An Alternative Text of King Agaja of Dahomey's Letter to King George I of England, 1726
2002; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 29; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3172163
ISSN1558-2744
Autores Tópico(s)African history and culture studies
ResumoIn an earlier issue of this journal I published the text of a letter to King George I of England written in the name of King “Trudo Audati” (better known under the name which he is given in in local tradition, Agaja) of the west African kingdom of Dahomey. Although dated 1726, this letter was received in England only in 1731, when it was belatedly delivered to London by Bulfinch Lambe, a former employee of the Royal African Company of England, who had spent some time in captivity in Dahomey, and who claimed to have written the letter at King Agaja's dictation. Lambe was accompanied to England by an African interpreter called “Captain Tom,” who vouched for the letter's authenticity; this man's African name was given as “Adomo Oroonoko Tomo,” though the middle name “Oroonoko” at least was surely not authentic, but borrowed from the popular romantic novel by Aphra Behn, Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave (1689). An official enquiry by the Board of Trade decided that the letter itself was a forgery, though on grounds I at least find unpersuasive; but it was acknowledged that Lambe had been charged with some sort of message from King Agaja, and arrangements were made for the repatriation of the interpreter “Adomo Oroonoko Tomo” to Dahomey, which was effected in the following year, 1732.
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