Just Curious

Some graphic arts about Gen. Francois-Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture

http://www.alitashkgallery.com/lawrencetl/

Toussaint wasn't the only black general of his time. Abram Petrovich Gannibal (Hannibal) (1696-1781), Aleksandr Pushkin's maternal great-grandfather, was General-in-Chief of the Russian Army from 1742 until his retirement in 1762.

There were different stories about his personal background. Some say he was an Abyssinian prince sold into slavery to the Turks. Other believe that he was really from Chad and was raised a "Mahometan." In any event, he was bought by the Russian Ambassador in Constantinople at that time and became the Tsar's pageboy, was baptized into the Russian Church and adopted as God-son by none other than Peter the Great, studied mathematics and engineering in Paris, fought in the Great Northern War, served as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Reval (Tallinn) and finally Commanding General of the Russian Army Engineering Corps. As the grand old man (senior general in active service) of the Russian Army, he was also one of the generals who backed Catherine the Great in her coup d'etat against Peter III (Hannibal had always felt being personally betrayed by Peter III, who insisted that the Seven Year War come to an end, a stupid move according to Hannibal...)

Pushkin, being proud of his part-African heritage, had always been fascinated by Hannibal. His last novel (unfinished) was "The Negro of Peter the Great." Writing that book wasn't an easy job apparently, and Pushkin had to do quite a bit of paper chase. During the bad ole' days when rampant racism was the norm, it should not come as an surprise that both Hannibal himself and his family members made his background as mysterious as possible, to convince his fellow Russian aristocrats that he really wasn't born a slave. According to one of those myths, he was born an Abyssinian prince. According to another, he could trace his ancestry back to the Hannibal of Carthage. If they sound ridiculous, it's because they should. Nevertheless, Abram Hannibal did leave a hint with respect to his true identity. It is hidden in his coat-of-arms.

Here's a great article about this guy and his origins,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/07/31/bogannibal.xml

So perhaps he really was a prince, born Ibrahim son of Prince Bruha, ruler of the minor principality of Logone in central Cameroon, and kidnapped by Muslim invaders in the year 1703?

Either way, here's another author, who refuted the first article

http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0510&L=nabokv-l&T=0&P=411

Apparently Nabokov was involved in this debate as well.

posted by James Chang @ 11:03 PM