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Olaudah, whose name meant "the fortunate one," was born in 1745 to an elder among the Ibo (also called Igbo) people living in Benin, the eastern area of present-day Nigeria, in West Africa. Olaudah Equiano was his full name, although later in his life he would also be called Gustavus Vassa. His first few years were fortunate indeed. Indulged as his mother's favorite, he was the youngest son in a large family of comfortable means in a warm, productive land, "almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets."1 Trade with neighboring settlements linked Equiano's people to a far-flung commercial network, but most daily contacts were local, and most disputes were decided by the village elders. Living more than a hundred miles from the coast, the young boy had no contact with European traders and knew nothing of their society. Through local oral histories, however, Equiano probably had heard stories of his own people, the Kingdom of Benin, and the ancient empires and great civilizations to which it was tied. Beginning in ancient times, African storytellers memorized proverbs and tales from their people's history and could recite them to educate and entertain the villagers. As the archivists of their people, these talented and specially trained men were often trusted government advisers respected for their skill.
Equiano lived in a small corner of a vast continent. Second only to Asia in size, Africa has a land area of 11,700,000 square miles, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, almost six times the size of Europe. Its geographical characteristics vary from the dry Sahara Desert in the north, an area the size of the United States, or the Kalahari Desert in the south to the grasslands of the Sudan to some of the most beautiful tropical rain forests in the world, situated in the central regions of the continent. It is a land infi- nitely diverse in climate, terrain, wildlife, and human culture. Between 6000 and 2500 B.C.E., a desert gradually emerged in Africa where once a green belt had existed. Equiano knew that his homeland was but a small corner of this vast expanse; that his nation and its people were rooted in an ancient civilization, indirectly descended from those who migrated south from the fertile Sahara as that region became too dry to sustain agriculture.
Long before, in the fourteenth century B.C.E., the Egyptians had retaken much of northern Africa from the darker skinned peoples of Kush, who retreated southward. Archaeological records reveal that the people of Kush established a strong kingdom based on agriculture, commerce, and iron manufacturing. They built urban centers and massive stone structures and dominated the trade routes to the Red Sea and the ivory markets of northern Africa for many centuries. In the third century C.E. their power was challenged by another emerging nation, occupying the region of present-day Ethiopia centered in the commercial city of Axum. Finally, around 350 C.E., the commercial conflict between these two nations became open warfare that ultimately destroyed Kush, scattering its people among other national groups to the east and to the west, toward the Atlantic coast.2
The contentions creating critical changes in northeastern Africa during this period included religious conflicts. Christianity was taking root in Egypt and spreading to the south and west, challenging traditional religions in those regions. After Rome became Catholic, most African Christians broke away from the Roman Church and formed the Coptic Church. ("Coptic" comes from a Greek word meaning "Egyptian church.") Over many centuries, as it spread, Christianity faced stiff competition from the many traditional local religions and from Islam, which was particularly influential in the region of the Sudan. In regions where Islam was accepted, oral historians added the Koran to their other recitations; in Christian areas they incorporated the Bible.
In the fourth and fifth centuries, a powerful trading nation arose to the southwest of Egypt. It took the name "Ghana" from the title given to its ruler, and by the eighth century it dominated West Africa. It controlled the trade routes across the Sahara that connected Africa with Mediterranean Europe, its people acting as middlemen between the people of West Africa and the Arabs of the north, and imposing tariffs on salt, gold, rubber, ivory, brass, and the small numbers of slaves that flowed north from the grasslands of central Africa. The tariff collected on this trade increased Ghana's wealth, and the wealth made it militarily strong. By the eleventh century Ghana's rulers commanded an army estimated at two hundred thousand warriors. From the north Ghana received the influence of Muslim merchants, Arabic as a written language, and the Islamic faith. The Muslim influence was apparent in its capital city of Kumbi-Saleh, which had not only a national palace and other opulent state buildings but also a Muslim quarter with twelve mosques and guest accommodations for Muslim visitors; Kumbi-Saleh was a center for education as well.
Ghana's wealth was enhanced still further by the gold brought from the mines of the Senegal River region and by the craftsmanship of its ironworkers, who were skilled at making weapons for warfare. This empire too was constantly challenged by its neighbors, who sought to acquire its wealth. Muslim warlords chipped away at the territory and trade that were the source of Ghana's power, and in 1076 they captured the capital, executing all who refused to convert to Islam. As the result of military losses and successive droughts, Ghana finally ceased dominating its region in the late twelfth century.
The successor state to Ghana was the Kingdom of Mali, which became extraordinarily wealthy and powerful during the thirteenth century. Travelers from the Middle East and southern Europe came in caravans to trade in Gao, Kangaba, Jenne, and other commercial cities of the empire. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries scholars came to Timbuktu to study Koranic theology, diplomacy, and law at the University of Sankore. The city and its university became a major center of Islamic learning, offering special education in geography and mathematics. European visitors were impressed with the grandeur of Mali and the grace and adroitness of its rulers. Under Mansa Kango Musa, a devout Muslim who made regular pilgrimages to the holy city of Mecca, Mali reached the zenith of its power between 1312 and 1332. With these pilgrimages Mansa Musa made a mighty impression on rival states. In 1324 five hundred slaves wielding heavy golden staffs heralded his arrival at the gates of Mecca. His camel caravan, escorted by many thousands of his servants, carried thirty thousand pounds of gold.3 In terms of wealth, governmental organization, and military power, fourteenth-century Mali dominated its region and rivaled any nation in Europe. Centuries later British historian E. W. Bovill wrote that Mansa Musa ruled over a nation as "remarkable for its size as for its wealth, and which provided a striking example of the capacity of the Negro for political organization." J. C. DeGraft-Johnson believed that Mansa Musa "came nearest to building a united West Africa." "Whether you lived in the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, Togoland, Dahomey, or Nigeria," DeGraft-Johnson asserted, "you could not help but feel the power and strength of the Mali Empire, the empire which sought to fuse all of West Africa into one whole." Thus Mali and its glory were directly connected to Benin's history. Through his ancestors Equiano was linked to all West Africans who were dominated by, and shared in, the ancient kingdom's power.4
In the late fifteenth century Mali's power waned, and Songhay (Songhai), a nation in the western Sudan that had been converted to Islam in the beginning of the eleventh century, rose to power. Songhay, with its capital city of Gao on the banks of the Niger River, became a mighty trading nation. Under its control Timbuktu and Jenne flourished, their markets and schools drawing an ever-increasing economic and intellectual traffic from North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and southern Europe, especially Spain and Portugal. At the height of Songhay's power Timbuktu alone had 180 schools, and white and black scholars at the University of Sankore studied grammar, literature, geography, science, law, surgery, and diplomacy. African scholars from Songhay carried their learning to the educational centers of southern Europe. Its government was a complex structure, comprising elected and appointed offi- cials. Its military was a professional corps distributed throughout the provinces of the nation under the command of provincial governors. Its economy revolved around trade, agriculture, and herding, and its economic success attracted the attention of rival states in North Africa.5 In 1591 the sultan of Morocco dispatched troops, many of whom were Spanish mercenaries, to attack Songhay. The resulting war was a costly one for both sides. Despite their superior weaponry, which included firearms previously unknown in the region, twenty thousand Moroccan troops fell. However, the warfare weakened Songhay's ability to withstand internal conflicts and pressures from neighboring states, and the empire disintegrated by the early seventeenth century.