killing several of the schooner’s crew
kept their two owner’s alive to whom they were sold in the hope that the two
would help them navigate back to Sierra Leone.
But that was not to be.
Once again they were in for a surprise when
the two Spaniards deceived them by sailing the ship not south and east but up
north along the North American coast until they reached the Long Island which
now marks the beginning of New York Harbor and is about 0.56 kilometers from
Manhattan.
While in American waters the schooner was
spotted by the patrolling United States Revenue Cutter Service (essentially
Marine Revenue Department which acted both as customs and treasury to the
struggling United States that was financially in dire straits after the
American Civil War and needed alternate sources of revenue which they hoped the
robust marine trade along the East Coast would provide) ship USS Washington
which took it into United States custody.
You would all think that America would turn
out to be different, wouldn’t you?
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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