In May 1803, a shipload of seventy-five captive Igbo people were purchased for $100 each to grow rice on forced labor plantations on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Apparently, the ship was infested with Cartwright’s disease, because the shackled passengers screamed all the way to America. When the captain would send members of the crew down into the belly of the ship to quiet them, the crew members were terrified to realize that the captives weren’t just screaming; they were saying one chant, over and over, in unison: “Orimiri Omambala bu anyi bia. Orimiri Omambala ka anyi ga ejina.”14 When the
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