Slavery In Shaihu Umar

1225 Words3 Pages

Shaihu Umar is a novel about slavery in Africa. The author of this book is Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. This book is about the life of Umar who is the main character. When Umar was little, his father passed away due to the jealousy of other slave raiders. He then have to move to live with his grandmother. However, his grandmother’s health was deteriorating. He was then sent to live with his mother as his grandmother did not want him to be sad when she passed away. By then, Umar’s mother had already married to a courtier named Makau. Makau needs to move out of the country and find a new compound to start his life as the other courtier plot against him. The other courtier lied to the chief that he had caught four slaves instead of two when he was sent for a slave raid by the chief’s order. Thus, Makau moved to Makarfi and start his life successfully because he found a bag of silver on the way to Makarfi. When I think he wants to show the reality of that time and allow people to see the real side of the story. Slaves are people, but they have been treated as a property. Slave owner only cares about the value of the slave instead of their feeling. For chief, they want more access to the power and wealth. Slaves have no knowledge during that time. They do not know how to rebel and fight for their rights. This shows that knowledge is important. I think Balewa is also trying to show people the different side of Umar. People said “In this little town there was once a certain malam, learned in the stars, in the Koran, and the in the scriptures, and an upholder of the Faith” (p.18) to describe Umar. After everything Umar has been through, he never hate, gets furious, or complain about anyone. It is really difficult for that to happen because people have feelings. When people are happy, they smile. When they are angry, they will show their attitude. That is one of the reason why people describe him as

Show More
Related

  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

    1297 Words  | 3 Pages

    A staunch abolitionist, Douglass would take the country by storm through the power of his words and writings. His narrative was unique in regards to how it was written and the content it holds. Unlike most biographies of freed slaves, Douglass would write his own story and with his own words. His narrative would attempt to understand the effects slavery was having on not just the slaves, but the slaveholders as well. The success of his biography, however, did not rest on the amount of horror in it but from the unmistakable authenticity it provided. His narrative would compel his readers to take action with graphic accounts of the lashes slaves would receive as punishment, “the loude...

    Read More

  • Slavery: The Double-Edged Sword

    1333 Words  | 3 Pages

    To be black is to be naturally inferior; this was the mindset of the American South in the beginning of the 19th century. African Americans were confined to slavery with no means to change their situation or to escape the abuse that often accompanied their position. Slaves endured all forms of physical and mental punishment whose sole purpose was to keep them inferior to their white suppressors. Slaves were maintained through ignorance; they had their self-identity stolen from them and were kept illiterate to prevent them from questioning what power kept them oppressed and to prevent them from spreading word of the brutalities they faced. To be a slave meant to live a doomed life. Negros were not the only ones who were ruined by the institution of slavery, though. Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer, leader of the abolitionist movement, and former slave, believed that the unnatural means of slavery had harmful effects on everyone within the institution of slavery. Although slaves faced physical, mental, and psychological abuse, slave owners were also degraded and ruined by the institution of slavery, because it distressed slaveholding families, caused warped forms of Christianity with unjust morals to arise, and reduced civil people to fiends through irresponsibility. Through his Narrative and his speeches, Douglass reasoned that if everyone within the institution of slavery was tarnished by it, then it must be unnatural, and therefore a threat to society as a whole that must be removed.

    Read More

  • Slavery Dbq Research Paper

    202 Words  | 1 Pages

    Slavery was one of the main reasons why America was divided because the north allowed African Americans to be “free” and have equal rights compared to the south, who were born into slavery. It started to become threating to the south since the power would be unbalance when Missouri was issued to be a free state in 1819 but then wasn’t passed by congress. Year later the Missouri compromise was in placed because it would eventually led to evenly balance the power between the free and slave state which would made Missouri a slave state and Maine(part of Massachusetts) into a free state; also, slavery would be excluded above the latitude of 36, 30. When slavery started to become problematic, the idea became an issue for the northern churches and

    Read More

  • Two Views of Slavery

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the time prior to the twentieth century our world accepted slavery as a normal part of life. Aphra Behn and Phillis Wheatley, both female authors born about 100 years apart, had their own views of slavery and wrote poems and stories about the subject. These women were physically different, Aphra was a Caucasian, and Phillis was an African American, and their lives were rather different as well. Aphra was a spy and playwright, who lived the middle class life and Phillis, was a slave who was taken from her homeland, brought to America, sold into slavery, then later freed. I believe that both writers’ views were difficult to figure out, especially by just reading their works.

    Read More

  • Slavery Dbq

    366 Words  | 1 Pages

    Why was there slavery? Well slaves had to go through a lot. Many slave owners treated slaves badly because they considered slaves inferior to white people. Slaves had different roles. Some worked in the fields, and some worked inside the house. Slaves had punishments and rewards. This was slave life on the Southern Plantations.

    Read More

  • Slavery Dbq

    403 Words  | 1 Pages

    The following are 3 significant pieces of evidence I believe contributed to systems of oppression and privilege.

    Read More

  • Slavery Or Peculiar Institution Research Paper

    274 Words  | 1 Pages

    Slavery also known as "Peculiar Institution" was a very cruel thin that happened back in the day. Some slaves have escaped and that was when they started to come out and think about Life as a slave which included a lot of survival. Slaves had to survive without their family which didn’t make them be close. Some of the slaves didn’t have their family or spouse because some of them were taken away to slavery.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

    1808 Words  | 4 Pages

    All in all, Frederick Douglass’s book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, was a story of slavery and freedom. He was fortunate that he was able to experience a better slave life than others. He was able to obtain knowledge about reading that he was not obtaining to be a slave for all his life. He, unlike other slaves, knew he was not supposed to be a slave for the rest of his life. He described the ways by which slaveholders justify themselves for their actions. He was one of the rare ones who did not lose their way to freedom; he discussed the many ways that slaves were kept from thinking about escaping and freedom. Once he was free, he wrote this Narrative and refutes many myths that many have said about slaves and slaveholders.

    Read More

  • Slavery By Another Name Summary

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery by Another Name is a book that tells about the times after the Civil War and to WWII. This book tells the story of many African Americans and the treatment they endured even though slavery had been abolished. In this paper the following will be discussed how this book relates to issues discussed in class, the knowledge it added to the main theme of American history, and the organization and sources of the book. These three things that will be discussed help to see the reasons behind the book.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay About Slavery

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slaves were subject to harsh working conditions, malicious owners, and illegal matters including rape and murder. In many instances, slaves were born into slavery, raised their families in slavery, and died within the captivity of that same slavery. These individuals were not allowed to learn how to read, write, and therefore think for themselves. This is where the true irony begins to come into light. While we have been told our entire lives that education and knowledge is the greatest power available to everyone under the sun, there was a point in time where this concept was used to keep certain people under others. By not allowing the slaves to learn how to read, then they were inevitably not allowing the slaves to form free thoughts. One of my favorite quotes is that of Haruki Murakami, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, then you can only think what everyone else is thing.” This applied in magnitudes to those who didn’t get to read at all. Not only were these individuals subject to the inability to think outside the box, but for most of these their boxes were based upon the information the slaves owners allowed them to

    Read More

  • Introduction To The Slave Narrative

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “An Introduction to the Slave Narrative”, an essay by William L. Andrews, it is stated that a slave narrative is “ designed to enlighten white readers about both the realities of slavery as an institution and the humanity of black people as individuals deserving of full human rights.” Slave narratives were used to educate white men and women on the realities of slavery. Frederick Douglass was successful in proving these points in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

    Read More

  • Key Arguments in "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...y afraid at first but finds out that there are many ex-slaves willing to take a stand and risk their lives to help their own. Douglass realizes that with the help from the ex-slaves he could also help his fellow slaves.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is written to have people place their feet in the shoes of Frederick Douglass and try to understand the experience he went through as a slave. Douglass writes this piece of literature with strong wording to get his point across. He is not trying to point out the unpleasant parts of history, but to make people face the truth. He wants readers to realize that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that some slaves, like himself, have intellectual ability. These points are commonly presented through the words of Douglass because of his diction.

    Read More

  • Early Slavery

    1841 Words  | 4 Pages

    We are told in schools that the colonists settled in New England and encountered Native Americans. Little is discussed about the enslavement and selling of Native American Indians nor was the subject of slavery mentioned as well. Like every other state in the colonies, Massachusetts played a role in the production of slave labor and the selling and purchasing of African American people as discussed in a lecture held by dean Gerzina in March. (2017) In fairness to the understanding of urban development this section will discuss the role of slave labor or indentured servants in the valley. This practice contributed to urban development and became an alternative labor force the colonists came to depend on. Such examples of slave records have

    Read More

  • Modern Slavery: Investigating A Slavery?

    1865 Words  | 4 Pages

    The aim of this term paper is to familiarise readers with the phenomena of ‘Modern Slavery’ and expose the heinous face of contemporary slavery.

    Read More

More about Slavery In Shaihu Umar

Open Document