[lit-ideas] "The Interesting Narratives of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, written by himself"
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:07:55 EDT
JL:
>>Geary is a better mathematician than I --
Geary:
>Yes, I'm greatly admired for my math skills.
So you can help us here.
In her biography of Olaudah Equiano (the name, Olaudah, is Nigerian for "O,
such a loud man") Dr. Acholonu writes in "O. O. 1." -- it's a PhD originally:
"ETHNOMETHODOLOGY"
"For this project I have thoroughly applied ethnomethodology,
the methodology of Goffman and Sacks. This strongly relies
on oral hisdtory. I have been fortunate to be able to interview
six living respondents (back in the 1980s) who actually
remembered growing up with Equiano, before his capture
in the mid-18th century"
>Yes, I'm greatly admired for my math skills.
Okay then. Assuming Equiano was a _boy_ (or as I prefer 'lad' since 'boy'
has a "slavish ring of connotations around it) when he was captured -- say, 6
years old, we may assume that these respondents were younger, say, 2 years old
each -- the six of them.
Now, it's just a matter of addition. Middle of 18th century is
1750
to which we add 2
_________
1752.
And now we add the quantity of years up to say, 1981.
For that we need to do a diminution first:
1981
- 1752
_________
229 years.
No we add: 229
+ 2
_______
231
This shows the respondents of the 1981 survey were, the six of them, 231
years old each.
In ethnomethodological terms -- relying on 'oral memory' this IS possible.
But is it _credible_?
I found the book by Equiano, available online, a bit on the boring, heavy
side. He seems slightly pretentious, as when he said he was either to short or
too talkative to be a 'good slave'.
Also he keeps being too self-critical on his English ("I'm just an
unlettered African", "have a smatter of English", "rudimentary but intelligible
English", "The English bad bad bad" -- "my father was a king", etc. -- a bit
too
good to believe and I fear there is a good hand of 'ghost writing' here.
Which is wrong, since it's sometimes interesting to hear the tale of slavery
from a former slave-trader where we must witness the _passage_ of mind (the
'middle passage of the mind' as it were. Whereas Equiano knew that slavery
was wrong all the time.
An interesting thing is that the first who kidnapped (I hate the word, but
'rape' has gained other associations today) Equiano were fellow Nigerians.
I also liked his idea of leaving the USA where he thought he could be
kidnapped (again that hateful word) anytime into slavery -- Since they used
special
instruments to keep them shut, his talkativeness would not have been of much
use, and while short and petite, he feared that slave-owners would still
find a use for him.
He settled in the Home Counties in England, married a white woman (I
believe) and had two daughters. One of his achievements was to export all the
former
slaves in England to Sierra Leone. Knowing what a horrible place that is
(comparable to the docks of Buenos Aires) I'm never sure if this was a GOOD
idea.
Incidentally this reminds of the Welsh. They left Liverpool (356 of them) in
the "Mimosa" (name of a flower) to found a real "Wales". Never made it to
Buenos Aires, but continued deep south, and settled on the Valley of the Black
River and started growing apples, and founding tea houses. YET I don't think
IN THEIR MINDS they ever thought that Argentina (or Patagonia) provided for
the spiritual motherland that the real CYMRU is. I guess in their hearts they
always felt (and feel) like second-rate Welsh.
And that is because Home is where your Heart is.
Cheers,
JL
Cheers,
JL
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