![]() ![]() Equiano had two further enslavers before, in 1766, he managed to buy his freedom for £40 (around £5000 now). There, he was purchased by Michael Pascal, an English naval officer, who named him Gustavus Vassa, a name which Equiano at first resisted. But Equiano tells us that he was born at Essaka, an Igbo town in present-day Nigeria, and that at the age of 11 he was kidnapped by African traders, sold to European slavers, and transported to the West Indies. For Carretta, this demonstrates Equiano’s skill in drawing many real lives into the greater political project of The Interesting Narrative. One scholar, Vincent Carretta, has uncovered evidence suggesting that he was in fact born in South Carolina. The very act of a black man – a freed enslaved man – writing his own life was radical when Equiano published The Interesting Narrative in 1789.Įven now, Equiano’s origins and identity remain matters of ongoing controversy. As a genre, autobiography rests on notions of authenticity, self-consciousness, and unique selfhood that for centuries have been claimed as exclusive characteristics of the white man. Who has the right to write their life? This, above all, is the question that Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative poses. ![]()
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