The true story of an enslaved Senegalese man is told in a new opera. He was taken from his home and sold to South Carolina. The Spoleto Festival USA premiered the opera, which was less than one mile from the spot where the man was sold. He then spent five decades on plantations including the one where he wrote his autobiography, which is the only known and surviving slave narrative in Arabic.
Rhiannon Giddens invented the fictional character Julie, a slave-owned Black woman. Julie later recalls that the man she first met was a newly enslaved man. He reminded her of another person. This is the kufi many Muslim men wear, as well as those from Africa.
Omar is an American story. Charleston, S.C. is where the opera’s debut was made in May. History is particularly close to Omar. Omar Ibn Said was the real man behind this opera. He was a Muslim man who was forced to become a slave in Charleston. Said spent the next five decades living on a plantation near Fayetteville in N.C. where he wrote the story of his life.
Giddens said that it was “shocking” to learn about Said’s autobiography. “Somebody or an incident that’s from mine home state that’s huge, such a big story. Because I have lived in North Carolina for the majority of my adult life, this is the first time I’ve heard it. Giddens, who was trained in college to sing opera, is now best known for being an American roots musician. She can play the banjo and make her viola croon. She says that she is interested in finding overlooked stories to share more than this.
Said, a Fulani who was well-educated and one of the largest groups of people in West Africa and the Sahel, had spent a lot of time studying the Qur’an. He was 37 when he was captured in a war and forced into slavery. The Middle Passage was his final experience over the “big sea”.
Said managed to escape his first slaveholder but was again captured in North Carolina. He began to write on the walls of North Carolina in Arabic, the language used by the Qur’an, while he was being held prisoner. Jim Owen, his plantation owner and brother John became North Carolina’s governor thanks to his literacy in Arabic as well as his religious piety.
Said seems to have converted to Christianity during his time in Fayetteville as an enslaved man. Michael Abels, co-composer of the opera with Giddens, claims that Said wrote his autobiography at his master’s request. Abels is best known for his music to the films Get Out and Us. Omar received its lush orchestrations from Abels.
Abels points out that while they respected his abilities, Abels says that “they certainly didn’t intend to end his enslavement as the result.” They wanted him to perform, and to have him convert to Christianity in order to make them feel better.
Ala Alryyes, a Queens College professor of English, is the City University of New York. Ala Alryyes was also a translator of Omar Ibn Said’s autobiography, from Arabic to English aEUR”, and was appointed as an advisor for the opera project. Said’s work, he claims, exposes the lie that African slaves were ignorant and illiterate and in dire need of conversion.
Alryyes states that it shows the cultural background and literacy that slaves brought to the United States. “American slavery is a stereotype that ignores the fact that slaves brought with them a cultural background from Africa. This opens our eyes and reveals that their cultures were lost within a few generations.
Michael Abels explains that the opera was inspired by Said’s autobiography. He says that the opera is about Said’s journey aEUR, but also his spiritual journey. “The challenge of being enslaved as well as the challenge of being asked to surrender his spiritual identity and freedom was what the opera tells,” he said. “And when you think of what’s left aEUR,” that’s the most powerful part. These are clues that will show you what it’s really like to have all your moves watched and to need to tell it in a way that’s approved.
Hussein Rashid, a scholar who specializes in Muslims in American popular culture, is Hussein Rashid. He was also an advisor to this opera, like Alryyes. Rashid claims that Omar Ibn Said’s autobiography, and other writings offer some coded language and ambiguity about his beliefs. Rashid points out the Sura al Mulk, a chapter of the Qur’an Said quotes in his autobiography. It concerns God’s sovereignty and power.
Rashid says, “The way that I understand it, and many other scholars understand it,” that Omar is talking about being enslaved. He recognizes that other humans are playing at power, at having sovereignty, at having authority over others. He said, “No, you don’t really know what power means, you can’t understand what sovereignty means, and you don’t know where your allegiance lies.” This is a spiritual nourishment to Omar, I believe.”
Kaneza Schaal, the opera’s director, describes Omar’s struggle to save himself when every force conspired to take everything from him.
She says, “I am interested in Omar’s life and the contest of languages aEUR”, the spiritual languages, spoken languages, and the cultural languages aEUR”, and how he ultimately holds all of these languages simultaneously.”
These interweavings between language and belief were cleverly translated by the creative team. Said’s manuscripts are shown on stage in English and Arabic. The opera’s characters literally have different languages on their clothes.
Rhiannon Giddens believes that Said’s story provided many creative opportunities to move between musical languages. Giddens composed the majority of Omar’s music on the banjo, and she also incorporated her extensive knowledge of folk music into opera. The music can also transform to meet the characters. In scenes set in Senegal, the music morphs and transforms. A harp invokes a West African Kora while the music for white slaveowners or slave auctioneers thuds along in loud, declarative Western cadences and harmonies. The production was a joy to perform, and Giddens & Abels were well-respected by the singers.
“Look, I’m a banjo player,” Giddens says. “If someone said that your opera was accessible, I would be like, That’s the greatest compliment ever! This is what I do: I bring in connections to deep, rich vernacular and folk traditions of American culture. It will be a great addition to the story of who gets to call themselves a composer and who creates large-scale works.
Opera is still a place that often excludes Black performers and stories from the Black experience. Giddens hopes Omar will create a path aEUR”, and it appears that Giddens succeeded. Omar will be performed at several other American opera companies, including in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Chicago, San Francisco, San Francisco, Chicago, and Chapel Hill, N.C. aEUR”, close to the location where Omar Ibn Said, the real-life Omar, was enslaved for fifty years.
Said, who was 93 years old, died in 1863 during the Civil War. He was buried at Owen’s plantations. His grave is not marked. However, there is a mosque named after him in Fayetteville: the Masjid Omar Ibn Sayyid.
South Carolina Public Radio is especially grateful for the music provided by Omar. It was recorded at the opera’s dress rehearsal at Spoleto Festival USA, May 24, and has been remastered here.
