Deeply influenced by the works of antislavery writers such Equiano creates in his Narrative an account that contrasts African primitivism with the barbarity of Western civilization. His autobiography can be considered a peculiar kind of travel literature that works as an ironic counterpoint as it subverts the categories the Europeans established in their encounters with the unenlightened or uncivilized. For Equiano, as an accidental tourist or traveler taken into a world of wonders, the white man is "the other." (Costanzo, 1987)
Slavery, as read in the Narrative, was already known and practiced in Africa. There were "orthodox" ways of obtaining slaves, who were "prisoners of wars," and "unorthodox" ways through abduction. (Equiano, 1987) But these slaves within Africa do not seem to fit the category of "the other," of the opposite of the self, which Equiano presents in his descriptions of the whites. The line that separated a slave from a free man was indeed very tenuous, and any African could become a slave to the rest of the community if he committed a serious crime. In Africa, slavery would imply moral corruption and a state of degeneracy. The slaves caught in wars would approximate the concept of "otherness" since, as Jordan (1977) explains, "warfare was usually waged against another people" and captives were usually foreigners or strangers to the community. But in any case, a slave's situation in Africa was radically different from his condition in the West Indies. Equiano explains that "they do no more work than other members of the community" and that "some of these slaves have even slaves under them, as their own property, and for their own use" (Equiano, 1987).
As described by Equiano, slavery in Africa seems to represent a relationship of service rather than one based on power. Slavery refers to a social status but does not deprive the slave of his status as a human being. Loss of freedom was not viewed as loss of humanity.
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