Ayuba Suleiman Diallo - Essay Example

His story is told by Bluett in his memoir. Diallo and Bluett met in the county of Kent during a time when Ayuba was imprisoned there. They became friends, and this led to his freedom.3 This essay highlights the life of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, in regard to slavery in the Atlantic world. He is one of the rare African slaves who returned to Africa.4 The fact that Ayuba Suleiman Diallo was kidnapped, enslaved, taken to England, and tried to return to Africa and succeeded makes his story compelling.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo’s story outlines the essence of religion, region, and forced labor. These mentioned factors make one reconsider if they are significant in life as well as the roles they play. When writing Ayuba Suleiman Diallo’s narrative, Bluett depended on his own series of conversations with Ayuba. According to Bluett’s memoirs, in February 1730, upon his father’s request, Ayuba travelled from Bondu to the Gambia River to sell two African slaves to the captain of the ship for 28 cattle.

5 He was also to buy paper and other necessities.6 During the trade, Ayuba could agree on a price with the captain of the ship, Captain Pike. He instead decided to cross the river to the country of Mandingoes who were the enemy of the people of Futa and sold the slaves to another African trader who bought them for two cows.7 On his return home, a group of Mandingoes raiders captured and enslaved him and his interpreter called Loumein Yoas. The raiders shaved their heads, a sign of indignity, so as to make them appear like the other slaves (war captives).

8 After all this, they went ahead and sold him as a slave to the whites. Ironically, the buyer was Captain Pike, the same buyer that he had tried to negotiate a price with for the two slaves he had earlier been sent to sell by his father. On board the ship, Ayuba found means to talk to the captain, he told him that he was the same man whom they had tried to negotiate a price for the two