Stolen from West Afrika over 50 years after the slave trade was ruled illegal, a young girl just 2 years old named Àbáké survived the transatlantic trip from the Motherland aboard the slave ship named Cotilda and landed as an enslaved person in Alabama. After unloading their illegal "cargo", the Cotilda was burned and sank to hide the evidence of these colonizers illegal actions. A measure to erase her, her family, and the many other abducted Afrikans who were illegally brought here, including Àbáké's mother and sisters.

Stripped from her homeland and too young to remember much about her Afrikan roots, heritage, culture, and traditions - the Yoruban culture, rich in culture, art, and spiritual traditions - her mother braided into her hair the traditional patterns of the Yoruban people, ensuring that she would always have some connection to her roots. Every twist, every pattern, every strand pulled into the intricate designs was a message from her mother: No matter what their circumstances were in the New World, you come from a people. You come from a place. You have a history that did not begin on this ship and does not belong to the man who claims to own you. Àbáké's mother ensured that she would always remember...

Given the name Matilda by her slave owners, Ábáké was freed from the bondage of slavery just 5 years later, at the age of 7. She lived to raise 14 children of her own and walked 15 miles, in her seventies to demand reparation for her stolen childhood. Àbáké did not remain silent! She did not fade away. She made the conscious decision to let her voice be heard regarding the atrocities done to her. She ensured that her story was permanently recorded in the court records - proof that she exists and a written account of her story. She refused to let her story be erased!

She did not die in the 1800s. She died in 1940 at the age of 82.

This is not some story of times long ago. She is the last known survivor of the last slave ship to reach America, and she died the same year that McDonald's opened its doors and Bugs Bunny made his debut. Think about that... Àbáké lived into the middle of the 20th century! She passed away less than a century ago... And in her passing, her story remains clear and documented - just as her mother made it clear that Àbáké had family, history, culture, traditions, and heritage rooted in Afrika.