Calamity of the Heathens
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For most of these native children, the new role of servant was a traumatic experience. Their illiterate parents often did not know the educational level of some of these new master-guardians. Neither did the native parents know the social and psychological mentality of these master-guardians. Yet they entrusted their children into their care. The problem of child abuse and child labor was high within the new class of master-guardians. A high percentage of the native children were ill cared for in terms of personal hygiene. They were allowed to go dirty for days, lacked proper clothing and sometimes had no shoes or a decent place to sleep. Most of the young native servants slept on floors and did not wash or change their garments often. Hence they were nicknamed "Dirty Joes." This nickname was used to humiliate further these unfortunate tribal youths. This was often the case when they got involved in a brawl or fight with another child of the civilized class or when they became mischievous or disrespectful to an adult. The situation in reality was even more frustrating and sad for some of those African native children. Those who failed to transition to their new environment for any number of reasons or for no reason at all could be sent to their parents and face ridicule in their village for failing their peer group they had left behind. Some could not return to the master-guardian after they had been put out or had run away for fear of being abused, especially with a whip. Some had run away because the master-guardian had used them solely for the purpose of servitude and had neglected to send them to school. And those the master-guardian had labeled "bad" could not get a second chance to start all over again. * * * Daniel and other house servants to the children of the master-guardian were stepchildren, or so were referred to by the master-guardian. I believe it helped ease their minds of the guilt that they were informally enslaving other people’s children, just like their fathers and forefathers were enslaved by the great yet infamous southern plantation owners of America. The masters taught their children to regard tribal children as servants as their stepbrothers and sisters. That way the subject of servitude could grow subtle and unpronounced in the minds of their children and younger generation, for even the masters themselves were emotionally trying to bury and forget the years of slavery that their fathers and forefathers were once subjected to. After all, it was to escape physical, mental and emotional trauma of slavery that these freed men of color had left the American shores to form the country of Liberia. In addition to all the humiliating chores Daniel had to perform, his master-guardian’s daughter or his stepsister burdened him with yet other dehumanizing name. Her infamous, yet keen perception was derived from another make of the "trade" that appeared on Daniel and that was already haunting him. Daniel had toted or carried water, wood, and other chore-related goods on his head so much and so long that the top center of his head had grown bald. The master’s daughter nicknamed him "kpola head" (pronounced "polar head"), signifying a bald head. Baldness was looked down upon as a sign of extreme poverty, and implied someone who was unlearned in this Liberian society.
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About the Book
A unique autobiography of a "baby boomer" whose life spans three different cultures. His final stage of life culminates in the so-called "American Dream." In this story a boy is sentenced to survive in a new and strange world. His father, who sentenced him, did not know the depth of evils his son must endure in this new, behemoth, strange world of civilization. If his father knew, it was only subconsciously, and his knowledge was limited, for he had lived only briefly in this strange civilization. In this slave and master living arrangement, the tribal boy from Liberia had to endure abuses – physical, verbal, and sexual abuses. Further the boy is subjected to extreme mental anguish in a slavery setting. In fact, this whole civilized society treats most people of the boy’s class – aboriginal villagers – unjustly. The boy magnanimously endures not one, but two slaving family settings and lives to tell his story. His jubilation is short-lived when he enters the United States, only to find racial and ethnic discrimination. These discriminations engulfs him, rekindling his memory of former hardships and causing him to reflect on those troubles he has been through as well as how those troubles affected his tribal people. Finally the boy’s education forces him to recollect his calamity and the calamity of his people of tribal villagers. He reflects on their treatment, both good and bad, by the Western world (America and other non-African countries) as a whole. The boy also invokes memories of his early tribal life before going to a civilized city and his coming to the United States. The boy also challenges the West and Western companies about some of the ills caused by their business activities in his former country. He further challenges Americans to help those unfortunate people repair their living conditions for success in the new millennium. He challenges his own people about their lack of cohesiveness. He hopes that some type of social force could bring them together as a people of common culture and cause them to work for better human relations in their mother country or wherever they live.
About the Author
The author, Jimi D. Dillon A.K.A. Daniel J. Dillon, was born in Liberia, West Africa. He is a licensed and ordained Baptist minister and is the Associate Pastor of the Gateway International Christian Church in Houston, Texas. He has an Associate Degree in Law Enforcement from Owens Technical College, Toledo, Ohio. He has worked as a police officer, and is currently a 1st Sergeant Corrections Officer with Harris County Probation Department’s Boot Camp. Besides this book, Calamity of the Heathens, he has written poems and short stories. One of his notable poems You Made It to the Top appeared in Toledo, Ohio’s biggest circulation newspaper, The Blade, in February 1984. Another of his writings was published on the website poetry.com in August 2001 entitled Crime Does Not Pay.