In November of 1733 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean island of St John, led by an Akan princess named Breffu, rebelled against their Danish captors, seized control of the island & established an Akan Kingdom in the Caribbean, in one of longest slave revolts.
The rebellion was carried out primarily by enslaved Akan from the Akwamu Kingdom in the Gold Coast (Present day Ghana & Ivory Coast). It was masterminded by an Akan princess named Breffu, who was enslaved by Pieter Kroyer, a plantation owner from Denmark.
Breffu approached King June, another enslaved Akan royal from Akwam with her plan to massacre the slave owners & the Danish soldiers on station on the Island.
Together they succeeded in rallying 150 Akan slaves to their cause. Many non Akan slaves refused to join the rebellion
Their plan was to first seize Fort Fredericksvaern, a heavily fortified military stronghold on Coral Bay. After that, a signal would be given to commence the massacre. Breffu & the other rebels began stealing knives & hiding them in firewood bundles.
In the evening of November 23rd 1733, King June & a handful of slaves were allowed through the gates of Fort Fredericksvaern to deliver firewood as they routinely did every week. Once inside the Fort, the Slaves retrieved the knives they had hidden in the firewood bundles.
With the knives, the managed to overpower & kill every single soldier in the Fort, except one who was able to escape. After they had taken control of the Fort, the fired the cannons 3 times to signal to the other rebels that the raid on Fort Fredericksvaern had been successful.
When Breffu & the other rebels heard the signal, they grabbed knives & began killing all their slave masters. Breffu killed her owner Pieter Kroyer & his whole family. She then went to the home of Van Stell, the wealthiest man on the Island & killed him & his whole family.
The Rebels then went from door to door killing every single European in sight. Many other enslaved Africans banded together & started fighting against the Akan rebels to protect their slave masters. As a result, many Blacks were also killed by the rebels.
The rest of the Europeans on the Island fled to the coast, jumped in ships & boats & escaped to the neighboring slave island colony of Martinique, which was under French rule at the time. After the revolt, the rebels declared the Island the new Akwamu kingdom with Breffu as Queen.
When news of the revolt reached Denmark, many Danish merchants & slave traders pleaded with their king to intervene & retake the Island. King Christian VI of Denmark reached out to France, which had the largest & most powerful military in Europe at the time.
The Danish merchants & slave traders successfully negotiated a deal with the French to recapture the island. In April 1734, thousands of French troops from Martinique & launched an assault on St John. After a bloody campaign, the French managed to retake control of the island.
Breffu & the rebels retreated to Fort Fredericksvaern to make their last stand. The Fort was then surrounded & bombarded by French troops. After French troops managed to blow the gates open, Breffu & 23 surviving Rebels committed suicide. The Island was then return to Denmark.
Today the Island of St John is part of the U.S Virgin Islands, & an American overseas territory. Breffu is a national Hero in the U.S Virgin Islands & is fondly remembered as the Queen of St John.
The Osogbo war Revisited where is Barrister Ayo Faniyi to tell us more ???
I wrote recently :
Shame that Ibadan relaxed after liberating Osogbo. They were cutting the tales of abandoned horses. Using it to make juju. They relaxed. Initially, they did not know what to do with the bodies of massacred Ilorin invaders. A Muslim Ibadan commander now said they should be buried immediately bc bodies of dead Muslims must be buried immediately. Nonsense, they should have pursued the remnants to Ilorin and took over Ilorin bc a whole Ilorin army perished in Osogbo.
How did Ibadan win the Osogbo war? It was a beautiful strategy. After the invaders have tied down their horses at night and went to sleep in their camps, Ibadan descended on them. As you know, it was not easy to untie the horses under such circumstances. Thousands trying to mobilise their horses were killed!!! Only a few ran away on legs.
In 1981, Pope John Paul 2 was shot by a Turkish man named Mehmet Ali Ağca, who was later arrested and jailed.
Mehmet Ali Ağca, who had escaped from a Turkish prison after receiving a life sentence for murdering a journalist, fired four shots with a 9-millimeter pistol. Two struck the pope in his lower intestine, one in his right arm and one in his left index finger. Two bystanders were also wounded.
Despite severe blood loss, the pontiff survived, and asked for all Catholics to pray for Ağca, whom he had “sincerely forgiven.”
An Italian court sentenced Ağca to life in prison. The motive for the assassination attempt and its planners remains mysterious — theories and allegations have accused the CIA, the KGB, the Bulgarian government, the Turkish mafia and more.
In 1983, John Paul II visited his would-be assassin. They had a private conversation, and emerged as friends. The pope stayed in touch with Ağca’s family during the latter's incarceration, and in 2000 requested that he be pardoned.
The request was granted. Ağca was released and deported to Turkey, where he was imprisoned for the life sentence he had fled decades prior.
He converted to Christianity while incarcerated, and was finally released in 2010.
In December 2014, he returned to Rome and laid two dozen white roses at the pope’s tomb.
The Bible never said we should pay an eye for an eye.
Omar Mukhtar (The Lion of the Desert) - 89 years since martyrdom.
On this day 89 years ago (16th September, 1931), Omar Mukhtar at the age of 73 was executed and hanged by the Italian colonial forces.
Indeed, right from that very day, Omar Mukhtar is recognized as a symbol of resistance in the Muslim world.
Omar Mukhtar, the Libyan resistant hero who took on the Italian Army in the war to liberate his tiny country from colonial occupation.
With horses and chariots, Omar Mukhtar, for two decades, matched his men against a modern army in what was, for all practical purposes, a suicide mission. At the end, he was captured in battle which he led in a blaze of gunfire and blood. But he was defiant and unrepentant to the very end as he showed fidelity to his cause.
Knowing his worth and popularity among the Libyan people who believed in him, the Italians decided that it was better to do a deal with Omar Mukhtar than to execute him. They therefore offered him houses, cars and a life of luxury in retirement if ONLY he would renounce his struggle. He rejected their offer and was subsequently put on trial.
Not surprisingly, the Italian military tribunal convicted and sentenced him to death by execution. But in the hope that he would change his mind, on the eve of his execution, General Rudolfo Graziani, the Italian military leader in Libya, invited him for a talk where the offers were made again. Not surprisingly, he again rejected them. But as the Italian General made to take his leave, Omar Mukhtar said he had a request to make.
General Graziani was so excited. "Ask anything and I will grant you... just like this," snapping his fingers.
Smiling, Omar Mukthar, the old war horse, said:
"Please do not tell the world that in the secrecy of this room, I begged for my life."
Apparently taken aback, General Graziani in an emotion laden voice, replied : "I won't do that. No, I won't do that to you... you are a man of God."
On the day Omar Mukhtar was executed, even some Italian Generals could not hold back their tears. They may not have liked Omar Mukhtar who fought them and killed many of their soldiers, they nonetheless had respect for him. Because he believed in the cause of his people for which he was prepared to lay his life.
"We will not surrender, we win or die."
"And don't think it stops there, even if we die, we have the next generation to fight and the next and the next and the next. And I will live longer than my hanger."
"I'm fighting you because you occupied our land."
"Money or glory has an interesting past."
"Do you know that by giving me bribe, you are insulting me?".
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