Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 2 | Page 4

2/2/2016

Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

compares these memoirs in relation to what these women heard, or from the slaves in their households. Likely the weakest chapter, the discussion
of these memoirs should have been placed earlier in the book after the narrative of Babikr Bedri as a transition to the memories of Salim C. Wilson.
The focus of this analysis is on domestic life in an attempt to establish the place of slaves in their relationships with the families that owned them.
Though many details are revealed about the slaves that surrounded Huda and Halide, and it is clear that the slaves influenced the political views of
these two outspoken national figures, the comparison of their memoirs fails to catch the voices of those slaves.
Chapter 5, on the other hand, sheds light on the yet relatively unknown work of Italian Catholic missionaries who trained former slaves to become
missionaries themselves. Father Daniele Comboni, together with other Italian missionaries, purchased slaves in Sudan, liberated them and sent
some to Italy or Egypt. The stories of Caterina Zenab, Sister Bakhita Fortunata Kwashe, Sister Josephine Zeinab and Father Daniel Sorur Pharim
not only reveal the meaning of slavery, but they also reveal the meaning of the transition from slavery to freedom, and from Sudan to Italy. They all
fought against racism, but they also commanded respect. The most interesting aspect of this chapter is that it paves the way to look at the
missionary work of the Comboni missionaries from another perspective—one that scrutinizes the narratives and voices of those who were the focus
of the missionary work.
The last chapter is dedicated to one of the most famous former slaves: Saint Josephine Bakhita. Canonized in 2000 by Pope John Paul II, she was
originally from Sudan, sold to an Italian consul, and reached Italy in the mid-1880s to become a nun. Saint Josephine is able to make her history
known, though she was barely educated and never fluent in Italian. Bakhita’s life was dictated by her to another nun, but it is with Storia
Meravigliosa (Tale of Wonder) published in 1931 that Bakhita came to embody the history of slavery while showing the physical marks of slavery.
Troutt Powell argues that the legacies of Bakhita’s narrative had world-wide repercussions: “Bakhita is the first Sudanese to have history” a group
of refugees told her, but Bakhita also had an impact on Black Catholics in the United States, not to mention her impact on Italians.
Troutt Powell in Tell This in My Memory successfully tried to tell readers that there are ways in which we can change how we read and tell the
history of slavery. The stories told in the book show the voyages undertaken by slaves in their path to freedom. Though a lengthier discussion on
slavery and the historiography on slavery should have been added, this is a welcome addition to a field that requires more research and analysis.
Tell This in My Memory would be an excellent work to be used in a variety of classes in order to expose students to stories too often neglected.

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