THE TWO PRINCES OF MPFUMO

A little-known story that exposes the complexities and contradictions of British colonialism during the early 18th century.

O’Neill, a University of Southern California historian, excavates the story of two East African princes who boarded a British ship with the intention of traveling to London, only to be sold into slavery in Jamaica. After years of enslavement, the princes persuaded a lawyer to help them regain their freedom, setting up the next stage of their journey to London and then, finally, back home to Mpfumo, in present-day Mozambique. As O’Neill follows the two men, she shines a light on the lesser-known British slave trade in East Africa and Madagascar and the troubling, naïve, and conflicting interests of the British East India Company, Royal African Company, and Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. O’Neill’s thoughtful and extensive research is apparent, but information about the princes themselves is limited by the sparse and problematic archival record. O’Neill, acutely aware of the bias implicit in the extant European sources, seeks to reclaim the princes’ agency by questioning her sources and using speculation to “recreate [the princes’] reactions to certain events.” This approach is generally effective but falters when O’Neill speculates about the reasons that one of the princes took his own life before returning home to Mpfumo. Throughout, O’Neill relies on historical context to stand in for the missing details of the princes’ lives. Readers will better understand the complex moral, racial, and trade networks the princes traversed, but much about the princes themselves—even their given names—remains obscured.

An intriguing subject presented with more historical context than biographical detail.