Google celebrates Olaudah Equiano’s birthday

CAIRO – 16 October 2017: Google celebrates the birthday of the Nigerian author Olaudah Equiano on Monday. Equiano was a prominent Nigerian writer, activist and trader. He was enslaved as a child, and managed to obtain his freedom later on.

After becoming free, Olaudah went on trying to end the slave trade in the British colonies; supporting the British movement to abolish the slave trade.

Travelling to London after his freedom, he became known as Gustavus Vassa; one of the leaders of the Sons of Africa group in London. Forming an Anti-Slave movement in 1780s, Equiano shed light on the tragic life of slaves.

Equiano published his autobiography “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oluadah Equiano” in 1789. His book aided the ratification of the British Slave Trade Act in 1807. The book focused on the horror of slavery and the psychological and physical pain that slaves suffered from.

In terms of literature, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oluadah Equiano” belongs to Slave Narrative literature. Slave Narrative is a literary genre that is basically composed of chronicle writings by slaves. They narrate their experience from slavery to freedom in an emotional literary style.

Slaves were mainly taken from Africa and the Caribbean. They were oppressed for their dark skin, and treated as sub-human. The slavery phenomenon was spread in the colonizing kingdoms such as The British Empire.

“The Life of Frederick Douglass” is one of the most known slave narrative books.