My Story

The Young Fruit-seller

One fine morning, in the early 17^th century, a young boy woke up in his home in Africa, just to find that large bulky men with guns were about to take away his parents. He knew that this was the concept of slavery and so; he was determined to let his parents live their lives peacefully. He rushed out to the balcony and called out, “Let my parents go, let my parents go. I will come and work for you, but please, oh, please let my father and mother stay here!” The slave owners, upon hearing the cries of the boy, agreed that a young boy would work quicker and more efficiently than an aged father and mother. They called out to the boy, “ Come here quickly, son, and then we will free your precious father and mother”. The boy, upon hearing this, secretly rejoiced, and then went to the disciplinarian.

Soon, the ship on which the brutes had taken him stopped at their destination, India. This was a completely new world to the young boy, and he was already feeling homesick.  First of all, animals like buffalos, bulls, and cows were everywhere, which the boy, Jaffa, thought were the most dangerous creatures that existed. The next day, Jaffa was sold to the PMM Industries’ fruit selling branch. There, he was forced to work as a fruit-seller in the decalescent temperature of the day. His working hours were from 4 o’clock a.m. to 11 o’clock p.m. The worst part of all of this torture was the discrimination he faced. After his long working day, he would go to the bus station to catch a bus back to his master’s home. However, the bus driver and conductor, who were very strict followers of the caste system, would not allow Jaffa onto the bus as he was just a slave and was not worthy of sitting with the higher class people (As we all know, India in the old times was a very strict believer of the caste system). He was forced to take the long walk home. At the house, he was completely out casted by the other servants who would tease him because of his caste, slave, which was one below servants. He felt very piqued at the thought that other servants, who were local Indians, would get paid for their labor, while he, an African, would not.

After a few years in slavery, Jaffa decided to figure out a way to fight back against slavery. He planned a boycott with other African slaves who were working with or around him and decided not to work unless a proper pay was given to him. Soon, all the slaves of the PMM Industries were boycotting against the management. The head manager of the factory, Mufti, was getting agitated as the work was not being done, and the money was not rolling in before his eyes. The slave masters knew they had to solve this problem, or the management would fire them as well. The masters would not give in to paying the slaves so easily. They beat them hard with whips and threatened to kill them with daggers if they did not work. Jaffa, was whipped the most, and charged for bringing accusations against slavery into the minds of the fellow slaves. He was excused from his duties, but he was still kept prisoner in custody of the PMM Industries. However, the news of the boycotting of the slaves got to the president and founder of PMM, Motta. Motta was an opposer of slavery and never really supported the idea. However, he had allowed slavery on one condition, that all of them would be paid.

As soon as he found out about, he himself went, and fired all of the employees from the management, paid the slaves, and freed them to go back to their home countries.

Jaffa had now first-handedly experienced slavery for 5 years, and he was glad he could help his friends in becoming free men once again.