'Money is sacred, as everyone knows,' he said. 'So then must be the hunger for it and the means we use to obtain it. Once a man is in debt he becomes a flesh and blood form of money, a walking investment. You can do what you like with him, you can work him to death or you can sell him. This cannot be called cruelty or greed because we are seeking only to recover our investment and that is a sacred duty...'

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth

On January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America - the first African-American ever to be the commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation in the world. I picked up this voluminous novel in the middle of his presidential campaign, thinking that I might get some insight into what his campaign had represented. It was about two months after the inaugural ceremony that I reached the last sentence on the final page of the book.

It was a long journey.

Unsworth's epic novel, centered on the notorious Triangle Trade in the 18th century, took me on a voyage almost nauseating. The slaves and the crew both suffered: the slaves were deprived of freedom and dignity, while the crew was challenged with possible uprising from the slaves and ironically, inferior treatments because the slaves were deemed more valuable. Even after the slaves and the crew joined together to build an Utopian society, the same issues continued to threaten their pursuit of an ideal world where everyone would be treated equally.

I could not help thinking that we human race had come such a long way since then. The significance of President Obama's triumph represented that the pursuit of the ideal world were not at all deterred. We were indeed moving forward.

Read also:

• Books of The Times; Trading in Misery On a Doomed Slave Ship
• Brutality and Redemption in 'Sacred Hunger'