Essay 2 - Compare and contrast Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass on their representations PDF

Preview

Summary

Compare and contrast Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass on their representations of Africa and African peoples. Consider the context in which they were writing (time, place, their gender, their social-economic standing). What audiences did they need to appeal to and how did this affect how the...

Description

Question: Compare and contrast two of the poets from this section on their representations of Africa and African peoples. Consider the context in which they were writing (time, place, their gender, their social economic standing). What audiences did they need to appeal to and how did this affect how they imaged and represented their “homelands?” You may also want to consider how they use figurative language, such as metaphor and allusion, in their imaginings of Africa and its peoples.

The slaves who learned to help to free themselves and others. When discussing the significance of the fight for equality for African people in whitemen countries, people, myself included, tend to think about the modern historical events and people, such as the Civil Rights Movement in the US in the 1950s, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, etc. These events are undoubtedly important to the freedom of African Americans specifically, and black people in the world in general. However, tracing back the history, there were many great African slaves, who had worked diligently to establish the fundamental foundations for the abolishment of slavery for their people. Among them, Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass were probably the two most significant narrators for their representation of Africa and African people to provide testimony against slavery. Therefore, it is crucial to learn more about the two poets and examine their outstanding narrative, which had helped to free their people. Olaudah Equiano’s biggest achievement is The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa. This book was one of the earliest books written and published by African writers and was the first one that was written as a narrative of the author’s life. However, before analyzing his work, including the context, language, and representation of Africa and Africa, it is fundamental to know a bit about Equiano’s life. According to the book, The Norton Anthropology of African American Literature written by Henry Gates, Olaudah

Equiano claimed that he was born in an Ibo village in Nigeria in 1745. At the age of 11, he and his sister were kidnapped at their own house and were later sold as a slave. After two years of being forced to travel to different locations by ship, which experience he portrayed as horrible and inconceivable, he was officially owned by a British naval Lieutenant, Michael Pascal. According to the lecture, with the time serving this Lieutenant, Equiano was given a new name, Gustavus Vassa, and also had a chance to learn how to read and write, and later converted to Christianity in 1759. However, his life changed dramatically when he was sold to Robert King, who taught him seagoing commercial, which helped him earn enough money to buy his freedom from his owner, and legally became a free man at the age of 21 (Gates, 2014). After spending many times trying different careers, such as hairdresser, sailor, and even opening a plantation in Central America, Equiano got involved in the movement of the abolishment of slavery in London in 1786 and became a quite successful speaker. In the same city in 1789, he finished his The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, which helped to provide evidence against slavery and transferred him from a normal to a wealthy man, who received respect and had a political voice at that time. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa was written when the movement against slavery became popular in Great Britain. Using his skills in writing in English and taking advantage of his African heritage, he was able to establish his credibility to his main audience, the European people, about the criticism against European imperialism. According to Henry Gates, Africa was represented as a “moral judgment” against the European imperialists and slaveowners. Equiano also uses his image in specifically to represent the struggles and poor conditions that African people, who were taken as a slave from their homelands, had to suffer. Moreover, his representations also liberate the mindset of his white

readers from a “culturally enforced sense of superiority” and help to connect their sympathy, understanding, and humanity to Africa and African people (Gates, 2014). In other words, his representations of Africa and African people were the first testimony written in English to expose the crime of European slaveholders and kidnappers to the public, and to be used later for the abolitionists to put an end to slavery. Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer against slavery in the 19 th century and was also a significant national abolitionist for his people after gaining his freedom. His most famous work reflected in his first autobiography, Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, which portrayed his life, from being a slaved kid to a free man. He was born into slavery between 1816 and 1818 in Maryland, and was separated from his mother when he was still an infant. Growing up as a slaved kid without any love from parents was hard, hunger and cold were the common experience. At the age of 12, he was exposed to literary by his owner’s wife, Ms. Auld, and later became successful in learning by being taught by his poor white friends and observed the white workers. However, when his owner discovered that he could read, he was sold to a harsher owner to prevent him from learning, where he got punished regularly. Later, in 1838, he successfully escaped to the North and became a freeman. As a free African American, he got involved in the abolishment of slavery for his people and became a popular speaker, describing his experiences as a slave to the public. In 1845, feeling that being an influenced lecturer was not enough, Frederick Douglass finished his slave narrative to provide the public an insight into his slaved life before. The Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave was also written in the abolishment of the slavery movement, but in the US. In his autobiography, Africa was not represented much. Douglass only focused on the representation of himself as a slave to fight to

achieve his freedom. As Gates describes in his book, The Norton Anthropology of African American Literature, it was the style of self-representation that contributed to the reputation of the book to his main audience, the white readers, especially those who were involved in the abolishment. Through describing the struggles and difficulties that he had to face, such as growing up without parenthood, frequent punishment by the slaveholders, cold and hunger, etc. as well as dramatizing the evolution of his self-consciousness, the autobiography provided information about the lives of African American people for his audience. In other words, Douglass uses himself as a metaphor to present his people and their desire and determination to freedom. It is important to recognize that the Equiano had a huge impact on the writing style and the structure of Douglass’ narrative. Both of the autobiographies start with their author’s hard lives as a slave, then their difficult journeys to freedom and exposure to Christianity. Their representations of their people also share some similarities. That is, both of them describe the hardships and severe living conditions of themselves to represent for what most African people had to suffer and the image of Africa only in Equiano’s introduction, where says he was kidnapped from his Fatherland, to inform their white readers about crime of slavery and push for the abolishment of that activity. In conclusion, both poets had expanded the knowledge of white readers about the image of Africa and African people, and raised the public’s awareness of the cruelty of bondservant. With the influence of Equiano’s on Douglass’ style and structure, despite their living in different time periods, both of the representations of African people, and Africa in particular, carried the same purpose, which was to advocate for the abolishment of slavery in the European countries and America.

References: Gates, H. (2014). The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (3 rd Volume). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN-10: 0393911551....