@comrade_sinque: We tend to imagine slavery as ancient history. But here’s the problem with that: Cudjo Lewis was alive when King Kong hit the screen. He was born in West Africa, kidnapped as a young man, transported across the Atlantic aboard the Clotilda, and enslaved in Alabama. Then he lived long enough to see the world of Popeye, King Kong, automobiles, movies, and modern America. Cudjo died in 1935. That means the distance between the last generation of American slavery and the America we recognize today is MUCH smaller than most of us imagine. In Barracoon, Zora Neale Hurston recorded Cudjo Lewis telling his own story—his memories of Africa, the Middle Passage, enslavement, emancipation, and everything that came afterward. This isn’t ancient history. It’s living memory. And that’s what makes Barracoon so powerful. #BookTok #bookrecs #BlackHistory #MustRead #slavery