Even the earth had changed. Our soil was grainy and light brown. The soil here was clumpy and dark. The Wolof man scooped a handful and rubbed it slowly, letting it crumble between his fingers. He shook his head. This was not our home.

We were herded into a nearby structure. It smelled of cow manure and rotten flesh. Men were placed in one holding pen, women in another. It was made of wooden planks held together with steel pins. The floor was covered with prickly hay. All eyes avoided all others. Nothing was familiar. Even our shame was different. On the boat, we had dwelled in relative seclusion, so our humiliation was ours alone. Now, on land, pale observers frowned and scowled as if we were the carriers of something evil. They seemed different from the ship’s crewmen. They dressed more neatly and carried an air of sophistication that increased our embarrassment. Were these their babas and umis? We tried to cover our privates, but being pushed and shoved made that impossible. Some pale people turned away when they beheld our nakedness. Then we turned away from each other.

This was the Coming.

*   *   *

Throughout the night, we squirmed and grumbled. The Wolof man sat in a corner and stared at us. His eyes said so many things. He would not serve these people for the rest of his life. Or even for a day. Whether in his own land or thousands of miles away, he was still a warrior, and he wanted the world to know it. The rest of us were far less resolute. A few still dreamed of home, surely, but by now their hope had dissolved. Most of us simply wanted to know what was planned for our lives. We still wondered if we’d be eaten. Treated like animals and penned in their stalls, we considered the possibility quite seriously.

When the sun rose, captors entered and shuffled us out. We marched past small wooden buildings where people obviously lived. We marched past edifices we could not identify. We marched until we reached what appeared to be the center of the village. People were all around, viewing and studying us. Even the Wolof man couldn’t hide his alarm. He bit his bottom lip to keep from trembling. They had given us strips of thin cloth with which to cover ourselves, and now we stood, bunched together, in the center of a foreign land.