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

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