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This is of great importance for colonized people. The books about different life paths of colonized people and their culture, no matter if they are historical or fictional, act upon other people’s beliefs about themselves. They make a lot of others never give up in spite of any adversities, see flowers in every hardship and motivate them to pursue their dreams notwithstanding the cruel reality around. Also, the books proved that the world did not belong to colonizers but to colonized people who could not only survive in the savage conditions but furthermore achieve their end and change their life.
One of such books is surely The Interesting Narrative by Equiano that presents a story of a colonized man who refused to submit to his fate and chose his own life path. Over the past fifty years general public as well as literary critics highly appraised the author as one the most skilful writer of his time and undoubtedly the most skilful writer of African descent. This touching autobiography is the historical account of Equiano’s difficult times spent in enslavement which traces back person’s assertive endeavours at becoming the master of his own life through the perception of Bible and his persistent character. The man’s final success in obtaining desired freedom and starting own business thereafter, attract people’s attention to the book even more and make them devour every page of it with extreme interest. The author succeeds in demonstrating the mix of primitivistic idealism and realistic detail of the poor African life, but at the same time he does not aim at expressing shame or deficiency concerning his African heritage. His homeland is a heavenly spot for its inhabitants who got used to keeping to their cultural traditions and customs as well as pastoral pursuits and religious practices. Despite the fact that Africa is a happy childhood place for Equiano and evokes a lot of unforgettable memories, it can not replace all the evil events that later fell to his lot and thousands of people like him.
It is really difficult to determine the genre of this literary work at first sight. Equiano’s Interesting Narrative is some sort of combination of a spiritual autobiography, adventure tale, travel book, slavery narrative and perhaps in part historical fiction. The Interesting Narrative being most of all a slave narrative has a lot in common with spiritual autobiography. These two genres follow almost the same plot progression. The character of the spiritual autobiography walks through the path of sin, conversion and rebirth while in the slave narratives he has to encounter the mold of slavery, escape, and freedom. In Equiano’s Narrative both genres are closely correlated. The character escapes slavery but he also struggles with Christianity and experience a spiritual revival.
The Interesting Narrative has the three-part structure of spiritual and physical enslavement, conversion and escape from slavery which leads to the rebirth of spiritual and physical freedom. Each of these elements presents a particular page of a character’s life and is closely connected to other pages. In order to understand the whole book the reader must industriously learn every slight event, take into account all the causes and effects of it and only after that draw unbiased conclusions. It is really easy to judge other people’s life but to realize the intricate reasons that forced others to take such serious decisions proves to be much complicated. Only after the character obtains his physical liberty, he manages to completely build his personality with personal, humanitarian and religious aspects of development.
Equiano begins his tale by describing the struggle one can come across trying to write a memoir. He convinces the readers that he does not look for fame by presenting the true story of his life but simply hopes it might somehow “proves useful for the humanity and other slaves in his position.” People should not expect the story to be the most exciting ever as the author himself is “neither a saint, a hero, nor a tyrant.”
The story begins with a description of his childhood land and its cultural background. He was born in the district Eboe in Benin. The province Essake was isolated from the ruling body of its kingdom, that’s why the little boy knew nothing about the sea or people who differed from him by another colour of skin.
His father was among the most notable men in the district who was responsible for punishing criminals and solving conflict situations within the society. His culture contained a lot of rituals as well as family ties. It should be mentioned that slaves were also allowed in the kingdom but only those who were convicted criminals or war prisoners. Equiano’s father “owned many slaves too and that made eleven year old boy develop very watchful attitude toward the constant danger of being kidnapped.” There even existed various lookout systems children had invented to protect themselves while their parents were working away from the village. However, these means of defence in fact did not prevent Equiano from the destiny that creator had prepared for him. “One day two men and a woman simply got over the walls of the boy’s house, seized him and his little sister, immediately stopped their mouths and ran off into the nearest wood.” Everything happened so quickly and unexpectedly that poor scared kids were not even able to cry out or make a resistance.
Such abductions had always been carefully planned which left their victims little chance to escape and rescue themselves from unavoidable accidents. Equiano became the plaything of destiny and could not escape his fate. This cruel kidnapping actually ended the happy moments of his childhood and started the tedious trials of strength and troubles of life.
Another page of the character’s life was not as joyful as his carefree childhood. The little boy was left to the mercy of fate but nobody was there to support him and teach how to survive in this cruel world. He was sold to traders, brought across Africa to the coast and was sent to the West India via the horrific Middle Passage. It was the beginning of the strange journey, full of misfortunes and desperate conditions. The boy described it as an inferno on the earth. He presented a lot of details about the direful condition of slaves on that ship.
They were not treated as human beings but as cattle that were dreadfully punished every possible moment. Many slaves did not endure daily starvation and unbearable pain, others were killed before the ship reached the shores of their new home. These vivid descriptions of the violence of slavery are common threads in slave narratives which actually let refer Equiano’s Narrative to this genre of literature.
The boy, however, did not seem to give up. He learnt to love his life in spite of all the hardships he was facing every day. Equiano aimed at getting freedom someday, so was not going to stop at the half way. Isolated from the external world for so long time, he was absorbing now every new sight and experience.
The reason why Equiano was able to survive various ordeals was surely his extraordinary “commitment to freedom.” All his life the man was just the property of his owners who simply used him as manpower not capable of providing himself. They had never even thought their duty to pay attention to his feelings and furthermore to compare equally with themselves. However, Equiano was able to overcome such attitude too. If God wanted him to come through this hardship, he would execute his wish.
Thus, the day just came when all the hardship and tribulations ended. The God succeed in “building Equiano’s character and reaffirming his faith.” Finally, the man converted to Protestantism and spent his last years in England. He enjoyed every moment of his free life where he could argue against slavery and distribute his manumission paper to all interested and sympathetic citizens around the United Kingdom. Though, the story of his life actually ended, it would always live in the readers’ memory and hearts as an example of invincible and irresistible man.
Вibliography
Andrews, William L. To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
Costanzo, Angelo. Surprizing Narrative: Olaudah Equiano and the Beginnings of Black Autobiography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987.
Davis, Charles T., The Slave's Narrative. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. Ed. Vincent Carretta. New York: Penguin, 1995.
Walvin, James, England, Slaves and Freedom, 1776-1838. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1986.
