V.S. Naipul -- yea, that one -- has a new book on African traditional religions titled The Masque of Africa. In his review of the book, Johann Hari is righteous on the right to speak of African religions. Cue the sighs.I have stood in a blood-splattered house in Tanzania where an old woman had just been beaten to death for being a "witch" who cast spells on her neighbors. I have stood in battlefields in the Congo where the troops insist with absolute certainty they cannot be killed because they have carried out a magical spell that guarantees, if they are shot, they will turn briefly into a tree, then charge on unharmed. I have been cursed in Ethiopia by a witch-doctor with "impotence, obesity, and then leprosy" for asking insistently why he charged so much to "cure" his patients. (I'm still waiting for the leprosy.)
Where do these beliefs come from? What do so many Africans get out of them? Can they be changed? These are questions that are asked in Africa all the time, but we are deaf to the conversation. It's not hard to see why. The imperial rape and pillage of Africa was "justified" by claiming Africans were "primitive" and "backward" people sunk in a morass of voodoo, who had to be "civilized" in blood and Christianity. Just as there are legitimate and necessary criticisms of Israel but nobody wants to hear them from Germany, any legitimate and necessary criticism of the problems with Africa's indigenous beliefs will never be welcome from Europeans or their descendants. And yet there they are, ongoing and alive, waiting to be discussed. Must we ignore it?
Later on in Hari's review, he says that African religions "can bring both sweet, illusory comfort and intense terror" to Africans who adhere to more traditional beliefs. Muslims and Christians -- who make up the vast majority according to this Pew Religion in Africa poll -- also "retain these traditional beliefs not far beneath the surface." I found this interesting for several reasons: Don't the practice of religions get affected by the worldview of its adherents? How did the social evolution of Western society, for example, affect the interpretation of Christianity? Is it possible to consider traditional religions without considering the founding philosophy of respective African societies? I ask these questions, not of Naipaul's book (which I plan to read) but of this review and what it says about religion and tradition. I wouldn't have thought that V.S. Naipul would take this on, but I'm curious to see what he has to say.
(Photo Credit: Slate)
Johann Hari gets on my nerves. I first noticed him from his article "Dare We Stand Up for Muslim Women." Lots of patronizing stuff in there. He wrote this annoying "expose" on Dubai and basically essentialized the city and the UAE into its major faults, acting as if Westerners wouldn't know the "real Dubai" without his journalism. Then I caught a piece of his later on marital kidnappings in Ethiopia. I know nothing about Ethiopia, but after having read his article, I would feel as if I knew EVERYTHING about marriage in poor, barbaric Ethiopia, and it was only in the comment section that I read that this marital kidnapping thing is a practice in a particular place in Southern Ethiopia and that once again, Hari has essentialized an entire country. Anyway, it seems Hari has a strong desire to expose the barbarianism of Other in the guise of concern and alliance. In the end he simply reinforces his own Western superiority. My favorite part of this Africa article was when Hari compared witchcraft in Africa to Israeli atrocities. That was a good one. Of course in the comments of his article, some people used his "we can't criticize Africa" nonsense as an excuse to slam Islam. In this Islamophobic atmosphere, of course that was an underlying pre-text of his complaints on censoring critique of Other. Some people in the comments did point out that there are Western peoples have belief systems similar to traditional African beliefs. Anyway, V.S. Naipaul is a racist and a long time Muslim hater, but I may check out his book out of interest to see what he says, if not just to work my critical thinking skills. Ironically, stories about the atrocities are pretty much one of two or three main issues that we in the West EVER read or learn about Africa (like albino killings and HIV infant rapes, etc), so Hari promoting this stuff is just one more drop in the bucket.
ReplyDeleteSo big Hari fan, huh?
ReplyDeleteI mostly read Hari when he's excerpted on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish
blog. I can't say I've read as much from Hari, but you voice a lot of
the same criticisms that I had of an early piece of his on Israeli
views on the Gaza strip (or something) from a year ago. I don't much
like Naipaul, but I am indeed curious about what he has to say. It's
an interesting subject, which I'd like to see tackled in the modern
day.
As a general matter, I find the question of what Westerners can or
can't talk about exhausting. In the process of arguing for the right
to criticize African traditional beliefs/say the N word/ ask why black
people have Aids more/etc, what mostly happens is that these people
show that they don't know what they're talking about. Reading the news
about albinos and rapes gives you the neither the background nor the
insight to say anything more useful than inanities the media is
already awash with anyway.
So big Hari fan, huh?
ReplyDeleteI mostly read Hari when he's excerpted on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish
blog. I can't say I've read as much from Hari, but you voice a lot of
the same criticisms that I had of an early piece of his on Israeli
views on the Gaza strip (or something) from a year ago. I don't much
like Naipaul, but I am indeed curious about what he has to say. It's
an interesting subject, which I'd like to see tackled in the modern
day.
As a general matter, I find the question of what Westerners can or
can't talk about exhausting. In the process of arguing for the right
to criticize African traditional beliefs/say the N word/ ask why black
people have Aids more/etc, what mostly happens is that these people
show that they don't know what they're talking about. Reading the news
about albinos and rapes gives you the neither the background nor the
insight to say anything more useful than inanities the media is
already awash with anyway.
Hari reminds me of Sean Penn and Bono - one in media, one in film and one in music - all suffering from the self-righteous white man syndrome. Still I do like his commentary on Brit politics and he has done some investigate reports on the DRC which I appreciate.
ReplyDelete