Equiano is looking to appeal to a huge white British audience within his narrative. He does this by maintaining a certain distance from the text, dissociating from it. He is never accusatory to all white people, he never proclaims hate. But instead shows a fascination and want to be part of the white English culture. He draws connections to his audience mostly through Christianity. He frames himself as a sort of modern day prophet, a chosen one of God. He uses the religion to show he is on the same side as those he appeals to. Some would argue that Equiano’s religion changes to Christianity because of his hardships and experiences as a slave, that God and his image of heaven saved him from his tragedy. I will argue against this, showing that Equiano’s religion changes and develops as he encounters new people and places; it is the people that change him rather than his own tragedy.
Equiano starts his narrative where his life started, in Africa “ in a charming fruitful vale, named Essaka.”(p.35). His religion, like his life, revolved around the land with ceremonies and dance. A religion full of good and evil spirits, without office or a place of worship. “…The natives believe that there is one Creator of all things, and that he lives in the sun, and is girted round with a belt; that he may never eat or drink, but, according to some, he smokes a pipe.” (p.41). He had a sense of nature, life and death but no concept of eternity or the Christian after life. Without an idea of a heaven or judgment day, Equiano lived his life from day to day seeing the magic of life everywhere. His religion changes over the narrative, moving from this youthful belief in the earth, magic and spirits to a rich understanding of God and Christianity.
“As the waves were very high, I thought the Ruler of the seas was angry.”(p.62). Equiano’s sense of magic and spirits comes out in a scene on a trade ship when, after someone falls overboard, the wind stops as well as the boat. “ I believed them to be the rulers of the sea; and as the white people did not make any offering at anytime, I though they were angry with them; and, at last, what confirmed by belief was, the wind just died away, and a calm ensued, and in consequence of it the ship stopped going. I supposed the fish had preformed this, and I hid
myself in the fore part of the ship, through fear of being offered up to appease them, every minute peeping out and quaking.” (p.62). Here is a clear example of Equiano’s understanding of Divinity and the powers of Gods.
Soon after while aboard the same ship Equiano encounters the idea of the Christian God for the first time with his experience of snow. “I then asked him what it was; he told me it was snow, but I could not in anywise understand him. He asked me, if we had such a thing in my country; I told him, No. I then asked him the use of it and who made it; He told me a great man in the heavens named God.”(p.63). God comes into his life in such a beautiful way with the appearance of snow. We see here that Christianity comes to Equiano not through a horrible, tragic event but a beautiful one, through snow and the people aboard the ship.
After this event Equiano goes to church where he is “ Amazed at seeing and hearing the service.” (p.64). Thinking the whites happier then the African people of home. He sees God and the white people who preach Him full of wisdom. He sees Christianity as a religion of its people; full of its people- people he aspired to be like.
Equiano follows this new God, this new religion; into England where he is baptized for fear he might not go to heaven. Here we see a real change from the young boy who believed in spirits to a man who is converting to Christianity. The places he went to, lived in changed and so did he. The people he meet in these said places changed him as well showing him God and Heaven.
Two of these people who play such a large role in Equiano’s religious transformation are the Miss Guernins. These lovely women not only send Equiano to school to help him improve himself but also stand by him at his baptism as Godmother. These women bring a full picture of God and the kingdom of heaven to Equiano’s attention, they are his first religious teachers. “…took great pains to instruct me in the principles of religion and the knowledge of God.
