Omar Ibn Said was captured in West Africa in 1807 and brought to North Carolina where he lived the rest of his life as an enslaved person. He wrote his autobiography in 1831 and it is kept in the Library of Congress.
"Literary analysis of Omar Ibn Said's autobiography suggests that he wrote it for two audiences, the white literates who sought to exploit his conversion to Christianity and Muslim readers who would recognize Qur'anic literary devices and subtext and understand his position as a fellow Muslim using Taqiya to hide his faith while living under persecution. In a letter written to Sheikh Hunter regarding the autobiography, he apologized for forgetting the "talk" of his homeland and ended the letter saying: "O my brothers, do not blame me," with the knowledge that Hunter would require Arabic-speaking translators to read the message. Scholar Basima Kamel Shaheen argues that Said's spiritual ambiguity may have been purposefully cultivated to impress upon a wide readership the injustices of slavery."
The slave master of Omar Ibn Said travelled to Morocco and got him an Arabic translation of the Bible. Inside this Bible, Omar Ibn Said wrote an entire chapter of the Quran which until recently was mistaken for the Lord's Prayer. He also refused multiple offers to return to Africa as a Christian missionary.
This video was based off of the 19th century translation of Omar Ibn Said's autobiography by Isaac Bird. This translation is also kept in the Library of Congress. To access the Omar Ibn Said collection in the Library of Congress use this link: www.loc.gov/collections/omar-...
The artwork, images, and people in this video are Fulani, except for image of the man standing outside of the Omar Ibn Said Mosque in North Carolina, whose background is unknown.