Apparently, nothing destined this Berber from the village of Azemmour in Morocco to become one of the most phenomenal interpreters that Spain has known and who introduced them to the southern United States.
Estevanico was the nickname given to a certain Mustapha Zemmouri. He had been captured in 1522 by the sea in his village of Azemmour in Western coast of Morroco, then sold as a slave to the Portuguese and then to a rich Spaniard. He arrived with a Spanish expedition which arrived in April 1528 near present-day Tampa Bay, Florida.
His name is mentioned in numerous logbooks of Spanish expeditions to the American Southwest. He would have been born around the year 1500 and died less than forty years later.
What impressed his teachers was his intelligence and his ability to learn new languages quickly; especially Portuguese and Spanish. We don't know if it was his masters who changed his name or if he converted to Christianity, but Estevanico had had several nicknames, testifying to a certain change in his status from slave to another, freeing him definitively to allow him to exercise his phenomenal talents during the Spanish expeditions in the New World.
Indeed, Estevanico was also called "Steven the Black", "Esteban", "Esteban the Moor", "Estevan", "Estebanico", "Steven the Moor", or "Steven the Young"). Merdies Hayes considers that « Chroniclers from the 16th Century, who were contemporaries of Estevanico, considered him a Negro. However, modern historians claim he was descended from the Hamites who were White residents of North Africa. According to this theory, Estevanico could not have been Black. Historian Caroll L. Riley has asserted that Estevanico was “Black in the sense that we would use the word in modern America. Actually, in modern generic terms I suspect that Estevanico was very mixed.” Riley also explained that if Estevanico was considered a “Negro,” his mixture must have been mainly Black » And she added « ” Estevanico was reared as a Muslim—with some accounts of him converting to Roman Catholocism ». « He was assuredly the first African to traverse Texas. In fact, historians believe he was the first African to visit the indigenous people of Mexico and may have reminded the inhabitants of the ancient sculptures of the Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica (1200-900 B.C.) which depicted persons with Black facial features. Estevanico, by extension, may have been considered by the native population as a descendant of the gods ».
He accompanied an expedition to the southern United States, and landed in present-day Florida. Relations with the Indians were not good, but thanks to his unparalleled intelligence, he managed to understand the Indian language, and even speak it, in just a few days. Everyone was impressed by this talent, and he was entitled to all the honors. When things went wrong between the Spaniards and the Redskins, all the Europeans were killed by the Indians, drowned or starved to death, with the exception of Estavanico and three of his comrades, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado. They lived in an Indian environment for four years, before moving to New Spain, now Mexico. The natives of one tiny island off the mainland coast (Galveston Island near Texas), encountered a strange sight in 1528: A band of emaciated White men lying naked and near dead on the beach. This group, in large part, was what was left from Narvaez’ expedition with de Vaca serving as its treasurer. This story is recorded in a classic of Spanish literature, the book by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: Naufragios, the Castaways.
These talents of polyglot interpreters reserved him a place of choice with the king of Mexico, and his viceroy Mendoza charged him with accompanying Fray Marcos de Niza as a guide to go in search of the fabulous cities of gold. But during this expedition his comrades contracted a serious illness and Estevanico was the only one able to continue the mission, opening the way to what is now called New Mexico and Arizona. In addition to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus led by the Pinzon Berber brothers in 1492, now we discover that it was also a Berber who led the conquistadors to discover the southern territories of the United States of America.
While all historians agree that the American Southwest would never have been reached by Europeans without Estevanico, no public square, park, building, or avenue has been named in his honor. For Kevin Washburn, a law professor at the University of New Mexico, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, Estevanico's story was forgotten in Southwestern history largely because of racism. It is said that Estevanico was a remarkable polyglot capable of learning the language of the Amerindians in a few weeks. It is also said that he was considered a deity by Native American tribes because of his great knowledge of herbs and remedies. « They resided in that region for about four years with Estevanico working as a shaman or medicine man versed in several Native Indian languages and also demonstrating his prowess as a seasoned explorer. Estevanico must have been a strange sight to the native peoples. He rode around with a special gourd trimmed with owl feathers that signified his status. He reportedly had an entourage of some 300 natives, kept two Castillian greyhounds as pets, and possessed a special “medicine” wand with bells affixed to it said to ward off (and supposedly cure) various diseases. He also carried with him special plates made of turquoise specifically for his meals. He even had a special lodging constructed fit for a man of his stature », Merdies Hayes said.
The Indians could have killed Estevan near the modern-day Arizona border southwest of Zuni, New Mexico according to certain authors, in 1539. They didn’t like his penchant for collecting precious stones like pebbles and turquoise, and his enjoyment of the native women.
He was therefore both interpreter translator, explorer and pioneer in the discovery of new territories in America. It also remains curiously unknown in North Africa, and few people have heard of him. Fortunately, Hamza Ben Driss Ottmani dedicated a tribute novel to him published in 2006, « Le Fils du Soleil », the Son of the Sun..
The talents of the son of Azemmour have thus opened many doors for him. But unfortunately, there were people around him who were suspicious of him and who accused him of wanting to do harm to the indigenous people. He was killed by the Zuñi tribe of Háwikuh who believed him to have bad intentions towards them. However, other tribes revered him because of his in-depth knowledge of medicinal plants thanks to which he worked miracles during his passages. No wonder for someone who grew up consuming olive oil, so effective against diseases that his native village still bears the name. Moreover, many other cities in North Africa bear this name, such as Zemmoura near Relizane, or Zemmouri in Boumerdès.
In History, Mustapha Zemmouri, Alias Estevanico was considered as a black Spanish slave. rarely mentioned as a Berber or a Moor. North-African people were neither considered nor respected, even if they were brilliant and useful. Florida, Arizona and New Mexico should at least, pay a tribute to his memory.
Nabil ZIANI
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