The Moor's Account

Thirty-year-old, Moor Slave, Estebanico, had been in bondage five years. Prior to his enslavement, he lived in Azemmur, Morocco, with his widowed mother, sister, and twin brothers. When a drought hits the country, he did a selfless act by selling himself into slavery to help his family.A Castilian forced him to give up his birth name, Mustafa Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abdussalam al-Zamori, after he purchased him from Portuguese traders in Seville.Later, his master, after losing in a card game, paid his debt by selling Estebanico to a nobleman, Andres Dorantes. Captain Dorantes and Estebanico sailed to the New World with Spanish conquistador Panfilo de Narvaez, in 1527. In several ships, five-hundred men landed in La Florida in 1528. Estebanico named it the Land of the Indians.Narvaez and a small scouting party from each ship, which included Dorantes and Estebanico went ashore.A masterful schemer, Narvaez plotted evil against the Indians in his quest for gold and land. Disastrous results followed. He appeared as an ineffectual and close-minded leader, who imperiled the lives of his men.In 1536, eight years later, Estebanico, Dorantes, Castillo and Cabeza de Vaca are encountered by Spanish soldiers. Later, they are questioned by the Spanish Viceroy. He asked for collective information from Dorantes, Cabeza de Vaca and Castillo concerning their journey among the Indians. However, Estebanico, overlooked by the Viceroy, wanted to candidly describe the events as he witnessed them. He realized the three men had elaborated, omitted, fabricated, and held back important details.Estebanito narrated a candid, eloquent, and fresh description of his journey to the New World, the Land of the Indians.Estebanico’s narration is colorful, and expressed with warmth, emotion and sensitivity. I felt emotionally drawn into his story. You feel his longing for home; his yearning to be free like the day he was born. A learned man, you applauded Estebanico’s reversal of roles when he became an advisor to the Spaniards that had trickled down from five-hundred to a little more than a dozen, and then four because of death and disease. You cheered for him when he found love and married his assertive wife, Oyomasot, of the Avavare tribe. You understood his frustration when Dorantes, a manipulative and self-absorbed man, delayed his freedom. You rallied for him as he planned and prepared to obtain his freedom. You felt his fear for the outcome of the Indians, his new friends and followers, when they were detained at a Spanish outpost. The Indians believed Estebanico, a Shaman who healed the sick.During his enslavement, Estebanico did a self-exploration of his life, which revealed his unfairness and greed. He realized he had not listened to the instruction of his father during his youth and ignored reproof. His father, a notary, wanted him to follow in his footsteps; to have a respectable career and future. But Estebanico desired wealth and became an affluent merchant.Through his craving for greed, Estebanico bartered and sold three slaves. During his own enslavement, he felt the pangs of guilt, and realized how he had deprived men of their rights. His journey leads to maturity, humility, and spiritual growth.Provided is a fascinating chronicle of the many Native American tribes Estebanico and the Spaniards encountered. This revealed the Native Americans, a spiritual peoples, who initially expressed trust and kindness to all men they encountered from across the sea.This is also an account of man’s insatiable desire for wealth and gain, and how his desire was flamed by manipulation of authority, violence, and death and his own eventual retribution.Ms. Lalami provided meticulous research in her historical fiction of the Americas. The Moor’s Account is emotionally charged with Estebanito/Mustafa’s description of his life. This novel deserves five stars. Ms. Lalami wrote a believable and compelling story.The history of the Moors in Spain should be avidly read by all. This history, which is overlooked, dates back to the 700s. The Moors ruled Spain until the fifteenth century.

The Moor’s Account, by Laila Lalami, follows a slave named Mustafa (later called Estebanico by his slave owner), a slave in Florida in the 16th century. The book jumps back and forth between his slave labor life and flashbacks of his original home in Africa every other chapter. Plagued by crippled father and famine hitting his home country he is forced to sell himself into slavery in hopes that his family can survive. As a reader, you become immersed as he goes through hardship like his passage on the triangular trade, different slave owners, and hearing the stories of fellow slaves and their not so fortunate families. After getting to his slave owner Señor Dorantes and his exploration group they begin on an expedition to explore land inhabited by natives and to search and strip them of all of their gold and other precious metals. After realising there was no gold and nothing of value, among this they are running low on supplies and being constantly ambushed by natives. Unsurprisingly the exploration crumbles and the lucky survivors separate. A small group of them that includes Mustafa and his master find a peaceful native tribe and learn from them, but are soon forced to leave due to disease. Unfortunately they could not find a new settlement and the group,now much smaller, goes insane and some resort to cannibalism in their dire moments. After a loss of someone important to his master, he spirals into a dark depression and they are separated. Soon, though, they reunite at a new tribe, where their medical knowledge gains them great honor and for Mustafa, a wife. Not much later they are sold back into slavery but manage to run, determined to live out a free life with his new family.My impression of the book is that the author successfully portrayed the realistic viewpoint of a Moroccan slave. With scenes like the voyage to the Americas going into gross and blunt details (like the smell, lice, and regretful atmosphere) with no “sugar-coating”, and only the horrific reality of a slave. I really liked how it immersed you into the story without you even noticing you were. The author also did a good job with character interactions, that made you attached to the characters and upset when they passed or were separated from Mustafa. An example of this is just before selling himself to slavery, he bring his little twin brothers along so they could give the money from him to his mother. This scene was heartbreaking as a reader because the author describes how the two boys didn't understand the weight of the situation or that this would (most likely) be the last time they saw him. As the ending of the book approached I found that before falling asleep or free moments in the day I would find myself reflecting about the book and predictions about how it would conclude. Because of the dynamic characters, rich plot, and exposure of the harsh reality slaves faced, I would definitely recommend this read.

I loved this book. I recently read Laila Lalami's latest book, The Other Americans, and thoroughly enjoyed it, so was anxious to read The Moor's Account, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It did not disappoint. In fact, I wish the book had gone on and on. It's a beautiful descriptive fictional account of a Moor's travels to the New World as a slave with Spanish explorers. As opposed to often glorified accounts of Christopher Columbus and other explorers reaching North America, this novel painted a much more realistic image of what it would have been like. And it was given through the eyes of a man of color who had known freedom in Spain, but sold himself into servitude to help his family. Each chapter was another adventure, some good and some bad, all described in detail which made one feel that they were actually there, watching the events unfold. The fact that the main character was muslim, traveling with christians, to a land of native American cultures, added to the depth of the tale. I will be wondering for a long time what became of the protagonist, hoping that the rest of his life was full of happiness.