A WALK ALONG THE SLAVE ROUTE

Emancipation! 

Beginning in the early 1800's, efforts to abolish slavery mounted. The last boatload of slaves sent from Ouidah to the United States arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in July 1860.  Their servitude, however, was short-lived, for the U.S. government issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Slavery finally came to an end in the Western Hemisphere in 1888 when Brazil abolished the practice.

A most visible legacy of the slave route is the vast African diaspora, which has significantly influenced the demographics and culture of many lands in the Americas.  Another legacy is the spread of  voodoo, a form of religion involving  magic and spells that is especially popular in Haiti.  "The term voodoo,"  says Encyclopedia Britannica, "is derived  from the world vodun, which denotes a god, or spirit, in the language of the Fon people of Benin (formerly Dahomey)." 

Sadly, harsh forms of slavery continue today, although not always in a literal sense.  Millions, for example, slave to survive under harsh economic political regimes.  (Ecclesiastes 8:9) And millions are held captive by false religious teachings and superstitions.  Can human governments emancipate their subjects  from those forms of slavery?  No. Only Jehovah God can do that, and he will! Indeed, his written Word, the Bible, promises that all who turn to Jehovah by worshipping him in harmony with the Bible truth-the truth that sets men free-will one day enjoy "the glorious freedom of the children of God." -Romans 8:21; John 8:32. 

Next time: Blessings "in Favorable Times and Difficult Times"/AS TOLD BY TROPHIM  R. NSOMBA

From the Awake! magazine