I watched The Last King of Scotland this past week - a film about the rise and ways of Idi Amin, president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. While Uganda is a good distance from Botswana, I'd be naive to believe that all my readers are up on their African geography, culture, history and politics and that they may fudge together the various distinctions into one composite opinion.
And what, pray tell, would that opinion be if you've only seen this film? Hard to say. If one equates Amin with Africa according to this film, then the country is jocular, but also menacing; large and plentiful, but immature and inefficient; loyal, but suspicious. In the end, Amin's regime installed by Western powers bypasses democracy and kills approximately 300,000 of his own people - an all too often told tale for the dark continent so it would seem.
The story is told from the point of view of a young Scottish doctor who has traveled to Uganda to do good, only to become one of Amin's advisers. The story comes to a head when Amin proclaims himself the father of Uganda only for his white Western adviser to call him a child. I wonder how this story would be different if Ngugi had written the script.
I've been skeptical of the West's ability to tell other cultures how they're wrong and what they should do to correct their situation ever since reading Hernando de Soto's The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. In this book de Soto discusses how the West preached capitalism to former Communist countries (and South America) without taking into account the importance of the proper legal structure to support their new economies. This is kinda like telling someone to bake a cake, giving them pans, food and an oven, but not the recipe. I have a hard enough time with a recipe...
What does this film do for my book? Well, it reminds me that Western audiences still like to buy the African despot story rather than the Western stooge story. How can I use this to my advantage? Drop the occasional genocide joke, you say? Sure. Why not? Always fun to play on the naive assumptions of folks, ie that if you're not a dead African that you're a killer and incapable of being democratic. Then again, what good is democracy when the elected leader sees the vote of confidence as support for his/her will and not trust to do the will of the people?
Showing posts with label Ngugi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ngugi. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Ngugi
In addition to visiting Michigan, I have read a number of books on Michigan history and African literature. Most of the African works that I've read have either been regarding folklore or poetry to get a feel for the stories Africans tell, how they tell them, what kinds of characters and plots they use and so on. And then there's Ngugi.
A friend recommended that I read Ngugi's Devil on the Cross (1987). As I quickly learned, Ngugi's no joke. A native of Kenya, his writing concentrates on post-colonial Africa. I was reluctant to read his work for a couple reasons:
1) It takes place in East Africa, not Southern Africa
2) I didn't think I had read enough traditional African literature and didn't want to jump ahead to more modern content.
That being said, I believe that I was able to pick up some phrases that could be used universally throughout Africa ("Too much haste splits the yam", "The shoe doesn't need a sock" (meaning, "Nothing's closer to the truth"), "It is never too early to go to the market, before the sun scorches the vegetables"), not just Kenya.
This book also reads like the other side of John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. There Perkins talks about what he would do to extend American business interests abroad. Here, Ngugi talks about how men like Perkins influenced his country's businessmen. Pretty powerful stuff which begins to answer a question I'd always had: Why don't these countries have their own corporations? Perkins may argue it's because we've taken them out (to stay on the hit man tip).
As Ngugi writes, "There is nothing as terrible as a people who have swallowed foreign customs whole, without even chewing them, for such people become mere parrots", which is how he describes some of his post-colonial countrymen who continue to serve the financial interests of foreigners. More positively, he also writes, "...we shouldn't always run after foreign things, following in the footsteps of other people, singing only songs that have been composed by others, joining in the chorus of songs sung by soloists from other lands. We can compose our own songs, produce our own soloists, sing the songs to ourselves."
How does this fit in to Any Color You Want? First, Ngugi's story sewed a seed 21 years ago that now, with the Western world weakened economically and militarily, may give the developing world fruit to bear: That being, they can follow their own way. Second, his story questions the expertise and supremacy of Western ways which my protagonists will also do. Basically, Ngugi may be the dramatic precedent for this comedy.
For those of you finding it hard to believe that this is really a comedy, in chapter two our protagonists start a car alarm symphony with a soccer ball in a public parking lot. Good times.
A friend recommended that I read Ngugi's Devil on the Cross (1987). As I quickly learned, Ngugi's no joke. A native of Kenya, his writing concentrates on post-colonial Africa. I was reluctant to read his work for a couple reasons:
1) It takes place in East Africa, not Southern Africa
2) I didn't think I had read enough traditional African literature and didn't want to jump ahead to more modern content.
That being said, I believe that I was able to pick up some phrases that could be used universally throughout Africa ("Too much haste splits the yam", "The shoe doesn't need a sock" (meaning, "Nothing's closer to the truth"), "It is never too early to go to the market, before the sun scorches the vegetables"), not just Kenya.
This book also reads like the other side of John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. There Perkins talks about what he would do to extend American business interests abroad. Here, Ngugi talks about how men like Perkins influenced his country's businessmen. Pretty powerful stuff which begins to answer a question I'd always had: Why don't these countries have their own corporations? Perkins may argue it's because we've taken them out (to stay on the hit man tip).
As Ngugi writes, "There is nothing as terrible as a people who have swallowed foreign customs whole, without even chewing them, for such people become mere parrots", which is how he describes some of his post-colonial countrymen who continue to serve the financial interests of foreigners. More positively, he also writes, "...we shouldn't always run after foreign things, following in the footsteps of other people, singing only songs that have been composed by others, joining in the chorus of songs sung by soloists from other lands. We can compose our own songs, produce our own soloists, sing the songs to ourselves."
How does this fit in to Any Color You Want? First, Ngugi's story sewed a seed 21 years ago that now, with the Western world weakened economically and militarily, may give the developing world fruit to bear: That being, they can follow their own way. Second, his story questions the expertise and supremacy of Western ways which my protagonists will also do. Basically, Ngugi may be the dramatic precedent for this comedy.
For those of you finding it hard to believe that this is really a comedy, in chapter two our protagonists start a car alarm symphony with a soccer ball in a public parking lot. Good times.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
