Room 308 Redemption Song

This is a video of us performing at today's sharing.  For those who missed seeing it in person, the words we presented prior to the song are below.  Those who didn't speak in this presentation, played other roles in the sharing.  Ask your child about how we showed a glimpse of life on a slave ship in the middle of the sharing circle.

Black History Month

Leo:  Good morning, and thank you for coming to our first sharing of 2016.

Oliver:  Today the students from Room 308  are going to sing a song to help celebrate Black History Month.

Josh:  Each February people in  the United States and Canada take time to remember important events and figures from black history.  

Leo:  Some people wonder, since Canada is so multi cultural, why don’t we have months to celebrate other cultures?  There are 25% more Ukranian-Canadians, and twice as many Asian-Canadians as there are Black Canadians.

Oliver:  We do this because in Canada people from different cultures are encouraged to remember and celebrate their heritage.

Josh:  Many communities, like Ottawa, have neighbourhoods with names like Little Italy and Chinatown, where many people from the same background live and work.

Mariko:  And many families speak languages at home that are not French or English.  Raise your hand if someone at home speaks a language that is not French or English.  

Marcus:  Wow, look at all those hands.  Many families also eat traditional foods from their cultural background, or celebrate traditional holidays.

Xue:  Most black Canadians can’t do this same thing, because they were robbed of their culture when they were brought to North America.

Mariko:  In parts of West Africa like Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Guinea, and Benin, for over 300 years Africans were kidnapped, and taken away from their homes and family without any warning.

Marcus:  These men, women, and children were tied together and forced to march to the coasts, where they were kept in large pits, or even sometimes in castle like prisons to wait for slave ships to arrive.

Xue:  When the Slave ships came, they would pay money to buy these Africans.

Grace:  They usually looked for young, healthy people who would could work hard, and survive difficult times.

Charlotte:  Once the Africans were brought aboard a slave ship they would be taken below deck so they couldn’t move around or jump overboard to get away.  

Heather:  The slaves were forced to sit or lie side by side, with ankles chained together, and often there were two or three platforms (like bunks) with people packed in side to side on each level.  

Grace:  Imagine people lined up like this.  Every bit of space in the ship would be filled, and each person was given about 40 cm of space to sit or lie in.  Sometimes the captives were not allowed to stand for days, and often they would not be able to go out for fresh air for the whole journey.

Charlotte:  A slave ship  would be about as long as a basketball court, and a bit wider than this sharing circle.  It could hold up to 450 slaves - which is over 100 more people than we have in our school.

Heather:  They would spend between one and three months at sea trying to cross the Atlantic ocean, and more than 1 in ten slaves would not survive the trip.

Ella:  On the ship sailors would separate Africans who spoke the same language, or who might be found singing songs together, because they couldn’t understand what they were saying, and they were scared they might be planning to take over the ship.

Myla:  Once they got to their destination, slaves were sold, and their new owners would insist that they only speak English.

Sadie:  If they sang African songs, practiced African religions, or were found celebrating African traditions then a slave would be punished.  

Thomas:  Almost a half of a million Africans were forced to come to North America.  Overall, more than 12 million Africans were taken on slave ships, with most of them going to Brazil or islands in the Caribbean.  

Ava:  Black Canadians never had the chance to bring their culture with them.  And for many years even their achievements in North America were not celebrated.  

Leo:  Marcus Garvey was a famous black political leader in Jamaica.  He once said that a A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

Thomas:  So each February we take time to reflect on black achievements, and to rebuild an understanding of a people who were robbed of their culture.

Ava:  This song we are going to share is called Redemption Song, and it was written by Bob Marley, who was inspired by the words of Marcus Garvey, who spoke often about the need for African Redemption.  

Leo:  He once said that Africans must emancipate themselves from mental slavery because others might free their bodies from slavery, none but themselves can free their minds.