Google’s Equaino: Reliving The Essence Of Olaudah Equaino

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By Clifford Agugoesi

The Abuja correspondent of Cyber Era NG, Angeline Mgbele called me up a few days back and put her message straight, as she is wont to doing: “EIC, I have this press statement from the Nigerian Communications Commission, announcing their partnership with Google to advance the digital economy aspirations of the country…and the coming to town of a subsea cable called ‘Equiano’ . I notice that the statement centred more on ‘Equaino’ than on forward-looking relationship between Google and the NCC. We have earlier used a curated version of the story on Equaino‘s anticipated birthing in Nigeria. Kindly advise on the next step, sir” she concluded. Not until she had forwarded the statement, signed by the Director of Public Affairs(DPA) at NCC, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, to my inbox.

I told Angeline to proceed and file the story nonetheless and await my response later. She did. Now, what should I give her as the reason for doing one story in two quick successions?

Reminiscing secondary school days

Way back in the secondary school in the early 1980s, I recall our history teacher Simon Okafor (we used to call him Bilad el Sudan, because in the students’ reckoning, he was adept in history teaching), from Ogberuru, just three kilometers away from my home town, Ihiteowerri, both in Orlu, Local Government Area of Imo State, south east, Nigeria, mentioned the name Alaudah Equaino in one of our history lessons. Being a Science-inclined student, the name stuck in my consciousness and nothing more than that until now. As I was thinking of the best response to give to our correspondent, I decided to search a few literature on Olaudah Equiano. It was in the course of this effort that I came across a quote credited to Russian physiologist known primarily for his work in classical conditioning, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. It reads: “Do not become a mere recorder of facts, but try and penetrate the mystery of their origin.” So challenged by Pavlov, I decided to take a deep dive into the life and times of Olaudah Equaino, to satisfy two compelling objectives- to give a convincing answer to our correspondent why the same story has to be published twice and why Google chose to associate their submarine cable project with Equaino.

The Freedom Fighter, Olaudah Equaino

According to Wikipedia, “Olaudah Equiano (1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved as a child in Africa, he was taken to the Caribbean and sold as a slave to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more but purchased his freedom in 1766.

“As a freedman in London, Equiano supported the British abolitionist movement. He was part of the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist group composed of Africans living in Britain, and he was active among leaders of the anti-slave trade movement in the 1780s. He published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), which depicted the horrors of slavery. It went through nine editions in his lifetime and helped gain passage of the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the slave trade. Equiano married an English woman, Susannah Cullen, in 1792 and they had two daughters. He died in 1797 in Westminster.

Since the late 20th century, when his autobiography was published in a new edition, he has been increasingly studied by a range of scholars, including from his homeland.” Wikipedia also provides a glimpse into Olaudah Equaino’s legacies.

Legacy

The Equiano Society was formed in London in November 1996. Its main objective is to publicise and celebrate the life and work of Olaudah Equiano.
In 1789 Equiano moved to 10 Union Street (now 73 Riding House Street). A City of Westminster commemorative green plaque was unveiled there on October 11, 2000 as part of Black History Month. Student musicians from Trinity College of Music played a fanfare composed by Professor Ian Hall for the unveiling.
Equiano is honoured in the Church of England and remembered in its Calendar of saints on July 30, along with Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce who worked for abolition of the slave trade and slavery.
In 2007, the year of the celebration in Britain of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, Equiano’s life and achievements were included in the National Curriculum, together with William Wilberforce. In December 2012 The Daily Mail claimed that both would be dropped from the curriculum, a claim which itself became subject to controversy. In January 2013 Operation Black Vote launched a petition to request Education Secretary Michael Gove to keep both Equiano and Mary Seacole in the National Curriculum. American Rev. Jesse Jackson and others wrote a letter to The Times protesting against the mooted removal of both figures from the National Curriculum.
A statue of Equiano, made by pupils of Edmund Waller School, was erected in Telegraph Hill Lower Park, New Cross, London, in 2008.
The head of Equiano is included in Martin Bond’s 1997 sculpture Wall of the Ancestors in Deptford, London
US author Ann Cameron adapted Equiano’s autobiography for children, leaving most of the text in Equiano’s own words; the book was published in 1995 in the US by Random House as The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano, with an introduction by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr.
On October 16, 2017, Google Doodle honoured Equiano by celebrating the 272nd year since his birth.
A crater on Mercury was named “Equiano” in 1976.
In 2019, Google Cloud named a subsea cable running from Portugal through the West Coast of Africa and terminating in South Africa after Equiano.
Olaudah Equiano is remembered (with William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson) in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 30 July.

Google’s Romance With Equaino

So, why has Google decided to associate their subsea cable with this freedom fighter? I believe, and, I am convinced, Google did this based on the man’s legendary attachment to freedom- fighting. Now, let’s look at some of the references cited in Wikipedia:

Shyllon, Folarin (September 1977). “Olaudah Equiano; Nigerian Abolitionist and First Leader of Africans in Britain”. Journal of African Studies. 4 (4): 433–451.
Robert Hume (2007), Equiano: The Slave with the Loud Voice, Stone Publishing House, ISBN 978-0-9549909-1-6.
“Grace Unshackled: The Olaudah Equiano Story”. BBC. April 15, 2007. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved January 15, 2009.
Luke Walker, Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Man (Wrath and Grace Publishing, 2017)

Collocation of Liberty and Connectivity

Ubiquitous and affordable telecommunications services have long come to be associated with freedom. So, to my mind, the marketers of Google’s Equaino may have linked the submarine cable project with a figure who personified freedom to a continent shackled by manifold challenges, yet represents the last frontiers in telecommunications. Making such an inspirational value proposition with the Equaino brand, especially to the continent’s largest telecommunications market and the fastest growing in the world, will make sense to Africa’s huge population, crucially the enlightened among them, who are more likely to easily gel with it and catalyse its success, as a result. If this represents a right reading of the thinking within Google’s quarters, then, Africa cannot afford to wait to begin to enjoy the freedom that Equaino potentially could wrought on it, its people and their businesses.

Only time will tell if Google chose Equaino as a testament of its commitment to help unshackle Africa’s Connectivity chains or whether it flew it as a smart communication of its sagacity “in vast publicity gamesmanship”.

With the foregoing satisfying one of the compelling reasons for this deep dive, what should be the appropriate response to Angeline? Interestingly, it is Pavlov who should thank for saving me the headache. So, I say to you, Angeline, as a reporter, you should take Pavlov’s counsel seriously: “Do not become a mere recorder of facts, but try and penetrate the mystery of their origin.” Period!