African Violet prologe

her

Prologue

In 1833, the British Empire abolished slavery. In a small coastal village, on the western shores of Africa, a young man searching for his lost boomerang along the rivers edge. He notices a glinting of light shining through the shallow waters. Reaching into the muddy bottom pulls a glass rock, the size of a green olive from its hold. He rinses it off thoroughly, holding it up to the sunlight. Examining it very closely, as the colors of the spectrum change from green to blue, then red.

Amazed at this discovery, he quickly placed the stone into his cloth pants and continued his search for his lost boomerang. Upon returning to his village, a local missionary affectionately known as African Violet, was busy assisting the woman with the new chapel and its construction. Excited to show her his discovery, he quickly ran towards shouting in his mother tongue.

Violet stumbled forward as the young boy slammed into her, then wrapping his thin arms around her waist, holding the treasure in the air with his small hands.

The young man is scolded by the female villagers that were there with Violet, for behaving so badly. In a calmer manner he apologizes in English, grabs her hand and drops the rock into her palm. She quickly realizes that this is no ordinary rock, and quickly closes her hand and hides the stone into her skirt pocket, hoping no one has seen the object. Violet calmly walks away to find the head missionary. Her hands trembling as the implications as to what will become of this newly formed village should the locals and the British government discover that , somewhere nearby, lies a fortune of unmined diamonds. Her thoughts raced, as she imagined a now freed people will be forced back into slavery and death for the great wealth that lingers in the ground beneath their feet.

Comments