48 Santana, "A extraordinária odisseia," p. 49.
49 João José Reis, 2003, Rebelião Escrava no Brasil: A História do Levante dos Malês em 1835, 2a ed., São Paulo, Companhia das Letras.  
Osifekunde's memoir is one of the earliest detailed attempts at documenting Yoruba language and ethnography. Thus, the work has great literary and historical value, particularly its contributions and insights on the development of literacy in Yorubaland, and the role of educated clerks and interpreters. Although d'Avezac-Macaya's suggestion that Osifekunde was not competent in French is suspicious, and perhaps refers to Parisian French and not a Creolized version which he needed and must have spoken to function as a domestic worker and shopkeeper between 1839 and 1840. What he lacked in French he made up for with his relatively fair command of Creole Portuguese and Yoruba, especially the Ijebu dialect. His extensive travels in the eastern Bight of Benin would suggest familiarity with Yoruba dialects, like Egba, Awori, Oyo and Ilaje and non-Yoruba languages like Ijo, Edo and Itsekiri required for trade in the Benin Rivers. Knowledge of more than a language and dialects would have served him well in Brazil and Europe. The only difference was that he went to Europe around age 40 , making the acquisition of another language challenging.