The writer Jenny Diski (in the London Review of Books) finds more than she bargained for on a visit to the new South Africa. Here’s a sample:
I spent the afternoon at the botanical gardens in Kirstenbosch with Moira, a friend of a friend. She was in her late sixties, had grown up in southern Africa, raised her own family in Cape Town, all the while disapproving of apartheid. After the change of government, she taught nursery-aged black and coloured children of returnees from exile, in an impoverished part of town. ‘The country is being ruined by the greed and resentment of the Africans,’ she said as we had lunch. ‘They’ve got bad values – which is the result of cultural collapse because of the loss of traditional structures, but then again, cheating is the nature of Africans.’ She told me a ‘true’ story from a Zimbabwean farmer friend of hers, who got it from a friend of his, about an Englishman working as a foreman for a black landowner, who asked him: ‘How come you never cheat me?’ The Englishman, surprised, said: ‘Well, I’m just an honest man.’ The landowner roared with laughter. ‘We have always been cheats. That’s the only way to get rich.’ Moira explained that the character of the Trickster appears in all the traditional African stories. ‘They don’t have tales about kings and queens and heroes.’ She was adamant about this, though I suggested that the Trickster appears in some form or other in most traditions.
Then she told me another story that she assured me was ‘true’.
An Englishman, a Thai and an African were all together at Oxbridge. After some years the Englishman goes to visit the Thai who is hugely rich. ‘How come?’ asks the Englishman. ‘See that road? I own 10 per cent of it,’ the Thai tells him. The Englishman goes to visit the African, who is also hugely rich. ‘How come?’ ‘See that road?’ says the African. ‘What road?’ the Englishman asks.
Moira waited for me to burst out laughing, but it was a minute or two before I could make anything at all of this story. Besides, what were the overseas students doing in ‘Oxbridge’ in the first place if they weren’t rich already? Before I left, Moira asked me if I’d been to Robben Island. I hadn’t. ‘I went once – quite decent accommodation, and they were allowed to have their study groups and books. I left thinking it wasn’t nearly as bad as the Nazi concentration camps.’
Moira doesn’t think she’s a racist…
Full article here.
Great, I figured out how I can post as Mhambi instead of Wildebees.
Interesting article.
It so happens that Jean Francois Bayart (Director of CERI Paris), Stephen Ellis (Afrika studiecentrum Leiden and former editor of Africa confidential) & Beatrice Bibou (CNRS and the Centre d’etude d’Afrique noire, Bordeaux) have published a book called “The criminalization of the state in Africa.”
They make many points as to why African states turn into private criminal vehicles, (like for instance and counter to popular opinion African culture is highly individualistic and the importance of the politics of coercion etc etc).
They also have a chapter about the Trickster.
“In the corpus of African folk tales studied most notably by Denise Paulme, the Trickster plays a role in various forms.
The Trickster is by definition one who shows the ability in turning circumstances to his advantage and in particular have ‘others take his place, creating a situation in their own interest’ and is defined by ‘flexibility’, ‘cunning’, ‘duplicity’.
They compare it to the Greek concept of Metis.
And then they say: “In many ways the notion of Metis is a useful tool with which to consider politics and economics in modern Africa, with its lexicon of trickery and sudden changes of alliance and the frequency of social redistribution, shameless social parasitism and cynical appropriation.”
Often this belief in the value of trickery is born out of a sense of having to survive and a very hostile and dangerous world.
Mhambi, I don’t always place much faith in the conclusions of misters Ellis and Bayart (I don’t know the work of Ms Bibou), so I will go with Jenny Diski’s conclusion on this one.
Care to tell us why you don’t place much faith in these individuals?
Mhambi,
Thx for the digression into Bayart’s work. It’s unclear, though, just what it has to do with the nastiness displayed by Jenny Diski’s friend. Perhaps you’ll enlighten us.
I am highly dubious about denizens of the UK writing about the apparent racism of white and for that matter black South Africans.
Theres a long history of it, and allot of it is thick with an exocitized racism towards white South Africans and allows little room for black agency.
For a start, why did Jenny Diski not spend more time with black South Africans?
I don’t know if you can say if this woman is racist or not.
Let’s analyze the nastiness of this particular woman. According to the author she was always against apartheid.
“After the change of government, she taught nursery-aged black and coloured children of returnees from exile, in an impoverished part of town.”
Thats obviously fine. Actually commendable for a white South African.
“The country is being ruined by the greed and resentment of the Africans”
There are many commentators including black ones like Xolela Mangcu and Rhoda Kadalie arguing exactly the same, in strident terms, if more eloquently.
‘They’ve got bad values – which is the result of cultural collapse because of the loss of traditional structures, but then again, cheating is the nature of Africans.’
This ‘bad culture’ and the whole argument about the role of the mythical Trickster, is what Bayart & co writes about, albeit couched in academic language.
I don’t quite follow the joke.
For all I know this woman might be ‘a racist’. For all I know the writer might be ‘a racist’.
It’s an overused and over simplified term.
Unfortunate if your white (especially if your white African) and try to make sense of the predatory and corrupt practices in African politics your almost certainly run the danger of being labeled racist.
I wonder if anyone has ever attempted to use stories like ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ – where Jack robs and then murders the giant – to explain predatory and corrupt practices by Western nations.
Could the trickster be called BAE/SAAB,Thales or German Submarine Consortium alias the Faceless Ones?,as Jane Binta Breeze said,”They love your country,They want to invest,But your country don’t get,When it comes to the test,Dem gone home wid all di profit,Your goverment left,Upholding a rocket.” Samboerou
Plse note racism is wrong, however saying black people are all cheats is like saying that all white people commit suicide when the going gets tough. Well this is not true, cause i have white friends who are very strong people, even though they lost alot. I also have black friends who is more honest than many white people I know, but does that mean all are the same. What I know is that so many whites blacks and other people are narrow minded. If a black man is on tv for murder, well than whites and even colourds say, these blacks just wanna kill, but look at Europe what did they do to Saartjie Baartman, she was exported as a slave, used for sex, got siffilis, obviously from European men, cause she did not have it when she left here, Than when she died, they did not even give her a decent buriel. Well who was bad in this case. Jan Van Riebeeck came to The Cape and said he discovered the Cape of Good Hope, when their was already Khoi people. Think about this. If I pick up a diamond in your house, which you know is in the house, does this mean that I discovered the diamond and can take possession of it????? Of course not its yours, so how could Jan van Riebeeck have discovered the Cape of Good hope when their was people already. Jan Van Riebeecks statement on discovering Cape of Good Hope is maybe true in a sense that in europe at that time they did not see Khoi people as people, maybe animals and for that reason his argument on discovering the Cape of Good Hope could be justified. Damn people, just live life and die happy. All are human, and O! Europeans should look at how they handeed slavery back in history, specifically African slaves!!!!!!!! was that human!!!? O! and i am Khoisan decent.