Equiano's Travels is a diary of tears and lamentation in african literature, discussExperience of lamentation in Equiano's Travels

In my mind, the lamentation that is detected in Equiano's
autobiography strikes at the heart of why slavery exists.  I think that African
literature, and probably most literature from the nations that experienced what it meant
to be colonized, speaks to the condition of "why us?"  Along those lines, there is a
dominant strain of questioning what conditions allowed these particular nations to be
dominated at the hands of the West.  Indeed, I think that this is part of Equiano's
lamentation in that there is a notable abhorrence of slavery as an institution.  When
Gates argues that Equiano's work served as a model for Frederick Douglass, one can see
how the African predicament is quite similar to the African- American one in dealing
with the reality of slavery, subjugation, as well as political and personal cruelty.  In
this light, the concept of lamentation can be seen as a worldwide one questioning the
structure of colonialism and its impact on "the other."