I Cannot Write My Life

“Drawing on scrupulous close readings of Said’s work, Lo and Ernst make a worthy contribution to the scholarship on slavery in America and testify to the importance of evidence left behind by enslaved people themselves. This edifies.”—Publishers Weekly

“A crucial source for studying Islam in both West Africa and the United States, as well as for history, American studies, and Africana studies.”—Reading Religion

“I Cannot Write My Life provides an essential corrective to nearly two centuries of conjecture and fabrication about Omar ibn Said and his writings. . . . Lo and Ernst have done essential work, and all historians who intend to reference in any way Omar’s life and writings must read I Cannot Write My Life first lest they perpetuate the silencing of Omar’s remarkable voice.”—Journal of Southern History

“A puissant intervention in our understanding of American slave narratives, the history of Arabic writing in the United States, and the formation of a uniquely American discourse on Islam. . . . I Cannot Write My Life vivifies a literary history that is only now coming into focus.”—American Literary History

“Lo and Ernst have excelled in providing a critical reading, shrewd analysis of narratives, and rectifying the epistemic violence towards the subaltern. . . . [A] colossal work.”—Sociology of Islam

“I Cannot Write My Life stands as a valuable contribution to the exploration of the institution of slavery and the often unheard voices of those held captive. Scholars specializing in Arabic studies, historians with an interest in the transatlantic slave trade and slavery itself, and students across various historical disciplines can glean insights from the work of Lo and Ernst.”—H-Nationalism

“The book should garner a wide audience among scholars of the antebellum South, African and Islamic diasporas, and the Atlantic World.”—Journal of African American History

“I Cannot Write My Life is the most detailed and disciplined study of one of the most important figures of antebellum American and Muslim history. It is a must read for students of Islam in America and should be of interest to anyone engaged in Black transatlantic studies.”—Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, author of A History of Islam in America

“Lo and Ernst unshackle new insights and complex truths hidden inside the life and agency of Omar ibn Said. Inshallah, may his free spirit return to his two rivers.”—Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina Poet Laureate

“This fresh and insightful look at the texts and contexts of Omar ibn Said debunks gross misinterpretations of Omar’s biography and thoughtfully juxtaposes his ‘unfreedom writings’ against the literary genre of formerly enslaved people’s freedom narratives.”—Rudolph T. Ware III, University of California, Santa Barbara