Justice, Rights And A Need To Belong

No recount of slavery: Roots, Amistad, Gone With The Wind moved me like Solomon Northup's 12 Years A Slave. Tears rolled down my cheeks as a read his story. The sincerity in his narration is hard to describe but it pulsates and is tangible on every page. His honesty and hard work under his master shine through, never mind that he was a freeman who happened to be tricked and sold into slavery. One would be bitter and vengeful but his only desire was to see his wife and children again. After reading the book, Martin Luther King Jr's motivation to fight for Civil rights comes afresh to me.

I admire Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.'s passion for justice because it was deeply rooted in his faith. Here is an excerpt from his letter from Birmingham jail.
"Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid".

Even though slaves were African's like myself, it happened so long ago that none of my relatives (at least from the oral history past down) were slaves. My grandparents and their grandparents for at least 5 generations lived in Uganda. In America however, there is a flip of the coin. I meet black Americans who are still sore, the pain of centuries ago looms over their heads.They question who they are and where they came from, issues I don't grapple with because I know I'm a Ugandan, an Atesot originally from Usuk.