January 7, 1811, Orleans County, Louisiana, United States of America: The man ran as fast as the swampy terrain, the foggy night and his labouring breath would allow. Simon; bonded slave, descendant of Haitian Kings and a smart, intelligent young survivor, was on the run from his Plantation manager’s son. He could hear the dogs – literal hounds from hell for any runaway - coming on steadily in the wake of his scent. He didn’t really believe that he could get away from Massa Henry and his friends – but the alternative, was a guaranteed, public degradation of body, soul and spirit. Simon didn’t know it then, though his own descendants’ would be pivotal to his people’s survival: and to the equality, which they’d yearned so long for. When he met the strange, black-skinned warrior from Australia on that fateful night, every single thing that he thought he knew about his own life: life in general - and about the world he lived in, suddenly shifted. In that one incredible night, the warrior Nhompo, dispersed the thick, blanket of fear that he’d lived under all of his life - and along with his timely appearance, he brought the first scent of hope that the slave had ever known.