Post 1: Oroonoko

The Impact of John Ogilby's Africa on Aphra Behn's Oroonoko

My reading of Olgiby’s Africa helped understand how Behn styled her writing of Oroonoko, where she got her ideas, and how she presented them in an appealing way. In Ogilby’s Africa, published in 1670, Ogilby describes the people, the countries, and the customs of Africa, and this was new information, to those who had never encountered the continent or the people. Sources suggest that Behn could have acquired information Ogilby’s book, which means that she relied on personal experience and other literature (mainly, this one) to write Oroonoko (Todd, 2018).

I noticed this artwork because of the hierarchical structure of the characters in it. The most important, warrior looking person is up at the top. Moving down the piece, the people look less and less important. The bottom two characters look like beggars or crippled people. Although this piece was published before Oroonoko, some of the themes align with the themes in Oroonoko. Oroonoko’s princeship and warrior status made him the top of the hierarchy in Oroonoko, but his slave status put him at the bottom of the hierarchy in Surinam. The imagery in Africa, probably helped Behn envision the people of Africa and how she might describe an African prince to make him appeal to the European-Americans. In fact, she writes, “and ‘twas amazing where it was he’d learned so much humanity” (Behn 135). She must write to her audience in a way that depicts him as a human, but still relate to them in a way that seems shocked that he’s a human. She needs to ease her audience into his humanity.

Ogilby’s writing on Africa was the first piece to depict the African people as just that--people. This helps Behn’s writing because there is a prior text surrounding the anti-slavery ideals; however, it hurts because she does not have much to support her. Understanding the timeline and how certain texts fit together in the timeline helps to understand why Behn had to be more subtle about her anti-slavery ideas. Her audience had minimal background knowledge on the topic.

Works Cited

Behn, A (1688). Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave. London: William Heinemann.

Ogilby, J (1670). Africa: being an Accurate Depiction of the Regions of Egypt, Barbary, Lybia,

and Billdulgerid. Tho Johnson: London.

Todd, J (2018). Oroonoko: Historical and Political Contexts. Discovering Literature: Restoration

& 18th Century.