Date: 06 Mar 96 02:59:38 EST
From: "Chris, London" <100423.2040-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: Jewel of civilisation


"That part of Africa known by the name of Guinea 
to which the trade for slaves is carried on 
extends along the coast above 3,400 miles, from Senegal
to Angola, and includes a variety of kingdoms.

Of these the most considerable is the kingdom of Benin, 
both as to the extent and wealth, the 
richness and cultivation of the soil, the power
of its king, and the number and warlike disposition
of the inhabitants. 

It is situated nearly under the line and extends
along the coast about 170 miles, but runs back 
into the interior of Africa to a distance 
I believe hitherto unexplored by any traveller,
and seems only terminated at length by the empire
of Abyssinia, near 1,500 miles from its beginning.

This kingdom is divided into many provinces or 
districts, in one of the most remote and fertile
of which, called Eboe, I was born in the year
1745, situated in a charming fruitful vale, 
named Essaka."


Olaudah Equiano, The opening of his autobiography.

>From "Equiano's Travels" ed Paul Edwards, 1967, pb, Heinemann
from the African Writers Series ed adviser Chinua Achebe.

Chris
London.




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