Adanggaman 2001

At the vibrant court of Adanggaman, Ossei forms a bond with a healer and seer who was taken from his village as a boy during the empire’s expansions in the 17th century. The healer uses his gifts to mend Ossei’s wounds from his arduous journey and warns him about a grim future filled with slavery and oppression for the inhabitants of the empire. He glimpses his own daughter, Naka, at the court, who initially fails to recognize him but eventually recalls the joyful moments of her childhood spent alongside her father, guided by his wisdom.

In a troubling turn of events, the healer boldly confronts King Adanggaman about the dark fate awaiting them all. Angered by what he perceives as defiance, the king orders both him and Ossei to be sold into slavery. In a tragic twist, the healer succumbs to despair while in captivity, overwhelmed by a sense of grief and abandonment.

As fate unfolds, Ossei escapes with Naka, with the two forging a deep friendship as they establish a household together. However, Ossei’s pursuit of a new life is abruptly interrupted when he is captured by soldiers from Adanggaman’s court. He is sold to European traders who transport him across the treacherous Middle Passage, where he is renamed John Stanford by a wealthy plantation owner. Ossei lives the remainder of his days in captivity, ultimately passing away at the age of 70, after fathering five children with a fellow enslaved woman.

In a cruel twist of irony, King Adanggaman is eventually betrayed by his own aides, captured while intoxicated with rum, and sold into slavery himself. Securing his freedom becomes a distant memory as he becomes a cook for Europeans in St. Louis, where he assumes the name Walter Brown. The last chapter of his life concludes in 1698, when he dies from tuberculosis, a bitter fate for one who once held so much power.