Shamela, you're right of course, on the doubt about slave writing. Which is why this revelation kind of sucks. If he made part of his narrative up, what else did he fabricate? And Equiano's writing was long considered the most detailed first-hand account of the middle passage. Now, not so much. So what do we actually know about the middle passage from people who survived it? Well, arguably, that much less.
I don't think that there's doubt that Equiano was a slave--he certainly was. He just was a slave born in N. America (probably). Why make up the African bit? Well, he was in England don't forget, and they were working hard to abolish the slave trade. Trade being the operative word here. So you had to have someone who could speak to the material horrors of the trade process, as well as the horrors of slavery itself.
At the conference I just attended, they also made the point that class was still key in these 18th Century narratives. So the most convincing--and palatable--slave writing would come from someone of noble birth. An African prince stolen from his homeland carries more weight than a self-made man at this juncture.
So interesting! I don't think any of this came up in G_reenfield's class when we read it.
It makes me think about the controversy about Alex Haley and Roots. I believe, although I could be wrong, Haley did research, found true stories but fabricated that they were from his family tree. Roots riveted mainsteam America when the TV movie of it was shown over the course of a week or something. I remember it myself and it seemed all the (white) people in my neighborhood in Detroit were talking about it. Then the expose that Roots was fiction because it didn't represent Haley's individual roots, which somehow discredited it. The impulse seemed like, Thank god we white people don't have to feel responsible for that because it's all Haley's fantasy. But the fact that African Americans CAN'T research their own family trees beyond a certain point is entirely due to slavery, which split families. Recently, there was a show on PBS where famous black people, like Whoopie and Henry Louis Gates, took DNA tests to see what tribe in Africa they were from. None of them went in to it with any idea. I'm going to netflix that show because I only read about it.
Yeah--I've got to see that show too. What the DNA person said at that conference was that it doesn't really work that way. There are certain genotypes that are concentrated in certain parts of the world, but there's no way to "prove" that you are a Zulu.
Interestingly, someone in my disability studies seminar talked about an African American activist who engaged in a DNA test to trace his roots--to find out that--oops--there was no evidence of African ancestry at all. Instead, he was likely Filipino.
His response? Fuck that. I feel black, so I am black.
I don't think that there's doubt that Equiano was a slave--he certainly was. He just was a slave born in N. America (probably). Why make up the African bit? Well, he was in England don't forget, and they were working hard to abolish the slave trade. Trade being the operative word here. So you had to have someone who could speak to the material horrors of the trade process, as well as the horrors of slavery itself.
At the conference I just attended, they also made the point that class was still key in these 18th Century narratives. So the most convincing--and palatable--slave writing would come from someone of noble birth. An African prince stolen from his homeland carries more weight than a self-made man at this juncture.
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It makes me think about the controversy about Alex Haley and Roots. I believe, although I could be wrong, Haley did research, found true stories but fabricated that they were from his family tree. Roots riveted mainsteam America when the TV movie of it was shown over the course of a week or something. I remember it myself and it seemed all the (white) people in my neighborhood in Detroit were talking about it. Then the expose that Roots was fiction because it didn't represent Haley's individual roots, which somehow discredited it. The impulse seemed like, Thank god we white people don't have to feel responsible for that because it's all Haley's fantasy. But the fact that African Americans CAN'T research their own family trees beyond a certain point is entirely due to slavery, which split families. Recently, there was a show on PBS where famous black people, like Whoopie and Henry Louis Gates, took DNA tests to see what tribe in Africa they were from. None of them went in to it with any idea. I'm going to netflix that show because I only read about it.
Reply
Interestingly, someone in my disability studies seminar talked about an African American activist who engaged in a DNA test to trace his roots--to find out that--oops--there was no evidence of African ancestry at all. Instead, he was likely Filipino.
His response? Fuck that. I feel black, so I am black.
Reply
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