Olaudah Equiano the forgotten Anioma Autobiographer and Merchant seaman By Emeka Esogbue

No attempt has been made by Anioma people over the years to render statistics on the number of Anioma victims of Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Thus, Anioma people that were subjected to inhuman treatment, deprivation and long-time suffering during the period of the illicit trade appear to have been forgotten. Perhaps, the best known Anioma Trans-Atlantic slave victim was Olaudah Equiano (C. 1745-1797) who was captured from African coast at the age of 11 and forced into a slave-bound ship heading to Barbados.

Widely known in his days as Gustavus Vassa, a name christened him by Captain Paschal who bought him at £40, Olaudah who was later sold to Captain James Doran was again sold to Robert King but he worked hard enough to be able to save £40 to buy back his freedom from his master. He then came to London where he worked as a seaman, steward and an acting captain. He was consequently taught how to read and write and also tutored in mathematics. Thus he became literate. Olaudah later became a Christian and was on February 9, 1759 baptized at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster. In 1792, he married Susan Cullen, from Ely.

Some researchers still claim to doubt his origin particularly a certain American researcher who claimed that he must have been born in Europe; he never traveled to Africa all his life and that his autobiography was purely a work of fiction. Such claim can only undermine his ethno-African origin and by extension resonate what Africans fear in westerners, the tendency to relegate Africans to the background at any given moment. In the said autobiography, titled ‘The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano’, Olaudah wrote that he hailed from the Igbo-speaking part of Essaka (Ashaka) in present day Nigeria. This Essaka (Ashaka), he emphasized was subject to the Oba of Benin at the time, meaning that Ashaka in the 17^th C was an extension of the Benin Empire. Olaudah’s information may very well coincide with the foundation of the settlement which the legend of the people maintain can be traced to Esume, a Benin migrant said to have founded the settlement. That Essaka or Ashaka community of Anioma is today located in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State.

Dr Joseph Egwu, Research Editor of Anioma Essence Magazine who has written analytically on Olaudah’s ethnic background has noted that if the name ‘Olaudah Equiano’ which the Europeans corrupted over the centuries is to be rendered in Ukwuani dialect, it will certainly mean ‘Oluada Ekwuano’. Olaudah would become an abolitionist who later contributed in ending slavery. Olaudah died in 1797 and very sadly, he never returned to Essaka (Ashaka), his hometown.

Anioma people should work hard to immortalize our Diokpa Olaudah Equiano, a model of Anioma character and hard-work and also identify other Anioma sons and daughters who were carried off into slavery and immortalize them as the people are best situated to do this in memory of their kinsmen. To start with, the people of Ashaka or Anioma nation as a whole could raise a cenotaph in memory of Olaudah Equiano in any part of Ashaka or Anioma in remembrance of the heroic Anioma son.

Originally published by Emeka Esogbue on his Facebook wall, September, 2015