acholonu home.pdf - equiano's world

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DOI: 10.1177/002198948702200102 1987; 22; 5 The Journal of Commonwealth Literature

Catherine Obianju Acholonu Anthropological Search

The Home of Olaudah Equiano - a Linguistic and

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A rticles

The Home of Olaudah

Equiano - a Linguistic andAnthropological SearchCatherine Obianju AcholonuAlvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, Nigeria

; Prefatory note

This article was first written as a purely linguistic survey of Equiano’s suse of English orthography for the transcription of Igbo sounds andideas. It was then entitled &dquo;Who Was Olaudah Equiano? Tracing theOrigin of a Pioneer of Igbo Written Literature&dquo;. The article was firstpresented at the Fifth Ibadan Annual African Literature Conference,29 July - 1 August, 1980. Later it was presented in a number of otherconferences before it was sent to the Nsukka Studies of African Literature(NSAL), a literary journal edited by Emmanuel Obiechina. It was

accepted for publication, but the issue was delayed, so the same articlewas sent to the Co-Editors of TheJournal of Commonwealth Literature, whoreplied that they were willing to publish the article with some revisions.This spurred me to undertake some field research to buttress my point,if possible, with cultural and anthropological data. So many years haveelapsed since my first article, about seven years or so; meanwhile NSAL(vol. 4) has struggled its way into the light of day, and, fortunately,did not bear my article, which gives me room to improve on it and tohave it published in the more widely read Journal of CommonwealthL iterature.Once again, I shall start from the linguistic premise which I estab-

lished in my first article. z

IIf we take some words that appear in Equiano’s story (Paul Edwards’s sedition), we will see some crystals of anthobiographical evidence thatthe alphabet he used in transcribing sounds of Igbo words would nothave been used by him if he had the option of writing his story today.



6

Equiano wrote his story at a time when West African languages hadnot yet been put into writing. Therefore he was struggling to put intowriting, using English orthography, Igbo words and sounds. Thus wehave him transcribing his name as Equiano using a -q- which does notexist in Igbo orthography today. Its equivalent is -kw-. Even more strik-ing is his use of the English -e- alphabet to transcribe the Igbo sound[i]. Thus we have Eboe rather than Ibo (notice the reproduction of theEnglish diphthong [ou] or[3u] in Eboe), Embrenche rather than Igburichi,and so on.

I have prepared a table that reflects Equiano’s dilemma and his pos-sible choice of alphabets in the description of sounds, some of whichhad no equivalent in the English language as orthography. The factthat some English alphabets such as -a- are used to describe more thanone or two different sounds, e.g. hand, table, constituted another prob-lem to the bi-lingual author. The following table reflects some Igbosounds, equivalent alphabet-names in English orthography and theirpossible English spellings in usage, i.e. when put in units of words.

Equiano laboured hard to transcribe Igbo words into English; it wasa very arduous task indeed, considering the age at which he must haveceased to interact in the indigenous language and the age at which hewrote his autobiography. If we go through the list of Igbo words in hisbook we find a number of inconsistencies in his transcription. Some-times he simply chose to use the alphabet-name, especially if this con-forms with the sound he wanted to represent. At other times he triedto conform to the norm by incorporating changes which take place whenan alphabet is no longer standing on its own but has been joined withother alphabets to make a word. Equiano’s most striking use of alphabet-names is to be found in such words as

Eboe, Essaka, Embrenche, oye - EboeThe name of the English alphabet -e- is used to describe the almost iden-tical Igbo sound [i]. The phonetic symbol for these two sounds is [i:].Examples are the first -e- in Eboe and Essaka, and the three -e- alphabetsin Embrenche. Today Equiano would have written Ibo or Igbo, Isseke andIgburichi. Equiano also sometimes used the name of the English alphabet-a- to describe the almost identical Igbo sound [e] or [ ). Thus we have



7

Essaka rather than Isseke, even though in some of the later words, heendeavoured to keep close to the English usage. The reason for thisis not far-fetched. He must have realized that if he had written Issekethe actual name of his town would have been lost forever, for the normalEnglish man would have pronounced the word Isseke as (aisi:k) (-e- atthe end of an English word is always silent) therefore he opted for -a-.We also notice a similar dilemma in the rendering of the word Eboe.Since most English words that end with an -o- are pronounced [oe] or[ou] and since the closest similarity to this sound at the end of wordscan be seen in such words as foe, woe, toe, Equiano had more prob-lems with such words as Ah-ffoe, Ah-ffoe-way-cah, and his own namesEquiano and Olaudah, etc. When I first came across the word Ah-ffoe,I was convinced it is made up of two words that mean the same thing,only a dialectic difference. These are ’Aho’ and ’Afq’. Aho is from theOrsu dialect while ’afo’ is more widespread among people of the Isudistrict, around Onitsha and the Ika Igbo the word arno’ is used. Theword Ah-ffoe tells an entire story in itself; a lot ofmeaning and directioncan be drawn from this single word. ‘Aho’ is a word that one encountersin a very small proportion of Igboland - namely the Orsu district,which spans the area between Ozubulu (West) and Orlu (exclusive)on the East, and between Mgbida (South) and the Ideato Local Govern-ment Area on the North (both exclusive). Within this distance of aboutforty to fifty square kilometres the only town whose name sounds closestto Essaka is Isseke, a town in Ihiala local government area in AnambraState. This town was formerly in Orlu division before the creation ofstates in Nigeria.

Equiano’s use of the -f- (Affoe) rather than the -r- (Arp) spoken inOnitsha, Mid-West Igbo and Awka areas, is a pointer to the fact thathe was neither from any of these areas, nor did he journey through themin his captivity. Equiano was most likely taken through the Igbohinterland, through the Isu district (Orlu, Owerri, Okigwe), and downto the Delta region before he was finally shipped off. We cannot relyon his sense of direction, judging from his age and state of mind duringthe journey.Embrenche is a combination of the words Igbu ichi and Afgburi<hi.

Igbu ichi is the act of scarification of the face, while mgburichi is the termused for the generality of men who bear the scarification. The singularform is nwichi. Equiano at his later age must have found it difficult tograsp the difference between the first two words, which he merged intoone word &dquo;Embrenche&dquo;, i.e. Igburichi (from the prefix of one and thesuffix of the other). The -n- sound, I strongly suspect, is Equiano’s wayof rendering the nasal sound in ichi or ich(n)i in Isseke or Orsu dialect.



8

Also he could have confused the word ichi - scarification, with ich(n)i- to crown, which is still in line with nobility. This word is also nasalizedin Isseke or Orsu dialect, but in Isu dialect the word, though nasalizedish(n)i, goes with a voiceless -sh- rather than a voiced -ch- sound.

Equiano’s first name Olaudah could be a rendering of Ola-ude: a ringwith a sonorous sound; or Ola-uda: ring with a loud sound; or Ole-ude:where is the breath, or energy or life? The first two suggestions are morelikely to fit into Equiano’s explanation that his name &dquo;which in ourlanguage signifies vicissitude, or fortunate; also, one favoured andhaving a loud voice and well spoken&dquo; . Ola - ring, is a symbol of goodfortune in Igbo world view.

IIBefore I get down to the description of my journey to Isseke and itsresults, I shall first put across my views and personal attempts at un-ravelling some of the pieces of information supplied by Equiano whichhave constituted stumbling blocks to scholars.

Equiano writes about the Kingdom of Abyssinia, a &dquo;kingdom dividedinto many provinces and districts in one of the most remote and fertileof which, called Eboe, I was born ... in a charming fruitful vale namedEssaka. &dquo;’ The kingdom is Abyssinia, the province or district is Eboe,while Essaka is described as a &dquo;vale&dquo;. Then the author goes on to in-dicate his impression of the distance between this province (Eboe) andthe capital of Benin and to indicate that &dquo;our subjection to the kingof Benin was little more than nominal, for every transaction of thegovernment ... was conducted by the chiefs or elders of the place. &dquo;2Equiano’s point here is that although it was generally understood thatthe empire of Benin had subjected all the other ’provinces’ in the regionof Abyssinia, the Igbo country could only be said to be nominally (i.e.in name or word, not in fact) subjected to the king of Benin. This pointis illustrated by Equiano’s description of the Igbo system of govern-ment which being run by chiefs and elders does not indicate subjectionto any king. Hitherto scholars have tended to interpret the foregoinglines as evidence of Essaka’s subjection to the king of Benin and havethus placed Essaka towards the western side of the Niger.Many things in Equiano’s narration point to the fact that Equiano

could not have been a western or Ika Igbo.The Western Igbo are not known to have been conversant with facial

scarification, or ichi.’ Also I do not know the mid-western Igbos tovenerate the python (Eke) as we do in Isu and Orsu districts of the Igbohinterland. In fact, as far as I am informed the python is killed andeaten among the mid-western Igbo. Equiano tells of the way the python



9

was venerated and courted among his people. &dquo;I was desired by somewise men to touch these that I might be interested in the good omens1 14 Even among these people who venerate the python, mostnotable of which is Njaba and environs, it was difficult to find a peoplewho not only respected the animal but also courted its friendship, tothe extent that children were asked to touch them for the good omenthey brought. These were some of the initial questions which my visitto Isseke helped me to answer. Isseke is one such place where the pythonwas courted as a welcome visitor and good omen.Oye Eboe, which has been interpreted severally as Onye Ibo, Onye

Aboh, etc., was not very difficult to unravel. At first I suspected thatthe word which was used to describe &dquo;stout mahogany-coloured menfrom the South-west of us: we call them Oye-Eboe, which term signifiesred men living at a distance,&dquo; was Equiano’s transcription of the Igboword Oyibo (see No. 13 in table above). Oyibo is a word that signifiesa very lightly coloured person, among our people, i.e. not a European(for the word existed among us before the Europeans appeared). Alsothis term was used in describing albinos. However, Equiano describesthese as &dquo;red men&dquo; who moved from one village to the other tradingon fire-arms, gun-powder, beads, etc., and exchanging these for slaves,men who instigated wars’ and took away slaves in their long sacks.&dquo; b

I thought that these people must be the Aros, there is no other groupof people who are associated with the slave racket, as much as the Arosof the LongJuju of Arochukwu. I had heard that in the olden days theAros were generally very lightly coloured, almost red. I cross-checkedthis with Eze Silver Ibenye Ugbala, Ezeugo III of Okporo in Orlu LocalGovernment Area. Says Ezeugo, &dquo;Yes, the Aros were the people towhom slaves were sold throughout Igboland. They had a very power-ful syndicate for organized slave trade. They were also very huge andfair in colour. People used to refer to them as oyibo, especially children,because of their colour. &dquo;’ 7

I also asked this very knowledgeable traditional ruler of Okporo com-munity if he knew of any anchor shaped coin or currency that was usedin the olden days in Igboland. He said there was, and that it was calledEgo Ikpechi, otherwise called umumu. He showed me one he had in hiscollection and told me it was used in parts of Igboland including Orsuarea (his area) which included Isseke.From the Eze’s house I drove to Isseke. I got to the house of Eze

Anthony Osakwe, the Ezeoha I of Isseke. The Eze received me verywell. And after the traditional kola had been eaten I told him why Ihad come. He said he would conduct a research with his people. Hetook the book, Equiano’s Travels, from me and asked me to repeat my



10

visit after a number of days. When I went back to the Eze after somedays his first word was - &dquo;Eureka! We have traced the man. He wasindeed a native of Isseke, from one of the two ruling families of ourtown.&dquo; I expressed my happiness and then the Eze went on:

When I read what he wrote about Igbu tchi and that his father was from one of the rul-mg families of ‘Essaka’, I knew that if he was from our town, he could only have hailedeither from my kindred, Ubaha, which is the first ruling family of Isseke, or from Dimorikindred, the second of the two ruling families here. You know in Igboland it is not

common or easy to capture children from royal families, such a thing never goes un-noticed. I asked the old men in my kindred if, as far as they could remember, therehad m the olden days, been any boy sold into slavery at a tender age from our kindred.I mentioned the names Equiano, Ikwuano, Ikwuno, Ekweanu etc but they said therewas no such name and that as far as their family histories went there was no memberof the kindred sold into slavery. Then I went to the Dimori kindred. I spoke with theofo title holder of the family, Igwe Agbaka about 95 years old. Igwe told me in con-fidence that there was a little boy who was sold at a very tender age: and that nothinghad been heard of him since then. When I mentioned the boy’s surname and askedIgwe whether there was any such name in his kindred, he said there was, till this day,a family going by the name of Ekwealuo and that in fact the boy who had been soldwas from the Ekwealuo family.

I said I must see this family at once and that I must see Igwe. Eze Osakwefurther told me that when he went to see one of the extended familiesof the Ekwealuo household he saw a small boy of about fifteen whoresembled the man in the portrait on the cover of the book Equiano’sTravels. I could not believe my ears. I said I wanted to get there im-

mediately. So the Eze’s second wife Eunice Ogechi Osakwe was askedto take me and my crew (Miss Chika Olumba, my sister, who helpedin taking records, a student of Theatre Arts, and a photographer) tothe Dimori kindred. When we got there we met Igwe in his obi withsome of his kinsmen and we talked to them about some of the customsof his people, especially the ones mentioned in Equiano’s Travels. In allwe made a total of three visits to Isseke during which we spoke to peopleand took photographs.We were opportuned to meet the entire elders of the Dimori kindred

in a large family meeting on one of our visits. Many of them still borethe ichi marks on their faces. We asked several questions about thecustoms of the village and of Isseke as a whole. I also visited one of theEkwealuo extended families and took photographs of the young headof the family, his wife, baby boy and little brother. I was told that theold men in the family had all died off, leaving only the young ones whowould not be in a position to say much about the family pedigree. Thereis a tragic story behind this unfortunate state of affairs which discre-tion does not allow me to expose to the public. However, I saw the



11

members of the Ekwealuo family and took photographs. I made per-sonal portraits of the two members of the family who so closely resembledOlaudah Equiano - they were Bright Nwabueze Ekwealuo, agedfifteen, and the little boy in the arms of Mrs Paulina Ekwealuo, wifeof Innocent Orusaemeka Ekwealuo. I was told that Bright Nwabuezewas a carbon copy of their grandfather and that many of the membersof the extended family, most of whom were off to other towns, hadfeatures like those of Bright. I noted the small, protruding and brighteyes, the rigid clearly marked lips, the long nose, the long neck; butwhat struck me most was the receding hairline and the forehead, thesmall scalp and the resemblance between the shape of the boy’s scalpand forehead and those of Equiano. I could imagine his looks in thenext thirty-five years. At that stage I had no doubt that I was standingon the ground that Olaudah Equiano had trodden two hundred yearsago as a young boy full of prospects before the slave raiders struck, orso he had thought.Olaudah Equiano was not simply captured, he was sold, according

to his kinsmen (which is a very shameful thing for a noble family toadmit). Igwe could not tell me why the boy was sold but I believe Ican guess why. People sold their children in those days when they werehighly in debt and could find no way out. But I believe Olaudah wassingled out for sale because of his effeminate nature; his strong tie tohis mother could have raised doubts in his father’s mind or in any ofhis uncles who was in dire need of money. Hence he was sold off withhis sister (who was soon forgotten, being a girl). Olaudah was destinedto get the ichi marks - in Isseke custom boys received the ichi marksat the age of fourteen or fifteen. A man of large means, an ogaranya,was expected to bestow the ichi marks on all his sons. It was a very ex-pensive venture, and was the first step in a series of ceremonies thatwould lead to the nze or ichie position in the land. Ichie Ekwealuo musthave been at a loss for what to do with this boy who even accompaniedhis mother into seclusion during her menstrual cycle. No man wouldhave risked spending so heavily to bestow the ichi marks of manhoodon a boy who was obviously more of a woman than a man. Olaudah,quite unknown to him, must have been the cause of much misunder-standing between his parents. His mother may have wanted him sparedthe scarification, and his father, to avoid the risk of the shame and chagrinthat Olaudah might bring him by constituting a sort of Dauda, or bynot surviving the ordeal (many were known to have died on the scarifica-tion stool), must have opted for the much ‘simpler’ task of getting ridof the boy. The kidnapping of Olaudah and his sister must have beenarranged. Otherwise why were they not at the ilo or ama where chil-



12

dren were more safely guarded by adults and where Equiano himselfhad often played the role of the spy?

III

My interviews with the people of Isseke and with the members of theDimori kindred yielded the following results which I have translatedinto English.Mr Ambrose Osakwe (aged about 65) of Ubaha, Isseke confirmed

Equiano’s story about a sentry who climbed trees and waited to raisealarm if he sighted slave raiders. He said, &dquo;According to what our fathertold us, boys were sent up trees with the horn, odu; while hefty menstood guarding children who always played together in the villageplayground. As soon as an unknown person was sighted, the odu wasblown and the enemy was apprehended. &dquo;

I asked about the people who carried long bags and exchanged whitemen’s goods for slaves. He said they were Aro people who took awayslaves to be sold to Azumili. He said, &dquo;The Aros and their neighboursfrom Abam, Abiriba, Item etc. always sought for and incited warsamong our people and our neighbours because this was an easy wayof obtaining heads and slaves. They made wars throughout Igboland,and they were the main agents of the white slave raiders. They werealso hired by any party seeking revenge of war against another party. &dquo;On war he said &dquo;Our people fought with bows and arrows (uta), as wellas pointed sticks with metal tips (ube) or (otundu) and shields.&dquo; -’

Igwe Agbaka (aged 95) told me, &dquo;Our people were very warlike,the Dimori kindred was known as war Lords&dquo;. I asked him whethertheir women also went to war and he said, &dquo;Our women played theirown part in a war situation. Our fathers told us stories of women whowere known to have captured and killed soldiers during wars. NwibeEzike was a woman among many who captured and killed enemysoldiers. &dquo; This was confirmed by Nze Egwuatu Onwuezike and othersin the gathering.

I asked about the people who counted the years whom Oluadah hadreferred to as Ah-jjoe-way-cah.8 All those present confirmed that themen who counted the years had performed all religious rites amongthe people of Isseke and the entire Igbo nation were people from Nri,who were called Nwanhi (nwanchi or nwanshi in other Igbo dialects). Theywere midgets or dwarfs. At this I burst out with my suspicion - &dquo;don’t tour people refer to dwarfs as Nwika (or Nwaika)?&dquo; The answer wasa general &dquo;yes!&dquo; A small person was scornfully referred to as Nwaika(ugly monkey). I had no doubt in my mind that Olaudah had in mindthe term &dquo;Afo-nwa-, ika&dquo; - a word which must have been used by



13

children to describe the funny looking midgets that went from com-pound to compound rattling out history and legends like local taperecorders. Olaudah must have confused these with the local medicinemen and priests, and with the Nze Nzus, the highest title holders in theland. When they died they were buried by fellow Nze Nzus, no ordinaryperson (non initiate) was allowed to come near the corpses of priestsand Nze Nzus and they were buried in the dead of night. Those whoburied them always came back from a different route. (Igwe Agbaka.)How do you compute the year? &dquo;We know that a year has ended whenwe hear the rattling noise made by an unknown phenomenon that passesthrough our land once a year and only in the evening (as soon as thesun sets).&dquo; The noise is so deafening and yet you can never see thething. We do not know what it is. When it happens all Isseke men,women and children throw out their old utensils and roar in jubila-tion : ’Aho gbara aka la o!’ year, please, go home empty handed!’.&dquo;&dquo;Igwe, is this the way that people of other towns count the year?&dquo; Iasked. &dquo;Not necessarily. Every town has its own symbol for recogniz-ing the end of the year. This is how we, the people of Isseke, recognizethe end of the year among us. Our neighbours, as far as we know, haveother signs from nature for recognizing the end of the year.&dquo; (IgweAgbaka, Egwuatu Onwuezike.) Achebe’s Arrow of God shows one ex-ample of how some Igbo people compute the year.

‘ ‘Equiano wrote that there were two offerings or ceremonies that weremade at harvest, ’before the fruits are taken out of the ground’.What do you say to this?&dquo;

Yes, as soon as the phenomenon which we have just described has taken place we beginto prepare for Ahiajoku (New Yam Festival). Before the fruits are taken out of theground we make two ceremonial offerings called Isa Ire (washing of the tongue) andIle Nsi (rubbing of medicine), preparatory to the actual Ire Ji when the yam seedlingsare taken out of the ground and eaten with thanksgiving to the gods. (Igwe Agbaka.)

As to the smoking of pipes, which Equiano described as the’ ’favouriteluxury&dquo; of the people of Essaka,&dquo; and that these were made fromearth and were fashioned by the women, several people confirmed thatsmoking of pipes was a favourite sport among the people of Isseke,perhaps more than any other people around the same vicinity. In Issekemen especially old men smoked long earthenware pipes (which weremade by the women), women and girls smoked shorter pipes.About Olaudah, the author’s first name, the Eze’s wife Eunice, along

with others present, confirmed that there were names such as Ola-ude

(loud ring, sonorous ring) in Isseke. Igwe and Egwuatu affirmed thatthe Dimori kindred was known as spokesmen of Isseke, and many of



14

their children had names that reflected this fact; Olaudah or Olaudeis one such name. They also told me that the Dimori family, being afamily of judges (king makers), took the ichi very seriously. I could seethat this was so for even today many of them still bear the ichi marks.This cannot be said of other Igbo communities I have been to (I couldnot remember when I last saw a man bearing the ichi marks, beforeI met these people). I could begin to imagine why the ichi (or Embrenche)occupied such a pride of place in Equiano’s anthropological data.

Equiano’s claim that &dquo;we were almost a nation of dancers, musi-cians and poets&dquo; was confirmed during my third visit to Isseke whenI had the opportunity of meeting the elders of the Dimori kindred. Thesemen told me, &dquo;our people are known by our neighbours as musicmakers, singers and dancers. Every joyful occasion in Isseke is anoccasion for the display of several dances by men, women andchildren ... &dquo;’4

Equiano’s claim that his people produced corn, tobacco and cottonwas only partly confirmed by these men. 15 They said that their peopleproduced cotton in abundance and exported to the neighbours. Butthey did not produce tobacco though they smoked it a lot. (Equianomust have nurtured the wrong notion that because his people mademuch use of tobacco they produced it themselves.)

Equiano claims, &dquo;our principal luxury is in perfumes; one sort ofthese is an odeferous wood of delicious fragrance, the other a kind ofearth, a small portion of which is thrown into the fire diffuses a morepowerful odour. We beat this wood into powder and mix it with palmoil with which both men and women perfume themselves.&dquo;&dquo; Igweand Egwuatu told me that their people frequently burned a kind of fruitwhich looked like a piece of wood (six inches or more in length) for itsdelicious odour. They called it Ughaghihi. It was thrown into the fireand the smoke diffused a powerful but delicious perfume in the com-pound. The Uhie, cam wood, which to a child might appear like redearth, was mixed with palm oil and rubbed on the skin. These mentold me that as far as they knew it was the uhie, cam wood, and notthe Ughtghihi, that was mixed with palm oil and applied to the skin.

Equiano’s claim that the women in his town wore golden ornamentsmust have been an exaggeration. Igbo women of mettle in the oldendays, including Isseke women, wore the aka (choral beads) and esuru(heavy ivory beads) on their arms and legs.

Although Isseke people produced cotton, they did not weave cotton,rather they wove raffia into bags, mats and bed covers. They also wovebaskets. These were coloured with the blue colour derived from leavessuch as the alulu, or the edo derived from earth; there were other colours



15

derived from earth, wood and leaves. Uri or uli which was derived fromberries was not used for dyeing cloth, but rather for making marks onthe skin. I was made to understand that the uri or uli was the commonest

colour, the source of which was known to every child, unlike the othercolours with more exotic origin. Equiano was therefore mistaken inassuming that the colours used in dyeing material was derived fromberries.

The wood ash which provided salt, is nothing but Ngu, a type of saltysubstance derived from burnt palm sponge. It is still used today inIgboland for cooking breadfruit and hard foods. It is also used for makingsoap.

Conclusion ’

I have pictures in my possession taken of Equiano’s kinsmen to indicatethe resemblance which is still discernible between Olaudah Equianoand some members of the Ekwealuo’s familv in Isseke. I also have in-cluded pictures reflecting the ichi facial marks on men who are still alivetoday in Isseke, as well as a photograph of the Obi of the custodian ofcustom in the Dimori family - the Igwe Agbaka; this photographreveals beautiful wall paintings which reflect the beauty and artistryof the people and their local culture.Over the years in which the little boy Olaude Ekwealuo travelled

from country to country and from continent to continent, changinghis name to Gustavus Vassa and seldom speaking or hearing hislanguage, so much could have happened to account for the discrepancybetween Ekwealuo and Equiano. It is possible to assume that his originalname was Ekweanuo which he retained but which since had shiftedfrom -n- to -I- among his people. Ekwealuo and Ekweanuo both meanthe same thing (if they agree we shall fight) i.e. Ekwekorita-aluo (a namethat portrays a warlike people). It is equally possible that a change from-I- to -n- was made (consciously or unconsciously) by Equiano himself.It is possible that the Igbo people he met after he left home (who includethose in the West Indies and London) used -nuo (to fight) rather than-luo (to fight), and thus helped corrupt Equiano’s Igbo.

In any case Equiano had plenty of linguistic difficulties which musthave accounted for the discrepancies in spelling. These not withstanding,the closeness between Isseke’s customs and those described by Equiano,the existence of a family by the name of Ekwealuo in one of Isseke’s sruling kindreds, the little boy from this family who had been sold, theresemblance between Equiano in the portrait and Bright Ekwealuo,all accumulate as evidence that Olaudah Equiano was none other thanOlaude Ekwealuo from Isseke in Anambra State of Nigeria, an Igbofrom the Eastern hinterland.



16

NOTES

1 Equiano’s Travels, ed. Paul Edwards, London: Heinemann, 1980, p. 1. First

published 1967 as an abridged edition of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of OlaudahEquiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African, Written by Himself (1789)

2 ibid., p. 1.

3 Paul Edwards, Equiano’s Travels, 2 vols., London: Dawsons, 1969, p. xix.4 Equiano ’s Travels, op. cit. p. 14.

5 ibid., p. 9. 6 ibid., p. 7. 7 Interview with Eze Silver I Ugbala, Ezeugo III of Okporo. 8 Equiano’s Travels, p. 13.9 Compare with Equiano’s description of the end of the year, p. 11. Equiano is

obviously describing the same phenomenon.10 ibid , p. 11.

11 ibid., p. 10.12 See p. 4.13 See p. 3.14 See Equiano’s explanation about dances, pp 3-4.

15 p. 7

16 p. 5.

17 p. 4.

, SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 Acholonu, Catherine O., "Who Was Olaudah Equiano? Tracing the Origin ofa Pioneer of Igbo Written Literature". Paper presented at the Fifth Ibadan AnnualAfrican Literature Conference 29 July- 1 August 1980

2 Edwards, Paul (ed.), Equiano’s Travels, London: Heinemann, 1980.3 Edwards, Paul, Introduction to facsimile edition of Equiano’s Travels, 2 vols.,

London: Dawson, 1969, pp. xviii-xxv.4 Emenyonu, E. N , "Igbo Literary Backgrounds", The Conch, vol. v, nos. 1 & 2,

pp. 43-60.5 Vassa, Gustavus, The Interesting Narratwe of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus

Vassa, the African. Written by himself, London, 1789.Additional note

My informants included two traditional rulers from the Orsu district of Imo and Anam-bra States: Eze Silver Ibenye Ugbala, Ezeugo III of Okporo, and Eze Anthony Osakwe,Ezeoha I of Ubaha, ruling kindred of Isseke; others include members of the Dimoriruling kindred of Isseke, among whom were Nze Igwe Agbaka (95), Nze EgwuatuOnwuezike (75), Mr Ambrose Osakwe (65) - a native doctor from the Ubaha rulingkindred of Isseke - and Mrs Eunice Osakwe, wife of Eze Anthony Osakwe.



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