The Moor’s Account
Laila Lalami
Periscope Press
In 1527, 600 men under the Spanish conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez landed on the coast of Florida to explore the New World. Only four would survive. One, as described in the account of Cabeza De Vaca, was Mustafa el Zamori, an ‘Arab Negro’ renamed Estevanico by the Spanish crew. From this short biography, Lalami has constructed a brilliant work of alternative historical fiction which retells the expedition from Mustafa’s point of view.
With drought reducing his family in Azemmur to poverty, Mustafa sells himself into slavery and becomes the chattel of a Spanish nobleman who joins the expedition. Just as Mustafa promptly becomes Estevanico, the Spaniards is rename all before them in their image: towns, rivers and animals are all dutifully logged under their new, Castilian names. But renaming new territory does not make it less hostile, and after skirmishes with native tribes, hunger and poor navigation, the original group is whittled down to a few men who travel to Mexico City with native tribes. There, Mustafa decides to produce his own travelogue when he sees the Castilians omit their poor decisions, theft, rape and torture from their own accounts.
Outsider history can be a powerful weapon against colonial hegemony, but few accounts exist in the annals of Spanish conquests. We will never know much about the historical Estevancio/Mustafa, but Lalami’s compelling fictional history reminds us of the possibilities of redeeming history from those ‘who just by saying that something was so… believed that it was.’
Words: Ruairi Casey
