Zong#11 is an intervention, a link between denials and actions; reality and obscurity; malarkey and existence; subject-hood versus object-hood. The space that stands out conspicuously indicates blankness, untold emptiness where truth leaks away and escapes from the reach of the living. Space emphasizes the obscurity that surrounds the death or murders per se, of 150 Africans who drowned whilst aboard Zong, a slave ship. The space implicates unspoken facts that remain unknown about this ship. Only these truths and facts would fill these spaces.
Was this a mistake or a right mistake? Did these people deserve to die? The writer insinuates that the law is a crime in itself. As one utters the words, where there is space there is silence. Silence here signifies violence in the past and space reconnects this violence to the present creating a unifying need to address past violence in the present. This space tethers the little known facts about this brutal ‘murder’ of innocent slaves to the many facts that remain unknown about the same. Finally, silence resulting from these spaces as one reads it creates suspense catching crowds’ attention and makes people think along the poem as it advances.
