Oral tradition relating to slavery and slave trade in Nigeria, Ghana ...

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Oral tradition and the people of Nigeria, Ghana and Benin
Oh my home, when shall I see my home?
When shall I see my native land?
I will never forget my home!
My father at home, my mother at home
When shall I see my native land?
I will never forget my home!
Consistently, remarks within the oral tradition recounts of the
people across the three areas were emphatic in their view that the Trans
Atlantic slave trade saw to the carrying away into exile, a huge proportion
of the people of the continent of Africa and this has no doubt
resulted in the enforced diversity in terms of cultural orientation. Its
effect is also seen in what can be termed as bearing the similitude of a
permanent separation of the people of a common ancestry.
Along this line, another song from the Benin clearly illustrates
the forced dispersal of the people of Africa, and particularly from the
West coast of Africa:
Oh, yenfi rhen za me len homeh,
Ye da sino wai do mie
Ye firin we menu
De Yovoh wa mewi tomeh
Nu we ye gbolo le o
Onu ne le ko meo
Ye firin me he mehnu
De Yoro le wa mewi to meh
Nu weY yovoh lo le o
Onu le ku yon o
Oh yenfi o zan me len homeh
Ye da sino wai do mie
Ye no so vi, soi America,
Bu no jo tado, soi Africa
Ye no su a su le, soi Yoruba
Ngono ja si do soi Azi yeh,
O yenfi ren za me len homeh
Ye da si no wai do mie
Literally, the song which is in Egun, and of the Fon dialect, is
written here only through the ‘metal sound’ effect, laments the coming
of the Europeans to disrupt the everyday life of the Africans.The