Truly From Africa? Is Equiano a Fake?

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African
has become one of the most memorable autobiographical tales of all time.  It not only played a
key role in the abolition of the British slave trade, it is also universally accepted as the
fundamental text in the genre of the slave narrative.  The most frequently quoted sections of The
Interesting Narrative are the early chapters in which Equiano describes his life in Africa as well
as his experience on the Middle Passage crossing the Atlantic to America. It is difficult to think
of any historical account of the Middle passage that does not quote Equiano’s first-hand account
of its horrors.
It seems that some scholars believe Equiano may have invented his African childhood.  Baptismal and naval records indicate that Equiano was really born in South Carolina around 1747.  And yet Equiano states clearly in his autobiography that he was born in Africa “in a charming fruitful vale, named Essaka”. If the accounts are true and Equiano was really born in South Carolina,
does it change the context of The Interesting Narrative and its importance?  
The first document, a baptismal record, contradicts Equiano’s claim to an African birth. Not
only does this contradict the birth place of Equiano, but it also puts his age for enslavement and
arrival in England at odds.  The second document supporting the theory that Equiano invented
his African childhood comes from the muster book of the Racehorse.  While Gustavus Vassa is
not listed, a Gustavus Weston is.We know through The Interesting Narrative that Equiano was on board the Racehorse, however, the muster has written that he was born in South Carolina.  
Speculation has led some scholars to believe that the details on the baptismal record were
the good intentions of Equiano’s godparents, Mary Guerin and her brother Maynard who were
cousins of Equiano’s owner Pascal.  It is possible that the Guerins and Pascal wanted people to
think that Equiano was Creole born because he had mastered English so well by the year of his
baptismal and Creoles had a higher status in society than African slaves.  After doubts had arisen
in 1794 about Equiano’s birth place, he responded on the first page of the ninth addition of The
Interesting Narrative, saying “…I should take notice thereof, and it is only needful of me to
appeal to those numerous and respectable persons of character who knew me when I first arrived
in England, and could speak no language but that of Africa” Mary Guerin was
willing to testify that Equiano was only fluent in the African language of Igbo, when she had met
him, thus proving that he was indeed born in Africa.  
Equiano himself was responsible for the muster entries of the Racehorse.  According to
Paul Lovejoy, the reason for Equiano’s claim to a South Carolina birth could lie in the fact that
as a freeman and the assistant to the noted Dr. Irving that he [Equiano] thought that a Carolina
birth was more respectable than an African birth at that point in his life At this time, Equiano was trying to achieve a degree of British respectability and may have felt that his African birth may cause a hindrance to that goal.  Equiano’s identity crisis was certainly solved by the time The Interesting Narrative was published and he was suitably proud and public about his origins.  Lovejoy again points out doubts about Equiano’s birth place being South Carolina,
saying that circumstantial evidence, specifically his [Equiano’s] association with Dr. Irving, who 

was to rely on Vassa’s knowledge of Igbo in the abortive Mosquito Shore scheme of 1776, raises
questions of the reliability of what Vassa allowed to be entered in the muster books
However, other critics still have doubts about Equiano’s African origins.