61 pages • 2 hours read
Laila LalamiThe Moor's Account
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Story of the Avavares”
The men realize that they must find a tribe to survive. They are relieved when they meet a native boy who brings them to the Avavares tribe. When the tribe leader asks them why they came across the ocean, Castillo tells him that their leader was looking for something but that they lost everything instead.
Mustafa observes that Narváez’s dream of conquest is dead:
The Castilians were the ones who had been vanquished; they were the ones who lived as servants in this land; and they were the ones who dared not practice their faith openly out of fear that they would incur the Indians wrath. As for me, an interloper among the Castilians, I had shared their fate. Now, years later, I was no longer a slave, but my freedom had come at the price of being an interloper among the Indians (223-24).
Mustafa’s outsider status allows him to reinvent himself as a healer. Mustafa’s “powers” help the Castilians gain the tribe’s acceptance. The Avavares’ appreciation of Mustafa is so great that he’s permitted to marry Oyomasot, the daughter of the tribe’s shaman. Content with his life among the Avavares, Mustafa decides to stop making plans to return home and comes to appreciate that he’s not only free but also “no longer alone” (234).
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Story of the Land of Corn”
An emissary from the Arbadaos tribe arrives to ask Mustafa to come to his village to heal the afflicted. Mustafa is unsure about accepting the invitation, but Oyomasot persuades him to go, telling him that the leader of the tribe is very powerful.
Mustafa, Oyomasot, and Dorantes’s brother-in-law Satosol work together. Satosol, who possesses “an instinctive flair for spectacle” (237), acts as a translator, and Oyomasot turns Mustafa’s cures into rhymes. Mustafa calls the event “a kind of theatre” (238) that evokes his memories of the traveling healer telling stories in the souq of Azemmur.
The Arbadaos tribe leader asks them to travel to another tribe called the Coachos to perform cures. Feeling that he has no choice, Mustafa agrees. After their stay with the Coachos, Cabeza de Vaca suggests that they keep traveling as itinerant healers. When nearly everyone in their party agrees with this plan, Mustafa goes along with it. But looking back, he blames his decision on the “dreadful monster” of greed and “the heady sweetness of fame” (242).
Over time, the group of traveling healers gains 1,200 followers and becomes known as the Children of the Sun. Mustafa tries to stay grounded by reminding himself that he is “not a prophet and has no need for disciples” (244). As the Castilians’ egos grow, they return “to the habit of giving new names to old places” (245).
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Story of Culiacán”
While gathering plants for his cures with Cabeza de Vaca, Mustafa spies a bit of Castilian glass. Five Castilian horsemen approach and stare at the four survivors, who are dressed like natives. When Cabeza de Vaca asks what year it is, they discover that they have been missing for eight years.
When they follow the men to the Castilian encampment, they encounter more soldiers. Accustomed to being treated like an equal by his fellow survivors and like a miracle worker by the natives, Mustafa realizes that “nothing in their gaze suggested that I was a man like them rather than some exotic beast or other” (250). Although he’d dreamed of contacting the old world again, now that he’s made a life for himself in the new world, Mustafa is dismayed to find himself among men who see him as less than human once again.
Cabeza de Vaca tells the story of their misadventures to the Castilians. In the version he’d told the natives, he’d been led astray by Narváez’s empty promise of a kingdom of gold. In this version, he describes himself as “the second-in-command of a fierce but unlucky expedition” (250). He makes Narváez a villain, omits his native wife, and takes credit for their survival. Trying to understand why he changed his story for his countrymen, Mustafa thinks, “I told myself he had altered some of its details because he was the one who told the story—he wanted to be its hero” (250).
Mustafa informs the Castilians that the reason they haven’t encountered natives for weeks is because “they heard terrible stories about the soldiers” (251). A Castilian officer named Alcaraz calls these stories “lies and fabrications” (251). Mustafa returns to the native village with the soldiers. Castillo and Dorantes are thrilled to see their countrymen again and are excited at the prospect of returning home.
A large group of native followers insists on coming along to Alcaraz’s camp. Impressed by the number of their followers, Alcaraz asks why the natives follow them but flee the Castilians. Dorantes explains:
Any power we have over the Indians is granted by God our Lord. We make the sign of the cross upon them and pray for their health. That is all we do, and nothing more. They follow us of their own free will, because we do not seek to harm them in any way (255).
When Mustafa informs Alcaraz that the natives will not be coming back with them to Culiacán, Alcaraz responds that it’s his “mandate” to bring the natives to the city (256). When Cabeza de Vaca insists that the natives are friendly and can be converted to Christianity without being enslaved, Alcaraz replies, “perhaps you have lived among the savages for too long. Your judgment of their abilities has been impaired” (256).
Castillo tells Alcaraz that the natives follow them because they promised no harm would come to them and they would not be enslaved. Alcaraz replies that he should not have made promises that he did not have the legal authority to make. Despite the men’s objections, Alcaraz insists that he is “not going back without the slaves” (257).
Although Castillo, Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, and Mustafa ask their guides to warn the natives that Alcaraz cannot be trusted and that they should return to their homes, their followers refuse to leave them.
The four castaways and their followers arrive at Culiacán. Cabeza de Vaca introduces himself to the mayor and asks for help protecting the natives. Although the mayor seems to agree, Oyomasot tells Mustafa that she doesn’t trust the mayor and that she will tell the natives that they must leave.
During the night, two families try to escape but are caught and returned by the mayor’s soldiers. When Cabeza de Vaca asks the mayor about it, he avoids the question, then explains that enslavement of natives has been forbidden. He adds that the governor of Compostela, Guzman, is currently in trouble due to his poor treatment of natives. However, when the men attempt to buy the natives’ freedom, he refuses to accept the trade. The natives’ treatment worsens.
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
Mustafa has a revelation when speaking to the Avavares leader. When asking about their failed quest, he observes, “It is easy to blame the cacique […] But he is only a man; he derives his power from other men, who will follow him for only as long as they believe in him” (223). Mustafa realizes that “everyone in the expedition had believed Narváez’s story about the kingdom of gold and eagerly followed him there” (223). Narváez’s power derives not from the authority granted to him in official records as leader of the expedition, but from the power of the story he tells. This distinction illustrates The Tension Between Storytelling and Recordkeeping—while the official record attempts to impose a rigid and comprehensive structure on the world, its power is greatly attenuated so far from the imperial capital. Power here derives from stories, and the power of stories is much more anarchic. The promise of hidden wealth is enough to entice many people to follow the obviously foolish Narváez, but the moment his followers lose faith in that promise, his power evaporates.
The men’s circumstances change when they reinvent themselves as healers. They are fully accepted by the tribe and become famous among the natives. Soon they are traveling from tribe to tribe with 1,200 followers. This circumstance, too, illustrates the power of stories. The men tell a story of themselves that is similar to Narváez’s story of hidden riches: It promises to solve people’s problems and erase their fears. A mysterious illness has been ravaging the area, and many are eager to trust anyone who promises to defeat it. Every tribe they visit holds a feast in their honor and offers them gifts. At this point, the men’s ability to tell a powerful story is a means of Survival in the Face of Colonial Dehumanization.
A shard of Castilian glass leads the men to their first contact with the old world in eight years. Reflecting upon this moment later, Mustafa wonders why he spoke up. He blames his “fateful insensibility” which his “beloved father had tried in vain to wring out of me all those years ago” (247). This retrospective regret is made possible by the act of storytelling. Setting down the account of his life long after the events he describes have concluded, he understands their significance in a way he did not as they happened. The act of storytelling allows Mustafa to make sense of his experiences, claiming ownership of his life by determining its meaning for himself.
Dorantes shows his humanity by wishing that his brother Diego was still alive to witness their deliverance and return home with him. He also remembers Diego’s prediction that Mustafa would see his brothers again. Dorantes and Mustafa share the same dream: “We both wanted the same thing: to make our entire journey in reverse, return home to what remained of our families, and try to forget about Narváez and his expedition” (253). But when Mustafa witnesses the local officials’ treatment of the natives, he realizes that his freedom may come with a terrible price.
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By Laila Lalami
