| Escape From Cape Coast Castle
During the years that slavery thrived,
an estimated 12-25 million men, women and children were stolen from the
continent of Africa. Many of these unfortunates spent their last
days at home, in the bowels of Cape Coast Castle. They languished
in dark, deep caverns that caged them by the thousands. There, they
awaited the floating prisons that would take them to unknown places and
would try to steal their humanity and voices. Their languages would
be lost - effectively silencing them for a season.
In his poetry, Ronald Montgomery
transports the reader on a journey to rediscover and revive this primal
lost voice. On this journey, he sometimes describes the mirrored
walls of self-discovery. At other times, he talks of a world seen
through bars - a world in view, but out of touch.
The real prison he shares with
the reader is not Cape Coast Castle, or the bowels of great ships.
Instead, he shares the experiences of a soul held captive by anger, passion
and pain on a journey in exploration of a cure for the human condition.
In his writing, he exhibits
an unbridled desire to look at, to look behind, and to look beyond the
walls that strive to hold the spirit captive. What he discovers is
that no walls, or jail can hold a spirit that dwarfs the vessel that attempts
to contain it. No hand holds the ocean and no mind comprehends God.
As a final offering, he exercises
what seems an unfettered imagination, and practiced storytelling skills
to repeat lore and oral history of the heart.
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