Oh Louder, Baby!

Slavery poster from: www.valley-entertainment.com




Olaudah Equiano, or oh- louder as he was mockingly called before the forceful changing of his name to Gustav Vassa; what a celebrity he’s become! Ever since the release of feature film Amazing Grace in March 2007, his name has been bandied about over dinner, over drinks, over the airwaves – endlessly. As I missed the fanfare surrounding his premiere into mainstream consciousness, I had the honour of meeting him today, in a play, African Snow, performed by the Riding Lights Theatre Company. Quite different, I must say, from old familiar Kunta Kinte. Partly, I suppose, due to the fact that Equiano’s account is autobiographical, not quasi-fictional.

I went in there prepared to be disgusted by a Western over-rendered impression of African-ness; by convoluted facts and dramatised excuses. After all, just last month, a sweet looking old lady told my sister and I at the V&A’s Uncomfortable Truths exhibition that slavery wasn’t necessarily bad because ‘the poor slave masters didn’t know any better, the poor souls.’ Probably the wrong thing to say to two proud Nigerian girls on a hot afternoon, but her blush showed us that she obviously didn’t mean it how it came out, so we smiled at her elderly brain fart and moved on.

Nevertheless, that sort of sentiment is what I expected, and I was pleasantly surprised when I found my pre-programmed disapproval challenged. African Snow was a charming discourse between John Newton, writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, and Olaudah Equiano, freed slave turned Parliamentary circuit speaker.

What appealed to me most, was the robustness of the dialogue. The imagery was hauntingly poignant yet not conspicuous. Equiano, gifted with words, sustained moving monologues in a verbal travelogue that led us on the commute between his actual freedom (before he was stolen from the coast of West Africa) and the shifted goal post or redefined freedom (the day he bought his own freedom for 40 guineas). Newton’s rendition of his journey to spiritual enlightenment that caused him to join the Abolitionist cause was made more accessible by the portrayal of his thoughts through his hymns. The combination of these two commentaries, both poetic, both emotional, both raw, worked together elegantly, like an antagonistic pair of muscles. And how’s this for a tasty dramatic subversion – old Wilberforce was played by a black man!

The stage set must be mentioned and praised very highly! A slatted wooden contraption sat at a forty-five degree angle on the stage, in some scenes a ship, and in others representative of the shadow of depravity that many souls wriggled under. Admittedly, African Snow’s concern with the condition of the human soul is one that everyone can appreciate, whatever side of the slavery argument one comes down on.

It’s a good piece of theatre. I would recommend seeing it, if only just to have a new addition to your modern collection of opinions which by now, if you’re truly up to date, should include organic clothing, climate change, and the cancelled Royal engagement at the very least.

African Snow tours nationally until June 30th, 2007.


© April 2007