Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Equiano Celebrated at Howard University Event - Higher Education

Equiano Celebrated at Howard University Event - Higher Education: n honor of the 225th anniversary of the publication of Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography, Howard University held a panel discussion over the weekend where scholars gathered to celebrate modern day African-American scholarship, which they say can trace its roots and inspiration back to Equiano.

In the preface to his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself, Equiano wrote: “I am not so foolishly vain as to expect from [this book] either immortality or literary reputation.”

Yet, the former slave and self-made man achieved just that.

Equiano’s narrative, widely read in colleges and universities across the nation, describes an early childhood in an Igbo village in present day Nigeria. According to the author’s account, he was kidnapped at age eleven and transported to the West Indies via the Middle Passage where he was sold into slavery.