Olaudah Equiano was a most remarkable man living in the most barbaric of times. A time when the slave trade was in full swing, cruelly kidnapping Black men and women from their native lands in Africa and transporting them across the Atlantic to the plantations of the Americas. Equiano was one such victim who not only survived all the odds stacked against him but used his own example as recorded in his autobiography (The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African, 1789), to push for outlawing slavery throughout the Western world.
In his Narrative, Equiano sets down the few memories he has of his native Igboland (now in the eastern part of modern-day Nigeria). He was born in 1745 in a village called "Essaka" in which his father was a titled elder. He describes the few recollections he has of the life and customs of his homeland. In particular, he notes the decentralized organizational nature typical of pre-colonial Igbo life , the judicial process in which the elders of the village decide on disputes, the traditions of a wedding and public celebrations and the staple diet, luxuries, and the construction, layout and architecture of village houses. Importantly, he also notes the type of currency used within his community and comments on trade between his village and the outside.
These last two details are significant because they allow historians to roughly place where his village may have been. The "anchor-shaped" currency which he vividly remembers, suggests that his village may have been somewhere to the east of Onitsha where archaeology has found remnants of the currency known as umumu in Igbo. This thesis is given greater weight by Chinua Achebe who notes that the trading people whom Equiano refers to as "Oye-Eboh" in his book, may in fact be the people of Aboh - "Onye Aboh" (modern Igbo, meaning a person from Aboh), located to the south of Onitsha. Achebe further remarks on the similarities between the house-building techniques found in the Onitsha area and those described by Equiano in his Narrative.
Equiano's bucolic account of early life in Igboland is shattered however, when one day (probably around 1764/5), when left at home alone with his sister, they are both kidnapped. He is taken with her part of the way to the Niger delta before being separated. They are however, joyfully reunited before being torn apart a second and final time. His description of his first encounter with a slave ship and with the white men in particular, brings to life the heightened sense of terror felt by Africans sold into slavery at the time - a terror which drove many to take their own lives as Equiano well describes. Tremendous brutality is visited on the African slaves in the slave ship, shockingly more vicious than any Equiano recounts as a slave in Africa. Objectively, it is also noted by Equiano that this brutality is not only directed against the Africans but even against a European on the slave ship.
The brutality, savagery, and deceit that epitomizes the slave trade becomes a constant theme throughout Equiano's Narrative. Yet at times, genuine acts of humanity seep through the vile and inhumane system. It is on this precarious and highly uncertain platform of compassion that Equiano vaults with remarkable speed from "slave" to the more dubious status of "freeman", and from being a non-literate to speaking and writing fluently in the English language. He takes part in establishing new plantations in the Americas, visits amongst the Musquito Indians, is a member of the Phipps expedition to the North Pole, and travels all around Europe and the Americas before finally retiring to England. There he marries, has two daughters, and plays a leading role in protests against slavery.
Equiano passed away in 1792, leaving behind an impressive and extensive legacy of achievement and experience. They are not only a tribute to the strength of his character, but also to the grace of chance as Equiano himself admits:
"I believe there are few events in my life which have not happened to many: it is true the incidents of it are numerous; and did I consider myself an European, I might say my sufferings were great: but when I compare my lot with that of most of my countrymen, I regard myself as a particular favourite of Heaven, and acknowledge the mercies of Providence in every occurrence of my life." (page 1, Edwards)
In any case, Equiano is assured a place amongst the great men of our time through his ability to rise above the tremendous confines of slavery and to play a leading role in dismantling the system of slavery. Indeed, his position to the latter is the objective to which his book is primarily dedicated:
"...Such a tendency has the slave-trade to debauch men's minds, and darken them to every feeling of humanity! For I will not suppose that the dealers in slaves are born worse than other men - No; it is the fatality of this mistaken avarice, that it corrupts the milk of human kindness and turns it into gall....Surely this traffic cannot be good, which spreads like a pestilence, and taints what it touches!....When you make men slaves you deprive them of half their virtue, you set them in your own conduct an example of fraud, rapine, and cruelty, and compel them to live with you in a state of war; and yet you complain that they are not honest or faithful! You stupify them with stripes, and think it necessary to keep them in a state of ignorance; and yet you assert that they are incapable of learning; that their minds are such a barren soil or moor, that culture would be lost on them; and that they come from a climate, where nature, though prodigal of her bounties in a degree unknown to yourselves, has left man alone scant and unfinished, and incapable of enjoying the treasures she has poured out for him! - An assertion at once impious and absurd. Why do you use those instruments of torture? Are they fit to be applied from one rational being to another? And are ye not struck with shame and mortification, to see the partakers of your nature reduced so low?... But by changing your conduct, and treating your slaves as men, every cause of fear would be banished. They would be faithful, honest, intelligent and vigorous; and peace, prosperity, and happiness would attend you." (page 76, Edwards).
Through his example, Equiano teaches us unforgettable lessons of forgiveness, honesty, and bravery. He also teaches us the dangers of human intolerance which leaves not just the victim scarred, but brutalizes and disfigures the oppressor also. At a time, when these evil forces are gaining new strength throughout the world, it would serve us well to heed Equiano's wisdom and example.
Bibliography: "The Life of OLAUDAH EQUIANO", edited by Paul Edwards (1988).
This page was prepared by Nwabu Nnebe (nnnebe@hotmail.com)