Selim Aga begins his autobiography, Incidents Connected with the Life of Selim Aga, a Native of Central Africa (1846), by describing the climate, geography, customs, and people of Tegla, his native country in Africa. He then recounts how slave traders kidnapped him when he was approximately eight years old and took him across the desert to Egypt. While he was a slave there, he was sold to the British Consul, who later returned to England with Aga. The former Consul's family treated him kindly and taught him to read and write. Aga dedicates his narrative to Mrs. Thurburn, the woman who oversaw his education and served as a maternal figure for him. He concludes his narrative by praising his adopted country, which afforded him these opportunities, in an "Ode to Britain."

Monique Prince