The Life of Olaudah Equiano

The 2006 film Amazing Grace contains the following dialogue:

Barbara Spooner Wilberforce: I met the African.

William Wilberforce: Equiano.

Barbara Spooner Wilberforce: He came to town with a hundred copies of his book. They sold in an hour.

The book being spoken of is The Life of Olaudah Equiano, a slave narrative.

This may seem like an odd choice for my Lenten reading. Bradshaw and Hoffman's Passover and Easter: Origin and History to Modern Times postulated that after the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 AD, two Passover narratives emerged, one Christian and the other Jewish. The Christian story evolved into what is today Easter. The understanding that Christ is our Passover seems to have been lost in the Western church. In my past, the Paschal mystery was not at the heart of the Christian story. Christmas, Santa Claus and consumerism replaced Christ's passion. As an adult, I have sought to change my focus. My family celebrates Passover, the preparatory period before Passover, and the count down toward Pentecost.

Each year as I prepare for Pentecost, I make reading selections to teach me spiritual truths. One year I focused on leavened and unleavened bread. Another year I read the church fathers. This year, I am immersing myself into understanding the concept of slavery. Because, the truth is, I don't know that I have ever come to a point where I understand myself as a slave to sin or a slave to God. I rarely hold a mirror up and gaze at the ugliness of my heart. I don't understand what it means to be a slave to God. I only understand slavery in a negative sense. What does it look like to have a benevolent master? And what does it mean to be a faithful servant?

Equiano was born in the Republic of Benin in West Africa. He was kidnapped and forced into domestic slavery as a young boy. After a time, he was brought to the coast where he encountered white men for the first time. He was sold to slave traders and later bought his freedom. His story humanized the African slaves and assisted the abolitionists cause.

One of the first things that caught my eye when I read this book was Equiano's description of the religion on his youth, Vodun. My children are Haitians living in diaspora. They were adopted and brought to the United States. Some conservative Christians openly voiced their belief that Haiti's recent earthquake was a punishment from God; Haitians are cursed because supposedly their ancestors made a pact with the devil. In my rebuttal, I pointed out the similarities between the West African monotheistic religions and ancient Judaism.

And, here I cannot forbear suggesting what has long struck me very forcibly, namely, the strong analogy, which, even by this sketch, imperfect as it is, appears to prevail in the manner and customs of my countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the Land of Promise, and particularly the Patriarchs, while they were yet in that pastoral state which is described in Genesis -- an analogy which alone would induce me to think that the one people had sprung from the other.

And, I was struck by Equiano's understanding of Romans 8:28. Oh for eyes that see.

Now every leading providential circumstance that happened to me from the day I was taken from my parents to that hour, was then, in my view, as if it had but just then occurred. I was sensible of the invisible hand of God, which guided and protected me, when in truth I knew it not: still the Lord pursued me, although I slighted and disregarded it; this mercy melted me down. When I considered my poor wretched state, I wept, seeing what a great debtor I was to sovereign free grace.

Oh, and the actor who played Equiano in Amazing Grace is an amazing vocalist!