The Issue Of Slavery Due To Colonialism In Aphra Behn's Oroonoko

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The Issue of Slavery Due to Colonialism
In Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko

The combined issues of slavery and colonialism are evident in Aphra Behn’s story, Oroonoko or The Royal Slave A True History. The impact of slavery and displacement of the enslaved leads to various negative effects such as feelings of inferiority as a race, loss of cultural history, and distrust and resentment of another race as a whole.
When a group of people are enslaved and taken from their native countries, they start to lose their cultural identity and become little more than pieces of property instead of human beings with their own hopes and dreams.
Although most of the African slaves were captured and put on ships, the way Oroonoko was captured was especially deceptive. Oroonoko and his people were very susceptible to the lies they were told because the people of their country pride themselves in being honest and true to their word.
Behn describes how both the Indians of Surinam and Oroonoko greatly valued honesty. To the Indians, a man who broke his word was referred to as a liar, “…which was a word of infamy to a gentleman.”(2153) After Oroonoko was led onto the boat and recovered from his drunken state, he believed the captain’s promise that Oroonoko would be released at the next place they landed. Behn writes, ”And Oroonoko, whose honor was such as he never had violated a word in his life himself, much less a solemn asseveration, believed in an instant what the man had said”.(2169) This deception leads the Africans to distrust their newfound masters, a concept that was new to them. This in turn led the slaves to act deceptively in an effort to escape. When deception and dishonesty is introduced to people who have never experienced it before, it starts a cycle of dishonesty. This is proven when Oroonoko finally decides to take revenge on his oppressors. Why should the Africans be honest and upright people when they have been brought...