Door of No Return

In 2018 we travel across the Atlantic to spend a week with our daughter in Dakar, Senegal. Conversations and laughter mark our visit. Along with bright sun. Cool ocean breezes. Blue sky.  

And a Door of No Return. 

Community

We meet our daughter’s friends, hug her Senegalese momma and chat with her English students.

We try breakfast sandwiches made by Coumba, who perches on a stool at the street corner. She fries eggs and onions over a little burner, and spoons them into baguettes sliced and buttered.  Delicious.

In the afternoon we take part in the common bowl of rice and fish and vegetables. Thiebou diene (chebu gin). Everyone seated in the circle, dipping into the bowl together.

Then we watch as one young man makes the ataya. Afternoon tea.  Pouring it in a manner reminiscent of teh tarik (pulled tea) in Malaysia. Small cups of steaming goodness handed out to each one.

There’s community. And an atmosphere of hope.

Goree Island

One morning we take the ferry to Goree Island, just off the coast of Dakar.  And run into a student of our daughter’s who happens to be a tour guide.  He gladly offers his services and off we go.

The colorful and bright exteriors of the Goree village houses hide dark interiors. And a darker story.  

Goree Island was the largest slave-trading center of the African coast from the 15^th to the 19^th centuries.  A first stop for an estimated 20 million slaves during that time.  

Today it serves as an important symbol for the descendants of slaves. A destination as they seek to discover more about where they came from.

House of Slaves

After a short hike from the harbor, we enter the House of Slaves. Walk into small dark rooms where human beings were crammed in. Locked in. With little food and water. 

We see the cell where children were kept. Listen to horrifying stories of captives beaten and chained. Tortured and raped.

We lean down and peer into the cramped solitary confinement space. 

A sobering reminder

On the second floor are the former living quarters of the slave trader and his family. Only a few feet from the unimaginable cruelty beneath them. 

It’s a sobering reminder of the evil in this world and in the human heart.  Of the sin-hardened conscience.

That they could live in close proximity to such grievous human suffering. 

And go on eating dinner every night. 

 The Door of No Return

Downstairs on the side facing the ocean is a doorway.  “The Door of No Return,” they call it.

Silently we stand where the slaves once stood. And look out across ocean waves. The sky is brilliant blue. The sun warm and bright. 

Probably just the kind of day it was when slaves were sent out through that door. Across gangplanks. Onto slave ships.

Dark brutality taking place in broad daylight.

Their ships sailed to Europe or the Americas. The captives were bartered and sold to slaveowners. Handed over to masters who ignored or rationalized the evil practice of slavery.

And they never returned home to Africa. 

Heritage lost

Conversations of other tourists filter through the unlit hallway. 

Some are there on pilgrimage from the United States. Retracing the possible steps of their ancestors. Trying to make sense of heritage lost in captivity and slave auctions. 

Ancestors torn from family and tribe.  Exiting Africa through the Door of No Return. 

Sin and brokenness

This door on Goree Island reminds me of another door into captivity. One that led to the slavery and brokenness of mankind. 

Sin.

The first sin ever committed in the Garden of Eden brought shame and separation from a Holy God. 

Disobedience fractured the perfection of His handiwork. 

And all creation groans.

Our Redeemer lives

But that’s not the end of the story.

Even in the darkest of history, our Redeemer lives.

For into the House of Slaves, God sent His Son. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

He took our sin upon Himself. The sacrificial Lamb of God shedding His blood that captives might walk in true freedom as they repent and believe. 

Door of Hope

When we choose to follow Him, we’re no longer slaves to fear and shame. No longer chained by deceit and the enemy of our souls. We’ve entered a Door of living hope.

Through Jesus Christ.

Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep…. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:7-10).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

Alleluia.