Culture & Society of English-Speaking Countries PDF

Núria Pérez CULTURE & SOCIETY OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES For the text analysis on the Exam Identify the historical context (contextualize the text) ○ Where, when, why Complement the context with the Discussion/Reflection ○ Follow the guidance questions provid...

Núria Pérez CULTURE & SOCIETY OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES For the text analysis on the Exam Identify the historical context (contextualize the text) ○ Where, when, why Complement the context with the Discussion/Reflection ○ Follow the guidance questions provided in the exam UNIT 0: Introductory session: Commonwealth, Postcolonialism, Transnationalism What is the Commonwealth? (From the video) Greed, power and white supremacy Economics —> People wanted to make money The map was pink and “ours” “We” were like America today All the names of places associated with the head of the empire: Victoria falls, Victoria Station… They compare the Brit empire to others like the Roman Trade: slaves, silk, porcelain, opium… Coming to England for a better way of life But also leaving England and going to Australia for a better way of life Nostalgia < indian trains, colours, sounds, ppl Famous ppl Some sports: rugby, boxing, crickett, hockey… Words: safari, gymkhana, barbecue Imperium et Libertas. The Construction of Imperialistic Discourse Empire and freedom, from a speech delivered by Benjamin Disraeli. As prime minister, he wanted to fight criticism against the empire and persuade the population about the positivism of the empire. 1  Núria Pérez Complementary or antagonistic? —> The idea that they were doing the countries a favor by colonizing them, so the antagonism in that depending on your pov (either colonizer or colonized) you see it as freedom or not. The British Empire —> “Where the sun never sets” The Roman vs the British Empire, from Heart of Darkness The difference between colonists and conquerors: ○ The planning behind ○ The reasoning behind: either to ‘help’ or to conquer for the sense of conquering ○ Placing whiteness at the top: the intelligent, the beautiful Conquering means taking land by force. What you do with it afterwards is up to you: you may colonize it, you may take over its administration, you may continue the native administration under military control (protectorate), or you may even, as the English did in Ethiopia in 1868, let go of it altogether, having delivered a sufficient lesson to the locals. Colonizing involves large-scale rural and urban settlement. ‘Peculiarities’ of the British Empire Its expansion took place mostly during the 19th Century Enlightenment theories proliferated —> freedom of man (the power of reason). ○ How do you justify that while you are preaching freedom, you are defending slavery? That not all men are the same? The existence of the Empire had to be justified, on e way or another —> Through science and religion ○ With religion it is easy: that there is only one God and you have to be in favor of it ○ But with science? —> (below) The emergence of the racial discourses of the 19th Century —> Proving that the white race was actually superior to the other races. So, they were providing scientific justifications for the empire. An are of knowledge emerged —> Orientalism The age of the explorers: ○ Richard Burton, Dr David Livingstone, H.M. Stanley, John Speke. 2  Núria Pérez The enhancement of British civilisation & British Culture But also —> The Empire was under scrutiny —> The case of Roger Casement. ○ That they were not actually doing what they were claiming to be doing. John Ruskin - Inaugural lecture (1870) Supremacism —> Destiny —> They thought they were the best A race mangled of the best northern blood —> An inheritance of honor —> Splendid avarice of the Englishmen That they are the chosen ones —> ‘Reign or die’, ofc they gotta accept their destiny bc they are the best 🤩 England referred to as: ‘The mistress of half the earth’ That they had to go to those places to turn savages 😡 into civilisation 😍 This discourse was embedded in the minds of the people, the British population really did think that this was the reality Empire and Colonial maps That maps of this time were not an objective scientific abstraction of reality, but rather they were a subjective representation of the ideals of the ppl who created them (in this case, imperialists) The map-as-logo: the map was painted by each empire having their own dye in their colonies. That the empire was as an enterprise, and the map was a logo of the Empire, to represent their power and their identity. British was red, French green, etc. ○ Maps were no longer a compass of the world 🌍 but a way of understanding the world, divided into colors. The world was perceived through a colonial lens. In a way, it was a part of the colonial way of simplifying things “Nothing is left to the imagination now, when the picture has become the story” —> That these maps became the reality of the world. Colonial Literature A wonderful means to spread the message of the Empire, the power of popular literature. Edward Said - Orientalism (1978) Culture and Imperialism (1993) 3  Núria Pérez ○ How the West constructed its Other —> The things I was too afraid of becoming, are the characteristics that I attribute to the Other. The role played by literature: stories contribute to shaping the world ○ Construction of belief systems —> a way of understanding who we are in this world. Representation of the ‘Other’ in colonial lit. ○ Metropolis vs Colonies (Empire) ○ Savagery vs Civilization ○ The fissures in imperial discourse —> Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan of the Apes 🦍 John Buchan - Prester John ○ > A priest trying to free Africa is the villain and the Scottish re-establishing the bri Empire is the good boi Rudyard Kipling - Kim Rudyard Kipling - The White Man’s Burden (1899) (poem) ○ The poor white bois who go to Africa and find unhappy 😞 ppl who don’t welcome them with the respect they deserve :( —> It is a burden for the British colonizer to find this disrespectful savagery that doesn’t accept their savior complex (the supremacist idea of destiny). ○ The poem refers to Africans as “half devil and half child”, in that at best they are children, at worst they are evil. Henry Rider Haggard - King Solomon’s Mines (1885) ○ The quest narrative: quest for the lost brother, quest for wealth ○ Quest for a lost homeland - Ignosi: described as lighter skin > so good connotations > bc similar to us > so good boi ○ The evil man - King Twala: describe as black with bad connotations Articles on Commonwealth literature 🫶🏻 —> Article 1 - Amitav Ghosh - Commonwealth: Misnomer, not an award The award is not actually oriented towards the future, but rather it is interwoven with a past idea, that of colonialism and how it has evolved from it. That it obviates the other languages, and thus it is funded in wrongful bases. —>Article 2 - Salman Rushdie - ‘Commonwealth literature’ does not exist 4  Núria Pérez From a club to a ghetto That commonwealth writers don’t want to be associated with the term, they don’t want to be in it That it is restraining, the literature has to be traditional or else it isn’t worthy Top tier (english) vs secondary tier (other) literature as well as language. UNIT 1: Africa: The Dark Continent? - Colonial Configurations Remember: the map as a logo + the difference between coloners - colonizers The Berlin Conference (1884-5) - The Scramble for Africa European countries were not really interested in Africa (bc not as interesting as India (the crown jewel) sap greu) but Colonel Von Bismark (british) saw that europeans did want territory, and that as they expanded, they could clash w/ each other’s interest and cause problems in Europe 😞 —> So the solution: let’s be civilized and divide it now ourselves so as to avoid issues 😁 > therefore, scramble for Africa 🤩 They did ofc not ask the inhabitants of Africa, the map was entirely created by the western mind, the mind of the colonizers —> Which was (obviously) problematic in the future. That’s why so many issues in Africa (bc tribes united, separated etc.) Africa within the British Empire “India is an antiquated civilisation which has come to the end of its useful life. Here [Africa] there is nothing but beasts and savagery” —> ○ Meaning that India already has its own culture, and they respected that (though they colonized them anyway to ‘help’; but in Africa there was nothing, just savages and uncivilized tribes, that they were stupid and savages. Ofc, this is not true. Agatha Christie - The Man in the Brown Swit Rhodes’ grave (Cecil Rhodes) - Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) Description of the country Gender > ‘race’ and gender ineluctably intertwined Colonel Race —> An explorer? Cats Landscape > Victoria Falls 5  Núria Pérez Representation of Africans Cecil Rhodes A mining magnate (a powerful businessman) Economy and politics > Prime Minister of the Cape Colony Ardent believer in British Imperialism > supremacy of the white man Founder of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) The Description of Africa By and by the character of the country changed. Great boulders appeared, piled up into fantastic shapes. I felt suddenly that I had got into a primitive era. Just for a moment Neanderthal men seemed quite as real to me as they had to Papa. (198) ○ Describing Africa and Africans as inferior, as belonging to pre-history and not history, because they haven’t gone through the creation of writing, as if they are illiterate. ‘There must have been giants once,’ I said dreamily. ‘And their children were just like children are today—they played with handfuls of pebbles, piling them up and knocking them down, and the more cleverly they balanced them, the better pleased they were. If I were to give a name to this place I should call it The Country of Giant Children.’ (198) ○ Like the poem the white man’s burden, that blacks are half devil half child. Dangerous and inferior. Danger of Africa Perhaps you’re nearer the mark than you know,’ said Colonel Race gravely. ‘Simple, primitive, big—that is Africa.’ I nodded appreciatively. ‘You love it, don’t you?’ I asked. ‘Yes. But to live in it long—well, it makes one what you would call cruel. One comes to hold life and death very lightly.’ (198) ○ That being in Africa for too long will turn you dangerous, a savage like them africans. Gender ‘[S]o you don’t class women as “weak things”?’ No, I don’t think I do—though they are, I suppose. That is, they are nowadays. But Papa always said that in the beginning men and women roamed the world together, equal in strength—like lions and tigers—’ (199) ‘And giraffes. They were nomadic, you see. It wasn’t till they settled down in communities, and women did one kind of thing and men another, that women got weak. And of course, underneath, one is 6  Núria Pérez still the same—one feels the same, I mean—and that is why women worship physical strength in men: it’s what they once had and have lost.’ (199) You think you admire moral qualities, but when you fall in love, you revert to the primitive where the physical is all that counts. But I don’t think that’s the end; if you lived in primitive conditions it would be all right, but you don’t—and so, in the end, the other thing wins after all. (199) ○ They usen’t be weak, but from the establishment of gender roles onward, they became weak. Colonel Race He embodies the colonial explorer per excelence. ‘What are you really doing here, Colonel Race?’ I asked deliberately. For a moment I thought he wasn’t going to answer. He was clearly taken aback, though. At last he spoke, and his words seemed to afford him a grim amusement. ‘Pursuing ambition,’ he said. ‘Just that—pursuing ambition. You will remember, Miss Beddingfeld, that “by that sin fell the angels,” etc.’ ‘They say,’ I said slowly, ‘that you are really connected with the Government—that you are in the Secret Service. Is that true? ○ He embodies the ‘ambition’ that the colonizer had when going to Africa. Cats ‘My dear child, don’t be absurd. You can’t carry six cats as well as fifty wooden animals round with you.’ ‘Never mind the wooden animals. These cats are alive. I shall take them back with me.’ ‘You will do nothing of the kind.’ I looked at him resentfully but he went on: ‘You think me cruel—but one can’t go through life sentimentalizing over these things. It’s no good standing out—I shan’t allow you to take them. It’s a primitive country, you know, and I’m stronger than you.’ (202-03). ○ Savior complex from her towards the cats but not towards the black ppl. Landscape - Victoria Falls Colonial literature had a great fascination for the landscape. The representation of the landscape is marvelous, representing it as a mystery, something stunning. The idea that everything related to the landscape, environment is good —> Contrasted to that everything related to black ppl is bad. Representation of Africans 7  Núria Pérez After tea we strolled out, got on the trolley and were pushed by smiling blacks down the little tracks of rails to the bridge. (206) [A]s we went, we passed a fine native stalking along. Behind him came a woman who seemed to have the entire household belongings piled upon her head! The collection included a frying-pan! (207) ○ Again, the ambivalence between the representation of the ppl as bad and inferior, contrasted with the magnitude and freedom of the environment and landscape. ○ The subliminal message about Africa. Criticism on Empire in Africa Roger Casement - Report on the Congo Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness ○ Ambivalence in the representation of Africa: First you get criticism of what the British Empire is doing to Africa. (It took him 10 years after his experience in the Congo to write the novel.) He is criticizing but he is not very benevolent with the representation of Africans, they are still being presented as uncivilized people. ○ On the one hand, critique of Colonialism, on the other hand, representation of Africans as savages. The Congo - King Leopold II of Belgium —> In his 1898 speech comments on: “The mission which the agents of the State have to accomplish on the Congo is a noble one. They have to continue the development of civilization in the centre of Equatorial Africa, receiving their inspiration directly from Berlin and Brussels. Placed face to face with primitive barbarism, grappling with sanguinary customs that date back thousands of years, they are obliged to reduce these gradually. They must accustom the population to general laws, of which the most needful and the most salutary is assuredly that of work.” H.M. Stanley, the English explorer, on the Congo and King Leopold II, 1898. —> “Who can doubt that God chose the King for His instrument to redeem this vast slave park. (…) King Leopold found the Congo (…) cursed by cannibalism, savagery, and despair; and he has been trying with a patience, which I can never sufficiently admire, to relieve it of its horrors, rescue it from its oppressors, and save it from perdition.” 8  Núria Pérez Heart of Darkness Narrative: ○ Two narrators —> Unnamed + Marlow ○ Cyclical narrative: London (Thames) – Congo – London The plot/the story > A Journey to the “heart of Africa” (the Congo – present Zaire) Historical Background > the Congo (Zaire) > King Leopold II What is the “idea”? “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. The idea at the back of it, not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea –something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to.’’ ○ The idea can only be justified through colonial discourse, the idea that they have to go to Africa to help the people. Remember: enlightenment, freedom of all men, so how do we justify that we enslave them? Well, because they are savages and the white race is superior, so they need the whites to go and help them bc poor ppl. The representation of Africans: “They still belonged to the beginnings of time” —> Represented as inferior, as savages, as if they were not human. ○ Africa as primitive (devoid of history) > De-historicizing process of the African continent So that history started when the Europeans arrived (bullshit). ○ Africa as dangerous > capacity to turn rational, civilized men into irrational creatures > that there is a sort of cruelty and evil in the land that corrupts the european. –Africa as powerful inasmuch it is dangerous ○ Empire as white and male > Cecil Rhodes; Colonel Race ○ Landscape vs African people > African woman as a “curio” ○ All of these aim at the Invisibility of the natives > Why Achebe wrote “Africa Is People” (ChinuaAchebe). 9  Núria Pérez UNIT 1: Africa: The Dark Continent? - Postcolonial Writing Back - Africa is People Roger Casement Author originally from Ireland but not nationalist, loved being british Spent 19 years in africa, thought he was very imperialistic but discovered his irish nationalism there due to the cruelty he saw by the imperialistic powers Became fervent nationalist, was captured and sentenced to death after joining the IRA for treason Many intellectuals signed a petition to save him but Conrad didn’t bc he was in the middle of a process to obtain british citizenship and didn’t want to risk it so they ended their friendship Not only was he seen as a traitor all through the UK but was also ultimately sentenced to death despite all the claims against this due to his rumored homosexuality Roger Casement - Report on Congo (1904) Not fiction, a list of facts as Roger observed and lived them. He offered the reality of what was happening to the world. So that people were confronted with it, with the ‘civilization’ that was being established in the Congo. Africa Writes Back The Africans have been scholared, they are now able to fight back and portray their view of the situation. Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart ○ For many scholars, it is a rewriting of Heart of Darkness. ○ That the arrival of the colonizers destroyed the civilization that Nigeria already had, their state of things was affected. ○ Nigeria > arrival of the colonizers (missionaries) > beginning of formal colonization in Africa ○ How different is this representation of Africans from the previous ones? > Who is the stranger / the Other? From the African pov, they are the self and the strangers (europeans) are the Other 10  Núria Pérez ○ Self-Other postcolonial dynamics > What about the manner in which the white man relates to the Africans? ○ Jesus Christ – the Bible ○ Last paragraph Jesu Kristi / The Holy Trinity The preacher is using imposition, instead of persuasion. Also, he needs a translator, he doesn’t speak the language. It also portrays the mystery of the Holy Trinity, 3 people in one. ○ ‘We have been sent by this great God to ask you to leave your wicked ways and false gods and turn to Him so that you may be saved when you die,’ he said. (104) ○ After the singing the interpreter spoke about the Son of God whose name was Jesu Kristi. Okonkwo, who only stayed in the hope that it might come to chasing the men out of the village or whipping them, now said: ‘You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god. Now you talk about his son. He must have a wife, then.’ The crowd agreed. ‘I did not say He had a wife,’ said the interpreter, somewhat lamely.’ ‘Your buttocks said he had a son,’ said the joker. ‘So he must have a wife and all of them must have buttocks.’ The missionary ignored him and went on to talk about the Holy Trinity. At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. He shrugged his shoulders and went away to tap his afternoon palm-wine. (106). The craziness and the irony in what the white man is explaining. Achebe presents colonization from the pov of the Africans, and the white ppl are presented as the external beings who don’t learn the language, don’t communicate, and simply impose their views and their culture and ideas. Ngugui Wa Thiong’o - Decolonising the Mind (Kenyan) Political decolonisation is one thing, but decolonising the mind is a completely different story, these ideals have been rooted in the minds of the people since they were children. 11  Núria Pérez Linguistic Colonization Childhood stories —> How they define how you are as an adult. Transition > School —> From African orature to English literature in colonial schools. ○ English became the language of my formal education. In Kenya, English became more than a Language: it was the Language, and all the others had to bow before it in deference. (11) Dangerous —> Because culture and language are embedded in each other. ○ The language of my education was no longer the language of my culture (11) ○ Language & Power > “Nobody could pass the exam who failed the English Language paper no matter how brilliantly he had done in the other subjects” (12). Example provided of him vs another boy. ○ English was the official vehicle and the magic formula to colonial elitedom (12). Colonial alienation (17) ○ Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly throughorature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world. (16) ○ Colonialism > “the destruction or the deliberate undervaluing of a people’s culture, their art, dances, religions, history, geography, education, orature and literature, and the conscious elevation of the language of the coloniser. (16) ○ Since culture does not just reflect the world in images but actually, through those very images, conditions a child to see that world in a certain way, the colonial child was made to see the world and where he stands in it as seen and defined by or reflected in the culture of the Lang of imposition. (17). —> That the African child is worthless, inferior, he will never be like them. ○ Internalization of the colonizer’s discourse (18). ○ In her paper read to the conference on the teaching of African literature in schools held in Nairobi in 1973, entitled ‘Written Literature and Black Images’, the Kenyan writer and scholar Mĩcere Mũgo related how a reading of the description of Gagool as an old African woman in Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines had for a long time made her feel mortal terror whenever she encountered old African women. In his autobiography This Life Sydney 12  Núria Pérez Poitier describes how, as a result of the literature he had read, he had come to associate Africa with snakes. So on arrival in Africa and being put up in a modern hotel in a modern city, he could not sleep because he kept on looking for snakes everywhere, even under the bed. These two have been able to pinpoint the origins of their fears. But for most others the negative image becomes internalised and it affects their cultural and even political choices in ordinary living. (18) —> That unless you deconstruct the given discourse and understand that it is wrong, you are forever going to be enslaved in the discourse that you are inferior. It’s always the little things that matter. It takes a long time to acknowledge, confront and deconstruct stereotypes. Ken Saro-Wiwa (Nigerian) His view is contrasted to that of Thiong’o, two sides of the same coin, the other view of colonialism from the African perspective. He was killed by the government for protesting against it. He was an activist. “The Language of African Literature: A Writer’s Testimony” (1992) First two paragraphs > Context > Similar to that described by Ngũgĩ ○ The difference is that he sees it positively, while Ngugi sees it negatively. “The English language was a unifying factor at the school; in fact, there was a regulation forbidding the use of any of our mother-tongues at work or during recreation. This rule ensured that boys like myself did not feel lost in the school because we could not communicate with any other body in our mother-tongues. There were no books in any other language, apart from English, in the school’s excellent library. We worked and played in English. One result of this regime was that in a single generation, the school produced Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Okara…” ○ He accepts the prohibition and sees it as positive. There was no question of my writing in Khana because no one else would have understood it. (154) ○ That he is going to reach a much wider audience. [University of Ibadan] > By then, Nigeria had become independent. The language of instruction at Ibadan was English of course. (154) 13  Núria Pérez ○ He never questions it, ofc English is the superior language, the language of education, so university will be in English. Obi Wali & The First Conference on African Literature in English – 1962, Makerere University ○ Two positions in the world of African literature: That writing in English is fine That writing in English is bad bc it is the language of the colonizer […] the need to communicate with one another and the rest of the world, and the fact of colonialism (which is also real) have forced us to write in the languages of our erstwhile colonial masters. I, for one, do not feel guilty about this. (155) “African literature will break down its natural components, and we will speak of Ogoni literature, Igbo literature, Fanti, Swahili, etc.”. ○ This is something to reflect on, the terrible consequences of colonialism —> His hopes were expressed in a writing from the 90s, and nowadays we still don’t know about these literatures, this hasn’t yet happened, and it probably never will. What is “Standard English”? With regard to English, I have heard it said that those who write in it should adopt a domesticated “African” variety of it. I myself have experimented with the three varieties of English spoken and written in Nigeria: pidgin, “rotten,” and standard. I have used them in poetry, short stories, essays, drama, and the novel. I have tried them out in print, on stage, on the radio, and with television comedy. That which carries best and which is most popular is standard English, expressed simply and lucidly. It communicates and expresses thoughts and ideas perfectly. (157) ○ We should question this. Languages should not belong to nations. Standard English is a fallacy. UNIT 2: WEST AFRICA —> Amore no tens apunts d’aquest power demana'ls The Berlin Conference as an attempt to escape this war from happening —> ○ There was a fear of a First World War, and this was a turning point because people started to think about independence from the colonial powers. So there were attempts to escape the war from happening. Futile attempt > First World War aka The Great War (1914-1918) The participation of African civilians in the First World War > Africa as an often “forgotten” battlefield Increasing feeling of estrangement from the metropolis/mother country > It is not our war; it is their war The seeds of future independence from colonial powers were planted Kwame Nkrumah - First president of Ghana First president of an African Nation The uk realised they couldn't stop the independence processes so they tried to negotiate the best deals out of it (unlike the Portuguese or the French or the Spanish) Even though the british decided to leave peacefully, they did introduce certain long-lasting links to remain in the territories culturally They realized that they couldn’t stop Africans from getting independence, so they wanted to negotiate. The British understood this but the French didn’t, and neither the Portuguese, but the British said they were going to leave peacefully and do business. The British attitude is that they are very pragmatic. Kwame Nkrumah: he was educated in the US. He intimately connected with the Black Civil Rights Movement. Ghana had an open door policy for African Americans (segregation in America). The difficult task of him was to achieve a balance during the Cold War turmoil, socialist ethics vs. US sympathy. He was inclined to socialism (left oriented) but also felt a connection with the US and tried to find a balance. He was not successful and, in 1966, a coup d’état happened and he had to exile in Guinea-Conakry. He was accused of corruption (which is demonstrated that he was not). It is believed that the US was behind this coup d’état, with the motive that they feared that he was to side with the Soviet Union. 15  Núria Pérez W.E.B. Du Bois and Maya Angelou Du bois rejected american citizenship and stayed in ghana where he was granted citizenship once it became a country 1957, black civil rights movement in America, segregation, mlk, rosa parks Maya Angelou stayed for a couple of years in ghana after its independence but then went back to the US Education and Health Both improved with independence Writing the [Postcolonial] Nation “What does ‘Independence’ mean?” (“For Whom Things Did Not Change”) Pre- independent identity vs. Post-independent identity What society emerges out of independence? Freedom > Freedom from what? Colonial powers > Britain Factual freedom Existential freedom Factual freedom of colonial powers (political) but what about existential? Mental? Construction of the nation ○ Once independence is gained, the country has to be constructed (eg America) What really is Independence? How did colonial countries actually change after independence? Benedict Anderson - Imagined Communities Gellner [Ernest Gellner; philosopher and social anthropologist] – Nation and Nationalism] is so anxious to show that nationalism masquerades under false pretences that he assimilates ‘invention’ to ‘fabrication’ and ‘falsity’, rather than to ‘imagining’ and ‘creation’. In this way he implies that ‘true’ communities exist which can be advantageously juxtaposed to nations. In fact, all communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these) are imagined. 16  Núria Pérez Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are created. (1983, 6) What he says is that —> For him, a nation is a community of people that have things in common which define them as a group. BUT this group of ppl decide the things that unite them. In terms of the past, they remember the things that keep them together and forget those that separate them —> This is an act of imagination. (Jesus)Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. When something is imagined is something that is not real, but romantics show to us the power of imagination, how to never undermine the power of imagination. He says that the nation is a community that decides that have things in common as a group, but this group of people define the things that unite them, in terms of the past they remember the things that bring them together and forget the things that separate them, and this is an act of imagination. Anderson says that a nation is not something that exists forever, is something that evolves through time. The borders that define nations are flexible, they are not fixed entities. All nations are imagined communities, and that includes small nations and big ones. “What does “Independence” mean?” No Sweetness Here - Ama Ata Aidooo An exercise on writing the nation What is it? ○ A collection of 11 short stories Fafewo —> A dramatic performance ○ The speaker (storyteller) is telling the story (orature) and intervenes with the audience. Important thing: these stories post dilemmas, their aim is that the audience reflects upon those dilemmas proposed. Inscription off NSH within the oral tradition A palimpsest —> Diverse layers or aspects apparently beneath the surface. ○ Important: the oral quality of the story. This is what the work is about, it is a collection of western short stories, but beneath you can feel the oral tradition, the fact that there is someone explaining to us the stories. Restoration of the original source -African fefewo- in the ‘European’ short stories. ○ In a way, what it does is to restore the African tradition but through western stories. 17  Núria Pérez This fefewo is configured by acts of transcreation whereby the novelistic genre is transcreated as a whole dramatic performance (fefewo) and not solely as a collection of short stories. In a way, it is a Literary act of independence, both in gender and genre. (JESUS) No Sweetness Here, Ama Ata Aidoo. a collection of eleven short stories. But also a Fefewo, a dramatic performance: you have the speaker who is telling the story, and the audience interacts. These stories pose dilemmas, the aim is that the audience reflect and think about these dilemmas. NSH should be included within oral tradition. A palimpsest are diverse layers or aspects that are found beneath the surface. That is what NSH is. In a way, this collection restores the original source (African fefewo) in the “European” short stories. This fefewo is configured by acts of transcreation whereby the novelistic genre is transcreated as a whole dramatic performance and not solely as a collection of short stories. NHS is a literary act of independence, both in gender and genre because there is this transformation of European genres. On National Culture. The Native Intellectual and the People Ama Ata Aidoo - Everything Counts The main character is from Ghana. She has studied abroad and has come back to be a university lecturer in Ghana. Analyzing the chapter through Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961) – Chapter 4. “On National Culture” ○ The role of the native intellectual Going abroad to study and coming back to help the nation ○ Feeling of estrangement Coming back and things are different ○ Disturbance Of not understanding what’s going on. Have the ppl changed? Have I changed? Why don’t I belong? ○ Objective —> To be one with the ppl ○ Sissie > Slef-other dynamics > her female students ○ What is the source of this disturbance? In the case of the protagonist, the wigs. 18  Núria Pérez Storyline: culture shock —> What is the nature of Sissie’s culture shock? —> She is a been-to (someone who’s been to West and has then returned to its original African country). The wig as a symbol ○ What is its meaning? ○ What does it represent? ○ Also note that it’s only women who wear the wigs, The ideal of beauty that hair should be straight (like white ppl’s) Horrifying images related to the wig —> That they are made from other people’s unwanted hair. The disturbing meaning of the wig is related to —> The desire for whiteness and the realization that whiteness will never be achieved —> Tension —> Colonial neurosis (the neurosis that comes from the fact that the colonized subject aspires to be white and knows that he or she can simply never be white, their characteristics will never allow such change ofc). Whiteness, goodness and beauty —> Manichean Allegory —> That the three go together hand in hand, all three in one. Lecturer-Students —> She feels nervous when seeing all her female students wearing wigs The wig as an allegory to neocolonialism The wig for her —> She wore it in Europe, didn’t wanna wear it in Ghana, thus why her surprise when seeing so many wigs. Like, aren’t we independent?? Guess not :( ○ “A week went on and their masks were still on” —> They are disguised!! With the wigs!! They try to hide their black identity!! —> That you are not showing your real self, hiding who you are, your true identity. Also the winner of the beauty parade is the mulatto girl, the only one not wearing a wig because she already has ‘good’ hair and is light skinned. —> Sissie’s physical reaction to this is to vomit out of disgust. She also cries. She also criticizes those who are been-to but haven’t come back —> The other side of the revolution —> They are not helping their nation but rather they’ve abandoned it. Toni Morrison - The Bluest Eye 19  Núria Pérez A little black girl who has a dysfunctional family. Her mother loves more the babies from the family she works for because they are white. Her father rapes her and she remains pregnant. The girl thinks that she’s not loved by anyone and thinks that if she has blue eyes she will be loved, and goes to a magician to give her the eyes. There is an obsession with white beauty. Skin Bleaching They try to bleach their skin, which is something terrifying. Due to the hatred that has been associated with black skin, and the exaltation of white skin. Sissie as a Been-to Female «been-to» vs. Male «been-to»? —> Same condition? Aidoo, Ama Ata. Interview “The African Woman Today.” Dissent 39 Summer, 1992. ○ Clothes […] are part of the minutia of culturization; they can symbolize cultural loss and gain. Such things are pointedly illustrated in terms of women: women are the one who wear the traditional clothes, the saris in India, the slits in Ghana. Women are expected to be African or Indian or Pakistani by the way they dress. Men talk about it whilst wearing their Western suits. At a conference, elite men will stand up in three piece suits and talk about the need to be culturally authentic. We women have to wear clothes, keep our hair. (323) Double standards + having higher expectations for women than for men. Women are more pressured. National Othering - The Margins of the Independent Nation Ama Ata Aidoo - The Message Maami Amfoa: the old woman who has heard that her granddaughter has had a C-section, and she thinks she has died due to the operation. Opening lines —> Oral quality “If the government’s people allow it, I shall bring her home” (Jesus) Woman believes her daughter died (she went in operation bc of the pregnancy), although she only had a c-cut and is alright. Opening lines > oral quality. challenge on how to convey the messages of the people (who don’t speak English) 20  Núria Pérez into English. Notion of fear, the difference btw we and they. “If the government’s people allow it, I shall bring her home”. The city of Cape Coast is seen as distant, mentally distant. The conflict is seen as the city versus the country, of modern girls versus the old (different generations), and language once again plays a very important role the language of the city is English and the languages of the country are their own languages. The conflict: City vs the country: english vs african mother tongues ○ Youth vs old: intergenerational relationships (the old and young generation). Communality: There is a sense of communality in the country, within the people; like the man in the truck drives her, they help each other. ○ No such thing as communality exists in the new nation: Contrast with how the old woman is treated in the city when she enters the hospital: the nurse treats her as an old woman who doesn’t know any better (ageism) and as if she were illiterate. Their ‘european name’ —> Their African names are not valid; their Christian European name is the one that prevails, the african one is the alias (secondary). —> The effects of colonization From the powerpoint: The contrast of the country and the city is one of the major forms in which we become conscious of a central part of our experience and of the crisis of our society. (Raymond Williams, The Country and the City, 289) Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures > The postcolonial nation-state as the “bourgeois state” which was inherited from colonialism > the nation-state of the European bourgeoisie. Capital (patriarchy) > white & male ○ The idea behind is that capital, the main thing in patriarchy, is still white and male, despite independence. What does ‘Independence’ mean? ○ Freedom from the British, yes, they got it, BUT —> They are still subjected to the English language, to beauty standards from the West, etc. —> They are not fully independent, politically speaking maybe yes, but the mind is still 21  Núria Pérez colonized —> One thing is decolonizing the territory, and another is decolonizing the mind; the latter takes ages. “Images of Africa at Century’s End” - Ama Ata Aidoo That whiteness is still the prevailing beauty standard, and that the blacks will never be like them, white will always be better than black. The superior standard. At century's end, images of Africa are still subversive to images of beauty that place Africans at the bottom of the ladder. UNIT 2: WEST AFRICA - NIGERIA (THE BIAFRAN WAR) Nigeria The Biafran Civil War, 5 years after independence from the British. Nigeria is referred to as the Giant of Africa —> Bc it is big Nigeria on the news, because: ○ Boko Haram: A group of terrorists which abducted girls, they are Islamic Fundamentalists. ○ Niger Delta: There is oil there. One of the richest areas in natural resources, but has become one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of the country. It is an area of conflict. Independence - 1st October 1960 ○ First President: Nnamdi Azikiwe Ethnicities: ○ Hausa & Fulani ○ Yoruba ○ Igbo Major Ethnic Groups: ○ Hausas in Northern Nigeria, mainly Muslims ○ Yorubas in the Western region ○ Igbos in the Eastern region (Igboland) Igbos occupied positions of wealth and prestige in the colonial government The “Jews” of Nigeria Divide and Rule policy 22  Núria Pérez The British favored somehow the Igbos, resulting in the other communities resenting them, instead of rejecting the British. The Biafran War was a result of the Igbos separating from Nigeria. Major Linguistic Groups: ○ A lot. A very complex territory, with a wide variety of languages and ethnicities. “An agglomeration of peoples and cultures”. ○ All of these varieties were, of course, put together by the British. Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Biafran War ○ “During that war, I played a role which I had not bargained for. Forced to choose between Nigeria and Biafra, I clung to the former because the arguments for Biafra were the same as the arguments for Nigeria. Simply put, Biafra was a mish-mash of peoples and cultures, where the Igbo predominated oppressively just as Nigeria was a mish-mash of peoples and cultures where the Hausa-Fulani, the Igbo, and the Yoruba predominated oppressively.” There is oppression in both. He is with the Nigerian side. ○ He then also says that yes the British colonizers were oppressive, but the Africans were already also oppressing themselves. ○ “The facts of it are so sordid that even well-known Nigerian writers would gladly keep them away from the rest of the world.” That the topic is controversial and critical, so writers chose not to talk about it. Some authors did talk about it: Ken Saro-Wiwa - Sozaboy Buchi Emecheta - Destination Biafra Chimamanda N. Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun The Biafran War (1967-1970) Two sides: Biafra vs Nigeria Biafra is how the Igblonad region wanted to call themselves when they tried to gain independence from Nigeria in order to become an independent nation themselves. 23  Núria Pérez Chimamanda N. Adichie She grew up in the area which had been Biafra, born 7 years after the war ended. She grew up in the ‘shadow’ of Biafra, she had to write about it due to the effects it had on her even if she didn’t live the war herself. Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) ○ Structure: Odenigbo & Olanna - Richard & Kainene Two love stories who are caught in the middle of a civil war ○ Narrator: You start reading and have the feeling that it is a 3rd person omniscient narrator, but then you realize that it is actually a character in the novel: Discovery: Ugwu is the narrator – glimpses of his novel in the passages are inserted in the main body of the novel known as “The Book: The World Was Silent When We Died” – he dedicates the book to (his) Master, my good man. ○ British Colonial Rule - Divide and Rule Ugwu names the reasons why the British favoured the Northerners instead of the Southerners: The Hausa-Fulani, they were narrower in features (so, more similar to them); they weren’t catholic, but at least they were muslims so monotheists; they were simply better. In contrast, Yoruban (south) were animist and desperate tribes, had various gods, were worse. The independence of Nigeria was maneuvered by the British, according to their own interests —> They favored the North over the South They wanted a monopoly of the region, even if the region was independent, they wanted a monopoly there, so they thought that if they wanted to remain there, they had to favour the North (the Hausa-Fulani). Animosity between ethnicities —> The 1966 massacres —> The Anti-Igbo progrom (because they also favored the Igbo) started in 24  Núria Pérez Northern Nigeria in May 1966 —> Hatred from nigerians against the Igbos, who were systematically persecuted and eventually created a general feeling of not-belonging to the group (to Nigeria). To summarize the situation When there was a common goal of liberation + a common enemy: liberate themselves from the British —> It served to shelve internal differences between the cultures of Nigeria. When the British left, in 1960 due to Independence —> The old antagonism resurfaced So, it resulted in uprisings and military coups in the first years of independence. Antagonisms —> Dive & rule policy. The events: ○ They declared Biafra as an independent nation but it was not recognised by Nigeria nor by the majority of world countries, so they eventually declared war. The importance of starvation: as a weapon to make the world see the seriousness of the situation. —> White supremacism once again using the blacks for their own interests. Gender & War - Destination Biafra Debbie - A Nigerian Soldier - She and her mother are raped —> “The pain and humiliation wold forever be locked in their memories” ○ That regardless of the side, war is always harsher on the female gander. UNIT 3: EAST AFRICA - FROM ZANZIBAR & TANGANYIKA TO TANZANIA: Delineating the Indian Ocean World East Africa within the Indian Ocean World 6th Century: Beginning of a very large trading network involving: Madagascar, Mozambique, Bombay, Somalia, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf. They traveled by boats (called dhows) —> Navigating aided by the monsoons 25  Núria Pérez An area which has been described by Markus P. Vink by 3 terms: porousness, permeability & connectedness. —> Not only there was trade, but also people moved within the areas and established social relationships. Historians talk about this area as the first manifestation of Cosmopolitanism in the world. ○ Debunking the ideal that cosmopolitanism is typical of the Western —> Cosmopolitan as the wide variety of peoples from different cultures getting in contact. A very hybrid culture emerges from it, a vibrant world. The thousand and one nights: a story about the power of narration, of storytelling. The wife never finished telling the story to her husband the Khalif so as to keep him needing to hear her every night, for her own survival. The delineation of the Swahili Coast: ○ Swahili is in general the area, Kiswahili is the language that was used as lingua franca. —> 2 words in Kiswahili we must know: chotara (mix of African and Indian) & mzungu (European) ○ Islam: it was a muslim territory. Desertion (2005) - Abdulrazak Gurnah: Romance between an African woman and a European (60s). At that time there were relations between Africans and Europeans but would not be found in history books. This is the starting point to explore many other themes in the book. Zanzibar (the archipelago) “From the sea, the town seemed the luscious heart of paradise. Come nearer and you have to turn a blind eye to the slimy gutters and the house walls that have been turned into open-air urinals. Come nearer so we can see whether you are dark or fair, friend or foe. (Gurnah, Pilgrims Way)” ○ Foe = enemy. That not everything is as it seems. (Jesus) Zanzibar a paradisal place but not everything is as it seems, there is a dark side to Zanzibar. A revolution happened there (1960s), one of the bloodiest of the country. This revolution may be connected to race. People had to exile Zanzibar due to the revolution. Independence was gained in 1963 and then the revolution followed. 26  Núria Pérez What is there lurking behind this paradise? ○ Vassanji, M.G. And Home Was Kariakoo (2014): “[…] easygoing isle on one hand, and on the other, the place of perhaps the bloodiest revolution on the continent. It is a conundrum. (272) The Internet has created a virtual Zanzibar in which the exiles speak to each other, sharing information, keeping sweet memories alive, all in Swahili and English. […] These are the sweet stories of pre-revolution Zanzibar, sad and nostalgic. But there is a smell, and that smell has to do with race. But race in Zanzibar, as anywhere in a mixed society, is not simple; people live peacefully and intimately for the most part, and many Zanzibaris were of mixed origin. (289)” ○ That there was a revolution and many people had to flee Zanzibar and became exiled. Zanzibari celebs ○ Freddy Mercury: (left Z in 1962, just before independence) like some of the population of Zanzibar, they were Africa, ofc, but came from Indian descendents ○ Abdulrazak Gurnah: (left in 1968, after Independence) Early cosmopolitanism & Maritime Empire ○ The Sultanate of Oman (1698) ○ Seyyid Said in 1832 > The Sultanate of Zanzibar ○ Movement inland (from the coast to the interior) > littoral societies (Pearson) “Dar es Salaam […] the Sultan of Zanzibar, on an acquisitive whim, had paid a visit to the site. It was then a village beside a perfect, peaceful harbour. Highly impressed and feeling ambitious, he returned shortly with carpenters and planners to build up a town, and called it Haven of Peace. (M.G. Vassanji, The Book of Secrets, 1994)” ○ The palace was the House of Wonders, which nowadays is a museum of the history of Zanzibar. The world of the sultanate ○ The undertows of the littoral society of the African Indian Ocean > “race” ○ Coastal=civilized Arabs vs Interior=barbarian Africans 27  Núria Pérez A dichotomy in the civilization; an underlying racial discourse. “[t]hose scattered little towns by the sea along the African coast found themselves part of huge territories stretching for hundreds of miles into the interior, teeming with people they had thought beneath them, and who when the time came promptly returned the favor. (Pearson, “Littoral Society: The Concept and the Problems”)” That during the revolution in Zansibar ○ Existence of sub-imperialisms within the framework of European Imperialism (empire writ large) > a salient characteristic of the African Indian Ocean The European Arrival: ○ The Portuguese: expelled by the Omani Arabs in 1699 The Old Fort built by the Omani Arabs to celebrate their victory over the Portuguese ○ The Germans: (Deutsch Ostafrika) ○ The British (1890 - 1963) Problems with the African Indian Ocean and its Narration Western ppl don’t know about the Zanzibar revolution, the focus of scholars is on other areas but forget to teach about the African area —> This has to do with the memory of slavery, something we don’t really want to think about, an episode in our history that we’d rather hide. —> it is crucial to understand the world history to know about the revolution of Zanzibar. There has been focus in the Indian Ocean but not this area. This is because it is a dark chapter in history, we don’t want to remember history. ○ Caravan (slade) Trade ○ Bagamoyo: slave market Memoirs of an Arabian princess from Zanzibar (1907): From Sayydia Salme to Emily Ruete - Emily Ruete 28  Núria Pérez She falls in love with a German merchant and they elope and she lives in Europe. He dies and she is left alone with her two kids. We see kind of her being deprived of her essence, abandoning Zanzibar and becoming a Victorian woman, as if she had been tamed and domesticated. The purpose when writing her memoirs is to show her audience (western ppl) what she’s been through and to debunk ideals against orientalism. Giving her view as someone from the inside. Life in the Harem - Orientalism ○ Women in the harem: represented as idle, lazy, doing nothing. But also sensuality, showing their skin. Orientalism > The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences. (Said, Orientalism, 1) ○ How does Emily Ruete –formerly Sayyida Salme- confront Orientalism? As somebody from the inside, she tells her own version. She uses the stereotypical image of the Arab as lazy (Chapter V: National Singularities) Gender (European women vs Oriental women) – marriage (60); polygamy vs monogamy (62) ○ Motherhood (63) ○ Female power & female independence > the story of her great-aunt ○ The story of her great-aunt offers an incredible insight into the history of Zanzibar ○ Harems (64) Her strategy to debunk the idea that orientals are lazy ○ North vs South: Climate & work: “Over and over again I have been asked: “How on earth do the people manage to exist in your country without anything to do?” And the question is justifiable enough from the point of view of the Northener, who simply cannot imagine life without work, and who is convinced the Oriental never stirs her little finger, but dreams away most of her time in the seclusion of the harem. Of course, natural conditions vary 29  Núria Pérez throughout the world, and it is they that govern our ideas, our habits, and our customs. In the North one is compelled to exert oneself in order to live at all, and very hard too, if one wishes to enjoy life, but he Southern races are greatly favored. I repeat the word “favored” because the frugality of a people is an inestimable blessing; markably frugal […] Nature herself has ordained that the Southerner can work, while the Northener must. […] A cold climate implies the providing and securing oneself against all sorts of contingencies and actualities quiet unknown in southern lands, (31)” ○ Oriental mothers vs European: Also, that babies in the North need more clothes so moms need to work harder there. ○ Marriage: When I first came to Europe I too made the mistake of judging by outward appearances. The smiling faces I saw each time I went out into company persuaded me that the domestic situation in Europe was more conducive to happiness than in my home. But later on … […] I observed many unions, which going by the name of wedlock, had the apparent purpose of subjecting the fettered couples to infernal torture here on earth. And I have seen enough wretched marriages to prevent my believing that the Christian institution stands much higher than the Mahometan, or insures much greater felicity. Neither a religion, nor the acceptance of traditional views can guarantee wedded bliss; everything depends on how well husband and wife understand one another. (60) (Jesus) One thing is public sphere and other private sphere. She sees European marriage as infernal torture on earth. She is pointing put the fact that marriage is a contract, which is absolutely irrelevant. Polygamy vs. Monogamy: at least Oriental women know about the others, whereas the westerns’ ones they do not know. With all of this, she seems to wants to convey a message that the real problem is marriage, which might not be that much of a sacred institution. ○ Polygamy vs Monogamy: 30  Núria Pérez Almost the sole difference between an Oriental woman’s situation and a Western woman’s seems to be that the first knows the number and perhaps the disposition and character of her rivals, whereas the other is kept in charming ignorance. (62) That in the orient they know about the ‘rivals’, and european women don’t know about their husbands’ mistresses —> So perhaps the problem is that Wedlock is, in general, not really a sacred institution. She also presents it as a patriarchal institution, in the sense that men are the ones who ‘lead’ the marriage. ○ Motherhood She comments how in oriental lifestyle the bringing up of the children lies entirely in the mother’s hands, while europeans (privileged women ofc) have nannies. (Sara) The issue of class, she is talking about privileged women. The story is different when poor women cannot afford a nanny. But she is a princess, so also privileged. A European woman was confined to the Victorian domestic sphere, she is following this but the harem being her sphere when she can reign. ○ The story of her great aunt A clear example of the invisibility and erasure of great women from mainstream history. She dismantles the idea of the oriental woman as passive and subjective to the rules of men. She played an active and important role. Sayyida/Emily (Memoirs) vs Rehana (Desertion) Space & time: end of 19th C - beginning 20th C Romance with a European: Rudolph Ruete // Martin Pearce Mixed Ethnicity: Circassian mother + Zanzibar father // Swahili mother, Indian father (she was a chotara) Social status: privileged life in court // humble life in small town Inexperienced & innocent // Experienced (previously married) 31  Núria Pérez Unnarrated desire // Narrated desire STRONG Desire, Strength and Intelligence Rehana Rehana, the desired and desiring woman She didn’t want to be anybody’s second wife After Azad left her, she felt devastated. Aferwards she found the european man (Jesus) Rehana (Desertion) is a combination of desire, strength, and intelligence. When she first meets Martin, he makes a connection with her first husband, and it awakens her sexual desire that had been repelled. She is strong, more internal strength than her brother. And intelligent, she knows how to differentiate things. She is not going to suppress her own desires. She didn’t want to be anybody’s second wife. She had 2 different proposals for marriage but declines them bc it’s a harem. Then, she felt in love with Azad, an Indian man with whom she decided to marry. She has a desire for him. One day, though, she was abandoned. Azad was a merchant and in one of his travels he never came back. This is one of the desertions. Being so in love with someone and this abandons you there is a feeling of desolation. It feels as if this Indian man not only deserted her but all her community. When she meets the European (mzungu), he makes her feel as if he was Azad. Martin does come back, not like Azad, bc he feels grateful for how the community treated him and he also condemns how the British empire acts. Trauma & Narration: the Specter of Slavery; Wolrd War 1; The Zanzibari Revolution The narrative of the African Indian Ocean as traumatogenic Question: What does the act of remembering –recovering- the African Indian Ocean entail? ○ Recovering the African Indian Ocean and inscribing its narrative in the archives of history (in other words, to recognize the African Indian Ocean) means to collect all the nuances involved in the memory of slavery and this is a memory ingrained in trauma. 32  Núria Pérez Theoretical Background: Vijay Mishra, Literature of the Indian Diaspora : Theorizing the Diasporic Imaginary (2007) ○ “History cannot be written without trauma” (118) BUT trauma cannot be articulated through historical discourse because trauma “disrupts the linear flow of historical narrative” (118) ○ Where the narrative of history fails, the narrative of the imaginative –literature- succeeds. That this historical background is unable to explained through historical narratives, so it is portrayed through literature. Knots of memory ○ Michael Rothberg. “Between Memory and Memory: From Lieux de mémoire to Noeuds de mémoire.” Yale French Studies, no. 118/119, 2010, pp. 3-12. ○ Michael Rothberg. Multidirectional Memory. Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization. Standford UP, 2009. He connects the Holocaust with Decolonization ○ The nation-oriented act of remembrance > “the nation purged of many of its imperial adventures and minoritarian inflections” (“Between Memory,” 4) ○ Memory eclipsed by History > neutralization of trauma ○ (Jesus) Knots of memory. This concept was first expressed by Michael Rothberg in “Between Memory and Memory: From Lieux de mémoire to Noeuds de mémoire”. His point of departure is from Contemporary time to try to recover memories of the past. The problem he finds on the narration of the past (which he thinks is very nation-oriented) is that the nation is purged of many of its imperial adventures and minoritarian inflections. All the aspects of the narration of the past they are somehow forgotten, not openly presented. This is because of the disconnection of the memories with the nation. He claims that memory is eclipsed by history, falling onto the historical side of the narration and neutralizes the trauma. The narrative of the African Indian ocean & Multidirectional memory ○ The successful articulation of the African Indian Ocean is enacted on the friction-space created by the artificiality of the nation-state when applied to 33  Núria Pérez this geographical area and the pervasive presence of memory in individuals that are orphans of history. ○ The area demarcated by the Indian Ocean resists being circumscribed by “national” barriers (Pearson 2003, Hall 1998, Vink 2007, Simpson & Kresse, 2007) ○ The narrative of the African Indian Ocean as necessarily transnational ○ Multidirectional Memory: Our relationship to the past does partially determine who we are in the present, but never straightforwardly and directly, and never without unexpected or even unwanted consequences that bind us to those whom we consider other. (“Memory and Memory,” Rothberg, 2010, p. 5) —> That where we are born are raised has an effect on who we are, but we may not be aware of it, so not lineality but rather knotted. The Book of Secrets (1994) - M. G. Vassanji M. G. Vassanji ○ Born in Nairobi (Kenya) > Indian descent (African Asian) ○ When he is 4 years old, the family moves to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) ○ When he is 18 years old, he moves to the US to study at MIT > PhD in Nuclear Physics ○ In the 80s, he moves with his family to Toronto, Canada, so he’s got the Canadian citinzenship ○ The concept of transnationality: His literature could be considered as African, but also as Indian or Canadian; he is a transnational author. The novel: ○ Remember! Mzungu = European ○ Pius Fernandes, the narrator > former teacher of English and a historian He is Indian, from the part that the Portuguese colonized (Ghoa) ○ The book of secrets > diary by Alfred Corbin (a mzungu) The British soldier representative located in the area, he has a diary and writes in it and people look at him, as africans in the zone don’t even know how to read or write. 34  Núria Pérez ○ The transformation of the book of secrets (the object; Corbin’s diary) into The Book of Secrets One of his former students finds the book and gives it to him so that he can analyze it and extract history from it. The story ○ “In the weeks that followed I discovered the dark, passionate secret of a simple man whose life became painfully and inextricably linked with that of an English colonial officer. I saw that the ephemeral tie between them –the tragic young woman Mariamu- would become the most tenacious bond of all. I saw an old uncertain world give birth to a new, no less fragile one, and I followed the trail of this book, from the pen of a lonely man to the obsession of another, from ancient lives caught up in imperial enterprise and a world war to these, our times: and finally to myself, and the hidden longings of my past. At the end of it all, I too lie exposed to my own inquiry, also captive to the book. (9)” A simple man > Pipa An English colonial officer > Alfred Corbin Mariamu (chotara) Pipa marries Mariamu and have a child, Ali Question: Whose child is Ali, Pipa’s or Corbin’s? Because the skin of the child is very fair, and Mariamu worked as a servant for Corbin. ○ World War I German East Africa & World War I ○ German East Africa borders British East Africa: no problem, the white ppl there are friends, until the war begins, and now they are enemies. ○ The world of German East Africa (Deutsch Ostafrika) ○ The First World War seen from the perspective of African people When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers [Kiswahili proverb] —> The ger & the brit, but africans suffer ○ Intergenerational Trauma & Postmemory 35  Núria Pérez World War I in Africa ○ It came to them unwanted and unasked for. They were ‘caught in the mischief of the mzungus’, like a riddle. Borders ○ Divided by the mzungus however they wanted it, and the Africans caught up in the middle of a war whose side they don’t even know they are supposed to be in. African Narration of the European War ○ First: riddles > spectators (as if the war developing before them did not belong to them) They are spectators, as if the war didn’t belong to them (they will realize that it does affect them and it will have consequences, they cannot possibly remain neutral and are forced to participate in the war. ○ Evolution of the narration of the war > from spectators to characters directly involved in the war against their own wishes > “So the war was no joke. It was upon them” (124) ○ Uncertainty > Vulnerability ○ The British have bombed Dar. Don’t they know there are British subjects there? Our families, our brothers... (124) ○ And the young man Pipa and his bride [Mariamu] were trapped in town, too afraid to leave (124) Pipa (german) marries Mariamu (British) and they marry in British East Africa and want to go back to German East Africa but are unable to because the war starts. Pipa, The reluctant Spy ○ “You are not free, nobody is free in this war” —> He is forced to become a spy to the British. As Africans, they cannot be neutral, they are forced to take sides (like slavery). ○ The British —> Maynard: the Fisi (hyena) —> Bones for the fisi 36  Núria Pérez A very evil character. He forces Pipa to act as a spy for the British though leaving him messages in his shop. They use the sentence bones for the fis. Maynard ○ The embodiment of imperially white and male: the British Empire is him. Pipa —> The Victim, or Tragic Hero? ○ Pipa & hyenas. There was a moment that Pipa is imprisoned bc Maynard suspects of him. While in prison, Pipa heard the hyenas. Fear and utter experience of not being able to do anything. When he is free, Mariamu had already given birth to Ali. When home, he founds Mariamu dead in a very violent way, the only person who knew who the father of Ali was. Independence The arxipelago, the two islands, won independence (uhuru) on December 1963 —> It only lasted 11 months Independence: 10 December, 1963 – 11 months The party who won: ZNP (Zanzibar Nationalist Party) – Arabs & Indians – preservation of the Arab/Omani - Indian hegemony > Sultan Jamshid Bin Abdullah > constitutional monarchy There was another party: the ASP (Afro-Shirazi Party) – Africans revolted against the ZNP, for they thought they were not beng taken into consideration in this independence movement > The Zanzibari Revolution > John Okello was the leader of the revolution, which gave place to a Civil War between the ASP(Africans) and the ZNP (Aarab, Indians) The formation of Tanzania (Tanganika + Zanzibar) – 1964 –Julius Nyerere (Mwalimu) —> The first president of Tanzania, mwalimu means teacher, because he was a teacher. Also, Kiswahili has always been the official language of Tanzania (along English). The Zanzibari Revolution Abdulrazak Gurnah - By the Sea Saleh Omar vs Rajab Shaban Mahmud : pantomime trial 37  Núria Pérez (Jesus) There is a house by the sea, which is the bone of contention (reason why they are fighting) between Saleh Omar (protagonist) and Rajab Shaban Mahmud. The latter lost the house to a merchant from Persian and this merchant has a debt with Saleh Omar, so he gives the house to him. Saleh Omar doesn’t need the house, so he rents it to Mahmud but there is a conflict, and he makes him leave the house. Omar is Arab ancestry just as Mahmud. However, the latter is in a more position than power and thus Saleh Omar becomes the object of revenge, ending up in prison bc of Mahmud. After the nationalization of the banks in 1967, Saleh Omar lost all his money bc the resentment of Mahmud. Omar is arrested and he has a trial, a fake one, and send to prison. Many people found themselves in this situation, the common characteristic btw all of them was the Arab ancestry. What happens is a series of violent and de-humanizing practices that leave the detained on the edge of “humanity”, being barely human. Detention Island ○ (Jesus) Omar was detained and brought to an island, very common place for prisons, through a boat and chained by the anklets. There were whole families of Omani descent in that prison island. The Omani government tried to take these prisoners back home. Prison building on the island constructed by the British. The constructions of these islands served for two purposes: prisons and hospitals. Identity ○ (Jesus) Zanzibari identity. A boat comes to the island and a guard tells Omar why doesn’t he goes on the boat and leaves the country to be free? That’s bc Omar has a family, he has a wife and a daughter to return to. ‘Sote wananchi’ – All of us are children of the land. We have a prisoner, made prisoner for his Omani ancestry, and a guard of African descendent. However, they all are from Zanzibar, all of them are mixed, an ethnically mixed society. So Zanzibar belongs to all of them. Multidirectional memory —> The Zanzibari Revolution & the Holocaust ○ After 11 years in prison in dreadful conditions and how badly they were treated, like Jews by Nazis. 38  Núria Pérez ○ Hannah Arendt: German Jewish philosopher —> The banality of evil: that human beings have the capacity to be evil given the right circumstances, ordinary people can act evilly against other people. The house by the sea embroiled in a historical offensive ○ The tragedy of return —> That when Saleh Omar came back, his wife and daughter had been dead from the first year after he had been imprisoned and he had no idea, they were in fact the only thing keeping him alive during his imprisonment. ○ He fears his life is in danger and at 60yrs old decides to emigrate and start a new life in the UK; knowing that he’ll never be able to come back to Zanzibar. Conclusions: Food for thought ○ The right of belonging and the futility of national borders ○ Erasure of complexity for the sake of simplicity ○ Multidirectional Memory (Zanzibaris of Omani descent and Jews) (knotted memory) ○ Trauma and the Nation —> To what extent are all nations embedded in national traumas ○ The twentieth - twenty-first century as the era of refugees, of mass migration (Edward Said, philosopher) - the era of exiles UNIT 3: UGANDA & KENYA - THE AFRICAN ASIAN QUESTION Uganda - Kampala // Kenya - Nairobi Mississippi Masala (1991) - Movie Romance: Demetrius & Mina Friendship: Jake (Mina’s father) & Okello The title: ○ Mississippi: is a state in the US, located in the South, so the type of the society that can be found: conservative, fought in the pro-slave side during civil war, in favor of segregation, etc. Even if the movie is set in the 90s, in that place there is still no much mixture between races. ○ Masala: a mix of spicy spices ○ Interesting: mixture between USA and Masala 39  Núria Pérez From the movie Lunch with Demetrius’s family —> Mina is Indian but has never been to India. Also, they confuse her with a Mexican girl, pinpointing the futility of skin color. Also one of the family member says that they are just like her bc africans but never been to africa. Demetrius’s father asks Mina why they’ve got Indians in Africa —> Bc they were brought by the British to build the railway They also ask her why she left Indians in Africa, why? They came by the British but they stayed because they mixed with African women, had families and grew roots there. Why the railway? —> To connect the British Empire in Africa, from South Africa to Egypt. 19th C —> Indians arrived in East Africa as Indentured laborers: They were offered a passage to go to East Africa and to pay for it they had to work for the master on the land and after the contract finished they could keep the land. Some came to build the Kenya-Uganda railway Later, they came as traders and owned small shops, which were called dukawallas (owners of small shops) Some indians migrated as clerks and teachers, so they were part of the machine of the Empire because they were in the Civil Service (eren funcionaris de l’Estat) But remember! —> Before European colonialism —> Ongoing relationship between the Indian subcontinent and East Africa on the basis of commerce —> Indian Ocean 40  Núria Pérez as the site of the first manifestation of Cosmopolitanism (trade) (example: Rehanna’s father). Independence: ○ Uganda, 9th October 1962 ○ Kenya, 12 December 1963 How come she left Uganda? Idi Amin (dictator) in november 7, 1972, he declared the expulsion of Asians (Indians) from Uganda His argument was that: they had been sent to Uganda by the British to build the railway, and now that the railway was built, they could leave Uganda ○ Of course, the consequences were big The idea that Ugandan Asians were a British responsibility ○ He said that if they didn’t want to go back to India, they could then go to England, because they had been taken from their home by the British —> It was the beginning of the 70s, the Government had a dilemma, because they didn’t want them but also they couldn’t say no. A new chapter in the history of Uganda: the Asians must leave so that the indigenous people of Uganda can take control of the economy. ○ “Jay: Why should I go? This is my home. / Okello: Not any more. Africa is for Africans, black Africans.” African-Asian relationship in East Africa Mahmood Mamdani, From Citizen to Refugee. ○ Note the title: transition, change in identity, from citizen (positive) to refugee (negative, unwanted) Divide and Rule The strategy of colonial rule was that ethnically different people were used as a means of coercion in a colony. Consequences: ○ Rigid racial compartmentalisation 41  Núria Pérez Race coincided with class and became politicized: africans as peasants & workers; Asian shopkeepers, artisans, petty bureaucrats; europeans bankers, wholesalers, administrative & political elite. —> Colonizing the mind: Africans accepted they were less than Indians, and Indians and Africans were less than europeans. ○ It was not the era of independence, but that of dependence The African Asian question In a Brown Mantel (1972) - Peter Nazareth Deogratius [Deo] D’ Souza and Robert Kyeyune Fictional country: Damibia [Uganda] In a Brown Mantel (1972), Peter Nazareth, from Goa, place in India full with Portuguese. The story takes place in a country called Damibia (which is actually Uganda). The protagonist is Deogratius D’Souza, known as Dio, and Robert Kyeyune. A story of a friendship between an Ugandan of Indian origin and a Ugandan. Robert became the president of Damibia. Dio has helped him in his political campaign so Dio thinks that when he becomes Prime Minster Robert will give him a ministry, which doesn’t occur. ○ His argument is that the people aren’t ready yet for an asian minister, in the sense that they are foreigners still (Anto) Things are not black and white, although blacks in Uganda at that time were the poorest ones, but there were also affluent ones. This also applies to Indians and whites. In the slums, in the much less affluent areas, the Europeans are not seen at all. At that time, the idea of a poor European did not exist. —> In this context, in Uganda. It is interesting that the poor, the poverty, is still Africa. There were rich Africans and poor Indians, but the core of the slums were totally inhabited by Africans (according to the writer ? Preguntar aixo) The revolution started there, in these poor african territories. The voice of decent comes from here. ○ Possible exam question: This text!!! And relate it to the african Asian question, not only to Uganda, but also the other places we have seen. Move beyond the text and relate it to our knowledge. Talk about the divide and rule policy. 42  Núria Pérez The Settler’s Cookbook (Memoir of Love, Migration & Food) - Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Life interspersed with 100 recipes “These mavericks that couldn’t resist Interracial copulation”: they didn’t want mixture of races because of the thought of preserving purity but also the fact that if you mix with someone from a lower race you may lose your belonging to a superior race. The story of Bano: ○ Bano: a black man (african) who tries to prosper in society and in order to do this, decides to marry an Indian girl, in hopes that he would get a better position in society → “Not possible, my dear, my nose came in the way, and this hair like wire”: his features are black, his wife’s aren’t, so she gets accepted but he doesn’t. ○ “Our children have her pretty nose, Thank God”: That this is good for them because they won’t be treated bad like him. ○ But when Amin kicked out the Indians, then he could have money and everything, so now the situation is reversed (how the turntables). KENYA: Mount Kilimanjaro & Mount Kenya (First and Second highest mountains in Africa) Facing Mt. Kenya - Jomo Kenyatta 1938, an anthropological study of the Kikuyu people (central kenya) - Like Ngugi wa’ Thiongo He decided to write the historical traditions of his people in order to preserve them, to place them in history, because historical & cultural traditions of his people had always been handed down verbally, and now he wants the rest of the world to know these traditions but also so that they don’t disappear. Also, giving themselves a sense of agency, making them important, saying that they exist. In the cover of the book he uses a picture of him dressed in traditional clothing, to represent how they can be both, because he was not just a Kenyan man but also he was a student of economics in the best university of London. Jomo Kenyatta 43  Núria Pérez He was the First President of Kenya and the leader of the Kenya African Union (KAU) (after the kenyan independence, but before that, he was imprisoned) Anti-colonial struggle → The Mau Mau Uprising: rebellion against British colonial rule (1952-1960) the fight against the British colonials was really important in Kenya. An uprising, a group of Kenyan people who got together to fight against the British. Kenyatta was imprisoned for 7 years accused of pertaining to the Mau Mau BUT he always denied allegiance to the Mau Mau (on this, some history books say that he was a part of it, but some say that he wasn’t) It isn’t clear whether he was a member or not, he was never officially the leader, but his name is closely associated with it. The British imposed a State of Emergency to combat the Mau Mau and there was violence on both sides, they both attacked and killed each other. ○ The government is granted the right to Control, suppress and oppress some liberties that people might enjoy. A state of emergency allows the government to pass certain regulations in order to ‘ensure the safety’ of the population. The In-Between World of Vikram Lal (2003) - M. G. Vassanji Opening scene: domestic setting, a family celebrating Diwali They are Indian but are in East Africa (Kenya) This novel is good at representing the ethnic world in Kenya and how variety it is: ○ Vic & Deepa (Indians) ○ Bill & Anne (British) ○ Njoroge (African) Note the importance that the children all play together, they don't discriminate within each other, children don’t care about social differentiations and constructions, the problem comes when they grow up. Present intermingles with the past: ○ Present: adult Vic with Joseph, the son of Njoroge - CANADA ○ Past: Kenyan childhood, references to the Mau Mau & Jomo Kenyatta - KENYA Childhood remembrances 44  Núria Pérez The story of Mwangi Underlying discourse: the Ramay