Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua

Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua lived an extraordinary life; deeply diasporic, he moved within and across worlds that were linguistically diverse, underwent religious conversion, escaped captivity possibly on two continents, was literate and formally educated, and spent decades as a campaigner for a political movement that became a cornerstone of Westen modernity: abolitionism . The breadth of his experiences as an African in enslavement and freedom, in Africa, Brazil, the United States, Haiti, Canada, England and then again in Africa where he probably ended his days, are examined in exquisite detail in Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua: An Enslaved Muslim of the Black Atlantic by Paul E . Lovejoy and Nielson R. Bezerra. It is a study of Baquaqua’s life that will be definitive. Comprising seven chapters over 200 pages, the text commands one’s attention, line by line, if not word by word, such is the level of disciplinary expertise and analytical skill . Every shred of evidence, every linguistic turn is tried and tested with methodological doggedness, necessary not least of all because of the many gaps, discrepancies, uncertainties, unknowns and misapprehensions about Baquaqua’s life, then and now, some of which remain unresolved . The study is primarily based on the Baquaqua’s biography (also described as a memoir and pamphlet) published in Detroit in 1854,1 correspondence of the Judds, Free Will Baptist missionaries Baquaqua stayed with in Haiti, and personal correspondence of Baquaqua himself, all supplemented with extensive and original archival work and the authors’ expertise . Bezerra is a Brazilian scholar of slavery in Rio de Janeiro, and a museum director, who has also worked on African diaspora biographies. Crucially, the study benefits from Lovejoy’s familiarity with Baquaqua’s biography through the publication of an annotated version with Robin Law,2 and his extensive expertise as an African historian.