Oroonoko: A Slave Narrative Written by a White Hand

Raji Ayinla, J.D.
His&Her Story
Published in
3 min readOct 6, 2020

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There’s something poignant, poetic even, about a black slave smoking tobacco knowing he’s going to be whipped and dismembered while white women watch and white men scorn. This seminal scene marks the beginning of an end to a long spree of violence that has followed Oroonoko’s heels, a conclusion where the silent mass, the greedy owners, and the many tyrants are all complicit in the great tragedy of the slave trade. Aphra Behn’s portrayal of Oroonoko’s apparent indifference to his impending doom gives him the appearance of a martyr, putting into question Behn’s motives and her representation of Oroonoko’s heroism.

Behn serves two audiences: her morals qualms and the white public. A truly epic death would not appease her audience, so Behn flirts with the theme of honorable death in several stages of Oroonoko’s rebellion. In the battle between Oroonoko and the deputy governor, the governor realizes that Oroonoko is “resolved to die fighting” (Oroonoko 129). So, instead of killing him, he tricks Oroonoko into surrendering, thereafter whipping Oroonoko. In this instance, Behn’s readers, at the time, would have been appeased knowing that justice was served. Meanwhile, Behn is able to slyly place her sympathy with Oroonoko by portraying the governor as a villainous schemer while gracing Oroonoko with dignity. The governor’s act is looked down on and the narrator even makes a point to say that had she been there, the whipping would not have occurred.

After Oroonoko kills his beloved Imoinda, he repeatedly attempts to stab himself. “A thousand times he turned the fatal knife that did the deed, toward his own heart . . .” (136). Behn uses Oroonoko’s desire for revenge to stave off death once more, but she strips him of his agency by weakening him. One can argue that by killing Imoinda, Oroonoko kills himself, meaning that Oroonoko has already received his honorable death; but, Behn gives him enough strength to survive a self-inflicted stab to the groin, intestines spilling out, as he fends off his pursuers, murdering one of them with a single strike to the heart. Still, Behn doesn’t allow him to die honorably on the field of battle, because Oroonoko must pay for murdering a white man. Yet, men like Tuscan revere him and treat him like their equal. Tuscan’s unflinching embrace of Oroonoko after the first stabbing reveals…

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Raji Ayinla, J.D.
His&Her Story

Incoming Law Clerk at U.S. Copyright Office; Winner of the 2021 Boston Patent Law Association Writing Competition; Former Online Editor of the NE Law Review