Bruce Chatwin, The Viceroy of Ouidah

Richard Utz (Georgia Institute of Technology)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1980

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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In the early eighteen-hundreds, Francisco Felix da Souza, a Brazilian slave trader, helped a Dahomeyan Prince to seize his country's throne and was rewarded by being granted a monopoly over the sale of slaves in that entire part of Africa. However, the friendship with the African ruler did not last and da Souza died a ruined and broken man. Bruce Chatwin, who originally intended to write a biography of da Souza, realized Pierre Verger's monumental study of the Benin-Brazil slave trade had already covered the subject extensively, and decided instead to transform the historical details into a work of fiction. The result, published in 1980, is a terse and compelling novel about one Francisco Manoel da Silva, a poor, white, and footloose adventurer from Bahia, Brazil, who supports the…

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648 words

Citation: Utz, Richard. "The Viceroy of Ouidah". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8047, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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