Rites and wrongs

V.S. Naipaul’s vast corpus has been characterised by several distinctive features: the luminosity of his prose; the ability to go beyond the surface currents of history and capture something far more important but elusive; the underlying mood of cultures in crisis; the artfully presented (some might say constructed) interviews that often poignantly reveal psychological burdens and complexities of history more than historical tomes do.

His own judgments can, of course, be frustrating at times: too quick, sometimes ignorant, sometimes wilfully provocative, too much at odds with the complexities he himself presents, rarely sympathetic. In fact, one of the paradoxes that mark his writing is that he is an author capable of recreating the depth of predicament like almost no one can. But that imaginative reach does not translate into an ability to sympathise. It is an interesting question whether Naipaul sees what he is able to, precisely because he does not have a trace of sympathy; as if to sympathise is to expose yourself to illusion. And if there is a psychological thread running through his oeuvre, it is a refusal to succumb to any illusion.

In many ways, Naipaul’s latest book, The Masque of Africa, is his weakest and thinnest. It is ostensibly an exploration of Africa’s original religions, their rites and practices, long subjugated by two different forces. On the one hand, there is modernity, with its masks of rationalism and enlightenment, that delegitimises the enchanted world of rites and spirits, totems and sacrifices. On the other hand, there is the pressure of the great world religions, Islam and Christianity, that also bring, as Max Weber had described, their own forms of rationalisation and disenchantment, by sidelining a chaotic world of traditional religion through systematic theology. The book is, at one level, about this process in Africa — its deep fragility and inability to entirely colonise the “original” religion.

Full review here Indian Express

The harsh eyes of an ageing giant

Powerful in parts, Naipaul’s account of his travels in Africa reiterates his old, negative ideas about the continent

The Masque of Africa
Picador; Rs. 595; Pp 324 

Africa has no future.” That is how V.S. Naipaul ended a 1979 interview with Elizabeth Hardwick in The New York Times Book Review. This was just after the appearance of A Bend in the River, his novel set in Africa—a continent to which he wasn’t a stranger, having lived in Uganda as writer-in-residence at Makerere University in 1966. Then again, he visited the Ivory Coast in the early 1980s, the fruit of which was the non-fiction account, The Crocodiles of Yamoussoukro. It’s here that one finds the first glimmer of the theme that runs through his new work, The Masque of Africa. Despite his bleak pronouncements on the continent, Naipaul clearly feels impelled to return every so often; this journey may well be his last.

He revisits Uganda and the Ivory Coast, and travels to Ghana, Nigeria, Gabon and South Africa, seeking what remains of primordial African belief: “the older world of magic”, and how it has changed, or not, with the advent of Christianity, Islam and the “modern” way of doing things. He seeks out the grass-thatched palaces of Africa’s original rulers, visits shrines and other reliquaries, meets soothsayers, shamans and witch doctors, and speaks to those whose lives have been altered by initiation rites. He finds common themes: “Doubles, astral journeys, the fragility and yet the enduringness of ritual, the idea of energy, the wonder of the forest.”

Full review here Mint

Africa through Naipaul's eyes

For my travel books, I travel on a theme. And the theme of The Masque of Africa is African belief. I begin with Uganda, at the centre of the continent, do Ghana and Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and Gabon, and end at the bottom of the continent, in South Africa. My theme is belief, not political or economic life; and yet at the bottom of the continent the political realities are so overwhelming they have to be taken into account. Perhaps an unspoken aspect of my inquiry was the possibility of the subversion of the old Africa by the ways of the outside world. The theme held until I got to the South, when the clash of the two ways of thinking and believing became far too one-sided. The skyscrapers of Johannesburg didn’t rest on sand. The older world of magic felt fragile, but at the same time had an enduring quality. I had expected that over the great size of Africa the practices of magic would significantly vary. But they didn’t. The diviners everywhere wanted to “throw the bones” to read the future and the idea of “energy” remained a constant to be tapped into by the ritual sacrifice of body parts. In South Africa, body parts, mainly of animals but also of men and women, made a mixture of “battle medicine”. To witness this, to be given some idea of its power, was to be taken back to the beginning of things. To reach that beginning was the purpose of my book.
— V S Naipaul: The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief (Picador India, Rs 595)

Naipaul knows Africa well. He has lived and worked in East Africa: “Home Again” in A Way with the World (1994) is based on his time there. In a Free State (1971) and A Bend in the River (1979) are both “about” Africa. Overall, Naipaul’s vision of Africa has been remarkably constant, you might say even rigid: The Masque of Africa merely reiterates his earlier views that Africa is a dreamlike and threatening place that resists understanding, that eats away at reason and the technological products of reason. Joseph Conrad, the man from the fringes of the West has been one of the major influences on Naipaul and many of the images of Naipaul’s Africa have come out of Heart of Darkness. Unlike his three books on India — An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilisation and India: A Million Mutinies Now — which reflect a growing understanding of the complexity of the subcontinent within the framework of history, there is little such generosity with Africa as a whole.

Full report here Business Standard

Poetry Africa international poetry festival

Poets from around South Africa, Africa and the world will descend on Durban for an exhilarating rollercoaster of words, rhythms and ideas.

The 14th Poetry Africa international poetry festival takes place from 4 to 9 October. Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), and with principal support from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, Poetry Africa's exciting week-long programme is preceded by a three-stop Poetry Africa tour to Cape Town, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

The tour will go to the ICC in Cape Town on 26 September, Harare, Zimbabwe at the Manneberg and Book Café on 28 and 29 September and the Blantyre Arts Festival in Malawi on 1 October.

Over twenty poets from twelve different countries will feature in the main Durban programme and the full line-up will each present an introductory poem on The Opening Night of the festival (4 October, Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre), providing an ideal précis of the diverse voices the public can expect during the rest of the week.

The week will thereafter feature 5 poets every evening, through to 8 October, before the rousing Festival Finale at the BAT Centre on 9 October. Each evening at the Sneddon Theatre will begin with curtain-raising performances by poets representing the various active Durban poetry circles. Another unique aspect of this year's festival is the residency of Concord Nkabinde and Erik Paliani. Nkabinde, an acclaimed bass guitarist who has performed with the likes of Johnny Clegg, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ray Phiri, Phil Manzaniera, Zim Ngqawana, Darius Brubeck, Deepak Ram and many others, will collaborate with Malawian producer, musician and singer-songwriter Erik Paliani in nightly musical curtain-raisers. Nkabinde and Paliani's passion for collaboration provides the perfect metaphor for the cross-cultural artistic meetings that Poetry Africa seeks to stimulate.

Full report here Artslink.co.za

Toronto writer’s tale of African teen comes to life onscreen

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” said the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu, but for Toronto’s Allan Stratton, the journey from Canadian playwright to internationally known novelist with a possible Oscar in his future, began with a single character.

His 2004 novel, Chanda’s Secrets, the story of an African family torn apart by the AIDS pandemic, is the source material for Life Above All, opening Sunday night at TIFF, and recently announced as South Africa’s official entry as Best Foreign-Language Film for the 2011 Oscars.

But none of this was even remotely in Stratton’s mind back in 1999. He had already had a distinguished 25-year career as a playwright, best known for the worldwide comedy hit Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii. Suddenly, he hit a creative speed bump.

Full report here The Star

Imaginative answer to colonialism

Not too well known, this masterpiece from the 1950s celebrates the silences in language and other ways of knowing things.

The Radiance of the King
(Le Regard du Roi),
Camara Laye,
translated by James Kirkup

Camara Laye's novel, The Radiance of the King, is an astounding answer to the experience of colonialism. Unlike Chinua Achebe, better known in the English speaking world, or even the more experimental Ata Ama Aidoo, Laye's answer is not given in discursive terms, it is flung out through a great leap of the imagination. And because profound imagination will always go beyond answers, The Radiance of the King is far more than a novel about the colonial experience. It deserves to be known as one of the major fictional works of the 20th century, and one which calls up no easy comparisons.

Laye was born in 1928, in Guinea, to the Malinke tribe, and later went to study in France where he lived through both great solitude and poverty. His political commitment was deep. Some years after he returned, he was imprisoned by Sekou Toure, and later spent most of his life in Senegal under the protection of Leopold Senghor, till his death in 1980.

Laye's protagonist is the Frenchman Clarence who has come to the African continent on a mission whose reason is never divulged. He loses all his money in gambling with other white men, and is left with no option but to seek employment with the king.

A rising sun

Adichie, the Nigerian writer, is like that new kid on the block who has performed a particularly spectacular feat that commands attention. What with the God of African literature, Chinua Achebe enlisting himself among her fans with the generous remark that she is “a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.” The three-book old author is already the recipient of prestigious literary awards. “And Adichie has become a name familiar even to our roadside book venders that they pick out her book for you at the mere mention of the name,” says Sreebala K Menon.

 Bookie listened, amused and all ears, to the inadvertent gynocentric overtones that our conversation had taken on. It was interesting to hear Sreebala, a rare mix of bold stands and a talent to tickle the funny bones (a budding film director who has made a foray into the male bastion out of a passion for the craft, and an author who bagged the Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s award in the category of humour), reflect on how impressed she was by Adichie who writes on grave concerns, pinning the world to vicarious guilt for the sufferings of her people and then looks out of pictures with deceptively dove-like eyes.

Sreebala has read both the books of Adichie, Purple Hibiscus (2003) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006).  But it is the latter that she chose to speak about. The novel which brings alive the 40-year-old history of the Nigeria-Biafra war, is put down in “simple and straight language, the way Achebe did,” said Sreebala, “but it refuses to loosen its grip on you after you are done with it. It’s haunting in that peculiar way, through its construction and the intricacies of the relationships.”

Full report here New Indian Express

Debut novel explores the lives of SA Muslim women

How does it feel being on the shortlist for the Penguin Prize for African Writing and what does this mean for you as an author?
It feels surreal. Writing is so time and effort consuming that, once you are finished, it is unsettling to suddenly pause and wait indefinitely for any results. Eventually, you're waiting so long you almost forget the excitement of writing a book. I knew I had a good novel but I was losing faith in my writing with all the waiting and wondering. The day before I got the call, I convinced myself I was not on the shortlist. My mother had to put up with my whining, speculations and constant runs to the phone in those last few days. So, as an author, this whole process up until I received the call made me realise that if you believe in your work, if you have worked hard, then eventually (however painfully slow) it will be acknowledged.

When did you write Onion Tears?
I began it in my honours creative writing class in 2007 when I was 22. I continued it into my masters level. The novel took just over a year to write and another year to edit. It could not have been done without my supervisor, Kobus Moolman, who was of invaluable help.

What's the book about?
The lives of a strange grandmother, a rebellious daughter and her own angry daughter. It is primarily about a young girl's search for her supposedly dead father but it also entwines other stories of love, loss and hope. Each character is searching for something- peace, a father, lost love, and forgotten memories but ultimately it comes down to that elusive search for one's identity.

Full interview here Times Live

Seagull Books announces launch of its Africa List

Seagull Books, the Indian publishing house that will be present at the upcoming Cape Town Book Fair, has announced the launch of it’s “Africa List” – a series of books to be edited by Rosalind Morris and distributed by the University of Chicago Press.

The Africa List will join Seagull’s well-established French and German Lists. The publisher focuses on “classic and contemporary interventions, manifestos and book-length essays”, and says that it has lined up some of Africa’s top luminaries and newest savants for its latest venture.

Full report here Book Southern Africa

REVIEW: Between Modernity and Nationalism

REVIEW

BETWEEN MODERNITY AND NATIONALISM: Halide Edip's Encounter with Gandhi's India
Mushirul Hasan
Oxford University Press
Rs 650; Pp 279
Hardcover
ISBN: 0198063326
ISBN-13: 9780198063322, 978-0198063322

Blurb:
In Between Modernity and Nationalism, Mushirul Hasan investigates the intersection of Indian and Turkish histories. Through Edip's experiences on her visit to India and her descriptions Hasan delves into the anti-colonial struggle, the leaders of the freedom movement, and the participation of women in the struggle among several other significant signposts of Indian history. A prominent nationalist leader in Turkey, Halide Edip was enthused by Gandhi's philosophy and actions. Her meeting with the eminent Indian leader presents a unique perspective of Gandhi, as a leader providing inspiration for nationalist struggles worldwide. In this intellectual biography of Halide Edip, Hasan finds that her descriptions of the Indian landscape, nationalist movement and its leaders is imbued with the same spirit of the search for new ideas and her faith in the future.

Review:
Fruitful Turkish connection with India The Hindu
The positive dialogue Halide held with the West, her undying faith in pluralistic society, and her belief that the strength of any religion and its votaries lay in their openness to change and finding the modus vivendi in human relations offer a refreshing riposte to the idea of divisiveness that has stalked our discourse of modernity and nationalism. As Toynbee noted, “As a writer, as a patriot, as a woman, and, above all, as a human being who had loved and been loved, Halide had lived to the full.” This book is a fitting tribute to her life and ideas, and a firm reminder that inter-religious and cultural exchanges need not be acrimonious.