The Story of Rufino: Slavery, Freedom, and Islam in the Black Atlantic

A finalist for the Brazilian Book award and winner of the Casa de las America Prize for Brazilian Literature, The Story of Rufino: Slavery, Freedom, and Islam in the Black Atlantic was written by three experts in the history of slavery in Brazil and reconstructs the lively biography of Rufino Jose Maria, set against the historical context of Brazil and Africa in the nineteenth century.0This book narrates the life of a Yoruba Muslim named Rufino Jose Maria, born in the kingdom of Oyo, in present-day Nigeria. Enslaved as an adolescent by a rival ethnic group, he was acquired by Brazilian slave traffickers and taken across the Atlantic. He spent eight years as a slave in the city of Salvador, in the northeast of Brazil, where he arrived in 1823. Rufino was later sold to the southernmost province of Rio Grande do Sul, where he became the slave of the local chief of police.0Five years later, in 1835, he bought his freedom with money he saved as a hired-out slave in the streets of Salvador, in Bahia, and Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul. He may also have earned part of the money from making Islamic amulets, as he was a literate Muslim. 0.