Olaudah Equiano’s ‘Interesting’ Route

Abstract

Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative is a classic in what is commonly defined in literary studies: ‘slave narratives’. This fascinating text has been studied to keep the memory of the slave trade alive, to show the horror of such a human trade, to emphasize the suffering of the greatest human displacement ever. The research perspectives have mainly targeted the knowledge of what life was like under slavery. Stories of slaves narrated from the inside are indeed of great importance to study such humiliating human experiences. As a slave, Olaudah Equiano has succeeded to free himself, not by escaping from his master but by buying his own self, thus becoming his own master. Literate, he has fought to abolish slavery and he has succeeded to live an integrated life among the British, marrying an Englishwoman, writing his memoirs. Olaudah Equiano has inspired many critical studies. These studies have been interested in looking into his spiritual quest as he has become a Christian Methodist. His new adopted religion has saved his soul, after a life without freedom. My proposition for the conference on transport will move away from this approach of Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography. I propose to revisit The Interesting Narrative by working on the literality of his text. My paper will therefore concentrate on the travels, forced or not, on what he has seen, what he has described in his narrative in terms of scenery and human relationships. I shall analyse the way he has described his ‘transports’ and portrayed the places he has seen, knowing that he has travelled extensively within the 18th century British Empire, from Africa to England to the West Indies, back to Africa then to Jamaïca, to America, but also to France and Spain. I shall study the narrative text in terms of style and power of evocation by relating the words used to the psychological situation of the described moment, enhancing thus the literary quality of the text, its power to convey such ‘particular’ trips. I shall investigate into the routes and the transport (s) he has taken, forced or desired. Through this approach, I shall analyse the fascinating route of a man who should have stayed in his mother country, Nigeria.