Interview with Mbaye Lo on I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’s America. by Mbaye Lo and Professor Carl W. Ernst

Abstract This interview with Professor Mbaye Lo, co-author (with Carl W. Ernst) of I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’s America , explores the life, intellectual legacy, and religious identity of Omar ibn Said – a West African Muslim scholar enslaved in 19th-century America. Lo discusses the title’s significance, Omar’s resistance through writing, the entanglement of orality and literacy in West African cultures, and the manipulation of Omar’s narrative through mistranslation and visual representation. He also addresses early American attitudes toward Islam, the development of Arabic scholarship in Senegambia, and the role of oral traditions in preserving cultural identity. The interview critiques the legacy of colonial misreadings and affirms Omar’s enduring significance in confronting white supremacy and religious distortion.