The Origin of the “N” Word

I do not come by this thought as a result of years of study or higher secondary education.   It has been something that I surmised based on my limited amount of knowledge on this subject.  It makes sense to me and if permitted, I would like to share it with you.

It should be well known that the continent of Africa has always been the land of the warlords.  Those different tribes ruled different parts of that continent for many years.  That as they attacked and conquered each part, they took slaves from those they suppressed and as the ships docked and trade grew, those same slaves were sold to the people of the New World.

Now as those ship owners docked into the New World’s harbors, they had to detail their cargo.  Not having taken the time to properly learn the names of those thousands of slaves, hidden below their decks, they dubbed them from whence they supposedly came.  Niger is a republic in Northwest Africa formerly part of the French West Africa, according to Webster dictionary, so that was now the name of their new property.  Like many things today, whether it’s a lazy boy or not, a chair is still a chair.  Because back in that time, no one named their property, they just call them all by the same name.  When it was time to gather the livestock, they did not call each one by their individual names thus the same when they wanted to gather this new property that they had purchased.  Regardless of which part of Africa they may have come from, they were all now labeled the word representing that republic in northwest Africa. 

As time passed, and the proper pronunciation of the word representing that republic of northwest Africa had grown, it became necessary to make that word a part of the language.  To do this someone decided to add another “g” and the word was born.   What makes this word powerful is that first it was used in conjunction with “boy”.    When the word “boy” became quite uncomfortable to use when speaking to anyone of a dark complexion, something had to be used in its place.  The worst memory of this word representing that republic of northwest Africa is behind it normally were dark skinned people dangling from tree branches.   It became a word to use to those whom you view as inferior or less than everyone else.  It became so painful a word that many dark skinned people tried to hide from it because it was too embarrassing to be seen let alone called that word.

Personally, I think that to use this word one should have to endure that which others had to endure because of it.  Walk a few steps in the shoes of those who adorned the nearest tree branch for a few minutes, then tell me that the word representing that republic in northwest Africa means nothing, has no power and is only a word.