Olaudah Equiano
1789 · West Africa · London · Looking back on his home village, in what is now Nigeria, before he was kidnapped at eleven
I had never heard of white men or Europeans, nor of the sea…
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, chapter 1
More from Olaudah Equiano · #memory
In the same thread
Frederick Douglass
1845 · United States
You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, chapter 10
Rabindranath Tagore রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর
1912 · Bengal, India · A poem that ends in a prayer that his country may awake into such a heaven of freedom. It was under British rule at the time
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth
Gitanjali 35
Chiri Yukie 知里幸恵
March 1, 1922 · Ainu
Long ago, this wide Hokkaido was the land of freedom of our ancestors.
その昔この広い北海道は，私たちの先祖の自由の天地でありました．Ainu shin'yoshu (Collection of Ainu Songs of the Gods), preface
Zitkala-Sa Zitkála-Šá
1900 · Yankton Dakota · The day her hair was cut at the boarding school she entered at eight. Among her people, short hair was worn by mourners and by cowards
I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit.
"The School Days of an Indian Girl," in American Indian Stories
Saadi سعدی
1258 · Shiraz, Persia
The children of Adam are limbs of one another, for in creation they are of one essence. When time brings pain to one limb, the other limbs cannot rest. You who feel no sorrow at the suffering of others, you do not deserve to be called human.
بنی آدم اعضای یکدیگرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوی به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضوها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمیThe Rose Garden (Gulistan), chapter 1
Miguel de Cervantes
1615 · Spain
Liberty, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that the heavens gave to men.
La libertad, Sancho, es uno de los más preciosos dones que a los hombres dieron los cielos
Don Quixote, part 2, chapter 58, the words of Don Quixote
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us