Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797)
Autore di L' incredibile storia di Olaudah Equiano, o Gustavus Vassa, detto l'Africano
Sull'Autore
One of the most remarkable figures in the history of African literature is Olaudah Equiano, who is also known as Gustavus Vassa. He was born into an Igbo community that he called Essaka, or most probably Isieke, in what is now the Ihiala local government area of the Anambra State of Nigeria. mostra altro Captured and sold into slavery at the age of 12, he was taken to the West Indies. There he was resold to a British naval officer who helped him acquire an education and some nautical experience. When Equiano was beginning to consider himself a free man, he was unexpectedly sold again to a Philadelphia trader, for whom he undertook business trips to the West Indies. These trips enabled Equiano to make enough money to buy his freedom. As a free man, Equiano continued his vocation as a sailor and traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. He eventually joined the abolitionist movement in Great Britain, where he settled down as a respectable African European, married an English woman, and had two children. Equiano moved in high social circles, wrote and spoke frequently in various public media on abolition issues, and petitioned the British Parliament on the evils of slavery. But by far his most important contribution to the abolition movement was his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, which was first published in London in 1789. Not only was The Interesting Narrative an eloquent diatribe against the evils of slavery; its early chapters presented a thoroughly idyllic picture of the culture, social life, and geographical environment of his Igbo home, which he describes as "a charming, fruitful vale." In the autobiography, Equiano refutes the detractions of African peoples in European and oriental literatures, religious dogmas, and philosophical and ethnographic writings. He emerges as the first spokesperson of pan-African nationalism, black consciousness, negritude, and a whole range of other contemporary African and African American intellectual movements. The Narrative is a mixture of factual ethnographic and historical details, debatable assertions, and outright fallacies; it is as mystifying as it is revealing. So powerful is its eighteenth-century rhetorical style that, despite the assertion in its title that it was "written by himself," few of his white contemporaries were convinced that such elegant prose and humane sentiments could be written by an African. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno
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Opere di Olaudah Equiano
Opere correlate
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1 (1990) — Collaboratore, alcune edizioni — 255 copie
American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation (2012) — Collaboratore — 122 copie
Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told By Themselves (2005) — Collaboratore — 94 copie
The Penguin Book of Migration Literature: Departures, Arrivals, Generations, Returns (2019) — Collaboratore — 71 copie
I Was Born a Slave: An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives: Volume One, 1770-1849 (1999) — Collaboratore — 43 copie
Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century (1996) — Collaboratore — 40 copie
Lapham's Quarterly - Lines of Work: Volume IV, Number 2, Spring 2011 (2011) — Collaboratore — 29 copie
Early Black British Writing: Olaudah Equiano, Mary Prince, and Others (2003) — Collaboratore — 9 copie
Slave Narrative (Six Pack 1)- Uncle Tom's Cabin, Twelve Years A Slave, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation,… (2015) — Collaboratore — 7 copie
Voices From Slavery: The Life and Beliefs of African Slaves in Britain (2007) — Collaboratore — 2 copie
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Altri nomi
- Vassa, Gustavus
Weston, Gustavus - Data di nascita
- 1745
- Data di morte
- 1797-03-31
- Luogo di sepoltura
- Whitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road, London, England, UK
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- Kingdom of Dahomey
- Nazione (per mappa)
- Nigeria
- Luogo di nascita
- Essaka, Kingdom of Dahomey (now Nigeria)
- Luogo di morte
- London, England, UK
- Luogo di residenza
- Essaka, Kingdom of Dahomey (now Nigeria)
Barbados
Virginia, British America
London, England
Montserrat
Mosquito Coast (mostra tutto 8)
Soham, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Sierra Leone - Attività lavorative
- writer
merchant
explorer
sailor
plantation manager - Organizzazioni
- Sons of Africa
London Corresponding Society - Breve biografia
- Olaudah Equiano was born to a noble family in the African kingdom of Benin in approximately 1745. While still a boy, he was kidnapped, enslaved, and taken to the West Indies. For the next eleven years he traveled from the Americas to Europe and through the Caribbean. After being freed in 1767, he moved to London, became an active abolitionist, and helped freed slaves settle in the African colony of Sierra Leone. In 1789 he published his best-selling autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African which served as the model for many later writers, including Frederick Douglass. He died in England in 1797, survived by his wife, Susanna Cullen, and their two daughters. [from The Kidnapped Prince , an adaptation of his autobiography by Ann Cameron. (2005)]
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Recensioni
L'incredibile storia di Olaudah Equiano, o Gustavus… di Olaudah Equiano
Questa che è la prima autobiografia di uno schiavo nero (1789) ha dovuto attendere 220 anni, e una minuscola casa editrice, per vedere la luce in italiano. Oltre ad essere un documento eccezionale, è anche un avvincente libro di avventure, poiché l’ex schiavo nigeriano («l’etiope oppresso», come si firma), rapito (all’età di 11 anni), venduto (in Virginia) e rivenduto (in Inghilterra), arriva infine a riscattarsi e naviga ogni mare, Polo Nord compreso, prima di fissarsi a Londra dove si dedica alla causa abolizionista. Fattosi battezzare per evitare di perdere, oltre alla terra, anche il Cielo, mostra comunque un sincero interesse alla nuova fede e sparge di citazioni bibliche il suo racconto.… (altro)
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- Opere
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- Utenti
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- Popolarità
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- Voto
- 3.7
- Recensioni
- 37
- ISBN
- 153
- Lingue
- 5
- Preferito da
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