Echoes of Horror

By Camille

African American Spirituals are the harrowing screams of longing, loss, and hope in the midst of oppression. From the troubling grounds to the constraints at the ankles to the trickling blood, sweat, and tears accumulating in the veins of the captured and abused, the shaking fear of the unknown but the unwavering trust in the lord to be delivered just like Daniel from the Spiritual "Didnt My Lord Deliver Daniel", based on the biblical passage Daniel 6:1-28 regarding the powers of the Lord to bless those who remain faithful even through hard and hostile environments. I would hardly regard slavery, any type of slavery as a hard and hostile environment because that doesn't encapsulate the evil of such occurrence. But how can you capture that? There aren't enough words to express this. The reality of slavery and oppression against Black people and Africans is one of unimaginable cruelty, dehumanization, and suffering. Enslaved individuals were forcibly uprooted from their homelands, torn from their families, and subjected to brutal voyages across the Atlantic, often packed like cargo in the holds of ships. Upon arrival, they were sold as property, stripped of their identities, and subjected to relentless labor under the harshest conditions.

The daily life of an enslaved person was marked by physical and psychological torment. They endured backbreaking work from dawn until dusk, under the constant threat of violence. Whippings, beatings, and other forms of corporal punishment were routine and used to instill fear and enforce obedience. Women faced the additional horrors of sexual exploitation and abuse, their bodies treated as mere objects for the pleasure and profit of their oppressors. Families were routinely torn apart, with husbands, wives, and children sold to different owners, never to see each other again. This destruction of familial bonds was a deliberate strategy to prevent unity and resistance. The enslaved were denied education and forbidden from practicing their cultures and religions, further erasing their identities and heritage.

Despite these brutal conditions, enslaved Africans and Black people exhibited incredible resilience and resistance. They formed tight-knit communities, preserved their cultural practices in secret, and found ways to resist their oppressors, whether through subtle acts of defiance, attempts to escape, or full-scale revolts. The legacy of slavery has left deep scars, perpetuating systemic racism and inequality that continues to affect Black communities today. The history of slavery is not just a tale of human suffering and cruelty but also a testament to the enduring spirit and resilience of those who endured such profound injustices. If you have ever listened to "Sinner, Please Don't Let This Harvest Pass" by Jessye Norman and the New York Philharmonic that grit in her voice, that velvet, the dark purple-hued, force of vocal regal stature and commanding presence, filling the room with an aura of reverence and anticipation.

With each note that emanated from her lips, it was as if time stood still, her voice resonating with a haunting intensity that pierced through the hearts of all who listened. The richness and resonance of her tone conveyed the weight of the song's message, carrying the listener on a spiritual journey through the depths of human experience. As the lyrics unfolded, Norman's performance became more than just a mere rendition of a song; it was a soul-stirring invocation, a call to repentance and redemption that reverberated through the halls of the concert hall. Her impeccable vocal control and emotional delivery brought the lyrics to life, infusing them with a sense of urgency and poignancy that left an indelible mark on all who bore witness. 

There is a moment when you are trying so hard to hold things together for yourself, and for others. Your body becomes numb, desensitized to any touch, to any words, to any human feeling because what has taken over is an otherworldly presence brought upon you by the manifested evils of prejudice, discrimination, and harm. This harm against the black body is ever-lasting as we see in generations to come the after-effects of such brutalities that have rung and continue to ring throughout the United States, and throughout the world. Pain, suffering, and scathing disregard for the black and brown bodies turn into stress, trauma, and illness. These are all long-lasting, especially if it wasn't normalized to seek help. These traumas turn into self-inflictions of suffering, outwardly inflictions of suffering throughout our own communities because of fear of reaching out. The lack of normalization of reaching out has troubled the waters of future rest. These are horrors that continue to echo, to ring out until we all die out because of a lack of caring for ourselves and our community. Our past ancestors, or current members, and our people in between faced never-ending torment because of resistance to social degradation. Families continue to perpetuate the harms of the oppressors onto their own and call it justified. Where is our humanity for ourselves, for our loved ones? 

There is something that horror movies will always get right. The oppressor will always persist, and we can fight back all we want, we will fall down(even if sometimes it may look stupid), we will be brutalized by the oppressors, we will be held captive by the violence, we will be trapped in this endless void. Horror movies have a knack for tapping into our primal fears and the idea that sometimes the forces of darkness or oppression seem unbeatable. They often reflect our anxieties about powerlessness and the unknown. Horror movies, like spirituals, resonate with a painful truth: that the struggle for liberation is ongoing and often met with brutal resistance. They expose the raw wounds of history, where the legacy of colonialism, racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression continue to cast their long shadow. In these narratives, we see the relentless march of the oppressor, the relentless cycle of violence, and the crushing weight of despair.

By the time we reach the final refrain, the survivalist fermata, a poignant pause, in this envelopment the air vibrates with anticipation. Heartbeats may linger and beat in harmony. Do you feel released from the Earthly constraints? Did you listen with ears to hear the longing and pain? Did you feel the movement throughout her voice that flowed like a seamless stream of emotion? Don't let any opportunity pass to free yourself from societal oppression. Don't let the pressures to confine yourself to a certain group identity strip you of your will to live and prosper. 

The wounds of the past will continue to become the pains of tomorrow if we deny the ethical responsibility we all have to prevent suffering. The echoes of horror only persist because society, those with power, have created the space for it to exist. Filling the space with the sounds of shouts, and proclamations that we arent going to let nobody turn us around, turn us down, and push us to the ground and that we are going to keep on walking, talking, marching up to the freedom ground, is what is important. That is what makes music and art so very important to living, breathing, and existing. There are songs that I know are worth the listen: "Sinner Please Dont Let this Harvest Die", "Witness" by Jubilant Sykes, "Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" by Sweet Honey In The Rock, James Horner from a television soundtrack-Freedom Song. 

Listen to these compositions as a source of life.

Thank you for reading this blog!

Boop.