The slave’s picture (wk 12 -13)

Mutambe was a normal kid that lived in Ghana, he was 6 years old and lived with his mother Quisha. Every day, after going to study, he painted. He loves to make drawings of landscapes and of people doing things. There was always a story behind each drawing.

One day when he was drawing, some people came to his home and took him and his mother, they sent them into a big boat with a lot of Ghana citizens. All the people were worried about where they were sent. Mutambe was very scared, but his mother clamed him down by saying to him that they were exploring new lands, that this was a trip. She always played games with him when something was going to happen.

After a long trip they landed into a beautiful place, with a lot of nature and lovely houses. In that moment Mutambe was very happy because he thought that one of those big houses was for him, but unfortunately they were sent into a place that didn’t have beautiful nature around, and had a very small and ugly house.

That house was empty, the only thing it had inside was two beds, a lot of paper on the floor, and cockroaches. In the bedroom, there where two beds for 5 people and only one bathroom.

The next day some persons handcuffed them and took them to a place where a lot of handcuffed people where in a line and other people would take one of them and give to some man gold. After two hours of being there, with out sitting, one man took Mutambe and Quisha, he give some gold coins in exchange for them and took them into a big house, that house was the house of the man. There was a little house infront of that big house, that was for them and other 4 people. Mutambe asked a woman that was in the house, where were they, and the woman said that they were in the land of their master, and that they were slaves.

Four years later

Mutambe was now 10 years old and he had to work in the farm with his mother. They were very unhappy because as slaves have not rights. Their master treats them like if they were garbage.

Mutambe every night did the same that he did before: he painted. He was very good at it, he always drew his life. One day he drew a ship with a lot of black people inside and all crying. He also drew a boy taking a rock into a big house and a man looking at him and saying bring more.

His mother was very impressed about his drawings, they were very good. They seemed like professional paintings, so she decided to play another game with his son, she said to him that his paints were a treasure and that he had to hide them in a safe place where the bad people couldn’t find them.

She knew that when the master saw those paintings he was going to take them and sell them, without giving Mutambe any money.

One day the master went to the slaves house, and he found Mutambe painting, he as Quisha predicted, took his painting and asked him to give him all the paintings he had. He give them all. Mutambe was very sad and he cried a complete day, his mother was very worried and angry, so she decided to escape from that farm. She said to Mutambe that they were going to leave the master, and go to another place.

The next day they were working, and in the time of lunch they escaped! It was very difficult to escape but they did it.

They lived for 6 more weeks after escaping, and they died because they didn’t have food and shelter.

The independence (Wk 11A)

This chapter tells how the citizens in Colombia began to search for the independence, like every country in the World that has been colonized.

It was thought that the independence process of Colombia started in 1810, but really it started in 1808, when the Pre-Columbians, and Comuneros began to realize that the Spaniards were taking control of the complete country, and they were converting into some kind of slaves. All the people were worried about this situation, the governor of Cartagena de Indias was worried too, “manifiesto públicamente, en 1810, que el terrorismo era el medio mas eficaz para mantener a los pueblos en quietud” (Colombia imagines de su diversidad 19… a hoy, pg 118).

The citizens were so desperate that they made a council named “Real provisión de la suprema junta del gobierno”. There they talked about the country, and made things for the country. At the end all this council became a city council.

In the city council, the people asked:

1. To establish the administration in the city.

2. To et over the abuse and the miss trust from the Spaniards.

3. To become very similar to the Castilla´s kingdom.

4. To send to the supreme council the same rules that were dictated.


“ El cabildo consideraba que este era el modo mas seguro de conservar la unión nacional y ser conducida a todo el grado de poder a que la convidan sus innumerables recursos” pg 125.

One of the causes for the citizens to search for the independence was because of the strict hierarchy in the country being the king the most powerful.

“La independencia constituye entonces fenómeno de ruptura y transición, un esfuerzo por salir del pasado y por construir la modernidad” pg 127.

In this chapter you can notice how the people were desperate to be independent from Spain, they wanted to choose their own rulers and control the complete country. And my question for this chapter is: ¿do you think that the independence was a good idea?