Vassa's Legacy

The legacy of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, can be divided into two parts chronologically. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has demonstrated, the The Interesting Narrative was in many ways the model for the genre of "slave narratives" that were important in the abolitionist movement in the United States in the nineteenth century. These narratives allowed the voices of those who had been enslaved to be heard. The recovery of the biographies and autobiographies has been a major achievement of the Federal Writers' Project (1936-1940) and the North American Slave Narratives in Documenting the American South organized by William L. Andrews. Initially, the author of The Interesting Narrative was identified as Gustavus Vassa, the name Olaudah Equiano only being used as confirmation that the author was born in Africa. This phase of identification lasted well into the 1960s. The second phase of the legacy of the autobiography can be traced chronologically to the late 1960s, when literary scholar Paul Edwards published a reprint and G.I. Jones introduced an excerpt of the autobiography in his analysis of Vassa's childhood in Philip D. Curtin's inspirational Africa Remembered: Narratives of West Africa from the Era of Slavery (1967). The first modern edition of the complete text of The Interesting Narrative is attributed to Edwards (1967). 

Since then, The Interesting Narrative has almost always been credited to Olaudah Equiano, not Gustavus Vassa. Since the 1970s, Olaudah Equiano has emerged as an historic figure, the adoption of his birth name representing a political statement rather than historical accuracy in how the author actually saw himself or the way people at the time referred to him. The many editions that have appeared since 1967 and the critical essays written about the man refer to Olaudah Equiano, and even to Equiano, as if that was a surname. In the years since 1967, the widespread recognition of this figure as Olaudah Equiano has shaped his legacy.

Some of the many recognitions of Vassa's legacy, often attributed to him under his birth name, Olaudah Equiano, include:

• The International Astronomical Union named a crater on Mercury "Equiano" after the historic figure in 1976.

• The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano, a children’s book based on Vassa’s autobiography, written by Ann Cameron, was published by Random House in 1995. 

• Arthur Torrington and Samuel B King founded The Equiano Society in London, England in November of 1996. The Equiano Society aims to celebrate and familiarize the public with the life, stories, and accomplishments of Vassa.

Official website: https://equiano.uk/the-equiano-society/ 

• Son of Africa: The Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano (1996), produced by the BBC and directed by Alrick Riley, was a 28-minute documentary that depicted Vassa’s life, and contextualized his time as a slave and abolitionist. 

• The Church of England honoured Vassa as “Olaudah Equiano” in its Calendar of Saints on 30 July, which was finalized in 2000. His name is included along with other abolitionists against the slave trade, like Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce.  

• A bust attributed to Equiano was included in Martin Bond's sculpture Wall of the Ancestors in Deptford, London in 1997. The bust was displayed alongside other historical figures such as Queen Elisabeth I and Sir Francis Drake.

• Vassa's life and achievements were included under the name Olaudah Equiano in the National Curriculum in 2007, the year of the celebration in Britain of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, together with William Wilberforce and Marry Seacole. 

• A statue named after Equiano was erected in Telegraph Hill Lower Park, New Cross, London, in 2008. The statue depicts a bust of Vassa, as well as pictures illustrating the slave trade, with one image being captioned “the traffic of slaves spreads like a disease and damages everything it touches.” It was made by the students of Edmund Waller School, and funded by the Lewisham Library. 

• In 2012, The Daily Mail reported that Vassa, along with Wilberforce and Seacole, were expected to be removed from the curriculum. This decision infuriated many, as the change in curriculum meant reverting to studying traditional historic figures, most of which are white men. 

The Daily Mail article can be accessed here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2254705/Gove-faces-war-equality-activists-axes-Labours-PC-curriculum-dropped-greatest-figures-history-lessons-Leaked-drafts-new-history-curriculum-emerge.html 

• In January of 2013, a petition led by Operation Black Vote requested that the Education Secretary allow the National curriculum to continue teaching about Vassa. In addition to this, an open letter, signed by Reverend Jesse Jackson, was sent to The Times objecting the removal of the man from the curriculum.

The open letter can be found here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/teach-pupils-about-great-black-britons-xzgv8rzlzh3 

• Google Doodle honored the man as Equiano on October 16th of 2017, by asserting the date was the supposed 272nd year since his birth.

More information can be found here: https://www.google.com/doodles/olaudah-equianos-272nd-birthday 

• Google Cloud named an underwater cable “Equiano” in 2019. The cable extends from Portugal to the West Coast of Africa, concluding in South Africa, and will be used to broaden networking capabilities in African countries. Its first phase is anticipated to be completed in 2021. 

• A green plaque was unveiled on 11 October 2020, at 73 Riding House Street in the City of Westminster to commemorate Vassa’s residence there (then 10 Union Street) in 1789. It was presented as a part of Black History Month and its unveiling was accompanied by music composed by Professor Ian Hall, played by musicians from Trinity College of Music.

A picture of the plaque can be found here: London Remembers - Memorials

• A Wikipedia page titled “Olaudah Equiano” was created in 2006 and has since been expanded into a detailed account of his life by numerous contributors. The page includes sections such as his Early Life and Enslavement, his Escape, his Freedom, and posits him as a Pioneer of the abolitionist cause.

Link to wiki page here: Wikipedia - Olaudah Equiano

In addition to these impressive tributes, numerous works about Vassa, under the name Olaudah Equiano or simply Equiano, have been produced for or proceeded the 2007 bicentenary of Britain's abolition of the slave trade:

• Soweto Kinch, a jazz artist, recorded a song titled "Equiano's Tears” in his first album, Conversations with the Unseen (2003). The album was eventually nominated for the Mercury Prize.

• Vassa was included as a character in the film Amazing Grace (2006). He was portrayed as Olaudah Equiano by the musician and composer, Youssou N'Dour.

More information can be found here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454776/ 

• Vassa was portrayed a Olaudah Equiano by Israel Oyelumade in African Snow (2007), a play by Murray Watts, which takes place in the mind of John Newton, a captain in the slave trade who later became an Anglican cleric and hymn writer. It was first produced at the York Theatre Royal as a co-production with the Riding Lights Theatre Company, transferring to the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End and then undertaking a national tour. 

More information can be found here: http://onevoiceyork.org.uk/african-snow/ 

• A children’s book entitled Equiano: The Slave with the Loud Voice and His Fight Against the Slave Trade (2007), was written by Robert Hume and illustrated by Cheryl Ives. It was published in March of 2008.

More information can be found here: Goodreads - Equiano

• BBC 7 Radio released an adaptation of Vassa’s biography, entitled Grace Unshackled – The Olaudah Equiano Story (2007). The man, portrayed as Equiano, was voiced by David Oyelowo, and Vassa’s wife, Susannah, by Jessica Oyelowo. 

• Jeffery Kissoon portrayed Vassa as Equiano in the 2007 play An African Cargo, written by Margaret Busby and staged at the Greenwich Theatre in London. The story was remade into the movie Belle (2013), omitting the man as a character. 

• Danny Sapani guest starred as Vassa in the second episode of the second season of the BBC series Garrow's Law (2010), a British legal drama that lasted three seasons.

More information can be found here: https://theartsdesk.com/tv/garrows-law-series-2-bbc-one 

• Chika Unigwe, a Nigerian writer, published a fictional memoir attributed to Equiano in Dutch in 2013, titled De zwarte messias. It was later translated into English under the name The Black Messiah. 

Prepared by Renée E. Lefebvre