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 17th
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
Comments
Post a Comment