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Leo Africanus: An Exploration of his Life and Writing

Nora Mabie

Megan Cook, Author
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Leo Africanus's Life

Who was Leo Africanus, anyway?

Leo Africanus was born in Granada in the 15th century. He was most well
known for his travel narrative, A Geographical History of Africa, which details the geography, history, and culture in Africa. His cross-cultural writing was especially informative and influential during the Middle Ages, as he wrote to a European audience about life in Africa. Africanus’s work is especially interesting in how it educated his audience. Not only did his work change people’s lives, but the events in his own life also influenced his writing. Perhaps one of the most notable events in Africanus’s life was his religious conversion. Africanus was born a Muslim, but during his travels, he was captured in Rome and converted to Christianity.

When he traveled to the Island of Djerba, Africanus was made captive. His captors took him to Rome to present him to Pope Leo X. There, Pope Leo X recognized Africanus’s knowledge and cultural power, and welcomed him. Upon his encapturement, he was given a large pension so that he would not be inclined to leave. Because he had no contacts with other Muslims throughout his travels, Africanus agreed to convert to Christianity. Pope Leo himself baptized Africanus. The baptism occurred on June 6, 1520 at the basilica of St. Peter’s. Although his conversion was impactful in both Africanus’s life and work, scholars still debate today whether his conversion was truly genuine. The extent to which Africanus actually believed in Christianity is still up for debate, but the significance of his conversion is undeniable.


So, tell me more about this famous
religious conversion….How did it influence his writing?

Not only does Africanus’s text cross cultures, but his identity does as well. Many authors have commented on his multidimensional ethnic identity, as his religious conversion allowed him to identify as African, European, Muslim, and Christian. For example, Bernadette Andrea is a Medieval Historian who writes for the Ariel Journal, focusing on issues of colonial power, globalization, and cross-cultural translation. Bernadette’s article, “Assimilation or Dissimulation? Leo Africanus’s ‘Geographical Historie of Africa’ and the Parable of Amphibia,” analyzes the implications of Africanus’s multifaceted identity. She argues that Africanus’s identity “complicates the dichotomy between Islam and Europe…Hence, his position is not simply one of those ‘outsiders having a special role to play inside Europe’” (16). According to Andrea, Africanus uses his conversion as a functional literary strategy in his work in order to blur the lines between two cultures. In addition, Africanus’s ability to identify with multiple groups of people enhances his credibility as an author—he is not a cultural “outsider,” but rather is an authority on multiple different groups of people. In addition, Andrea further emphasizes Africanus’s fluid identity when she argues that it allows him to have a “strategically ambivalent position on both sides of the subsequent orientalist divide between Islam and Europe” (17). Again, Africanus’s “ambivalent” identity allows multiple groups of readers to connect with his literary work.

However, Bernadette retains her credibility as an author as she also provides readers with some examples of historians’ counterarguments. Specifically, she references Emily Bartels, who argues in her book, Speaking of the Moor, that Africanus’s multicultural identity weakens his work. Bartels writes, “By alternately denying allegiance to Grenada and African, he effectively undermines his allegiance to both and distances himself from the two places that mark his non-Christian, non-European past” (437). Bernadette argues against Bartels’s analysis, however, when she states that Africanus’s complex identity does not deny him allegiance to countries, but rather allows him to “oscillate between various cultures” (13). Bernadette further enhances the importance of Africanus’s overlapping allegiance when she states that it allows him to complicate the emerging binary between Islam and Europe. Because Africanus’s ambiguous identity relates him to a greater audience and complicates a religious binary, Bernadette argues that his conversion serves as a literary strategy in his work.



 



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