The Legacy of Colonialism

In 2001, the Swedish Academy awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature – long considered to be the highest achievement in literature – to Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, who popularly went by a condensed version of his name, V.S. Naipaul. Considered by many as one of the greatest writers of his generation, he was a shoo-in for the honor. The oldest son of a family with Hindu Indian origins – both of his grandfathers immigrated from British India to Trinidad as indentured servants on a sugar plantation – Naipaul was born in Chaguanas, Trinidad, on August 17, 1932. When he was eighteen, he left Trinidad for England to study at University College, Oxford under a scholarship grant.

Post-university, he worked for a while for the BBC as a writer and editor for the weekly program Caribbean Voices; the program featured several Caribbean writers, including Naipaul’s fellow Caribbean Nobel Laureate in Literature, Derek Walcott. While working at the BBC, Naipaul wrote on the sly. Early on, he worked on what would be his first publishable work, Miguel Street, a collection of linked stories predicated on a childhood memory of a neighbor in a Port of Spain street. However, it was not published immediately – it would be published in 1959, two years after the publication of his debut novel, The Mysterious Masseur – but his writing talent did not escape the attention of publishers.

Riding high on the wave of this positive feedback, he worked on The Mysterious Masseur which was published in 1957 to immediate critical acclaim, winning the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1958. Meanwhile, Miguel Street was awarded the Somerset Maugham Award in 1961. These were further testaments to Naipaul’s talent. Global breakthrough came in 1961, with the publication of his fourth novel, A House for Mr. Biswas; it was even cited by the Swedish Academy. The literary world has unrolled the red carpet for a talented writer who, from strength to strength, would build an extensive and prolific oeuvres.

“I often wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn’t made that decision. I suppose I would have sunk. I suppose I would have found some kind of hole and tried to hide or pass. After all, we make ourselves according to the ideas we have of our possibilities. I would have hidden in my hole and been crippled by my sentimentality, doing what I was doing, and doing it well, but always looking for the wailing wall. And I would never have seen the world as the rich place that it is. You wouldn’t have seen me here in Africa, doing what I do.”

~ Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, A Bend in the River

In its citation, the Swedish Academy awarded Naipaul the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.” A House for Mr. Biswas, a novel inspired by his father’s story, exemplified this. It was also a quality that reverberated across his works, among them A Bend in the River. Originally published in 1979, A Bend in the River is widely considered one of his best works. Set in a fictional post-colonial West African country, the novel charted the fortunes of Salim, an Indian merchant of Arab origin who grew up in a community in an unnamed country on the East African coast.

It was around this time that anti-colonial sentiments and a growing sense of nationalism were seizing the African continent. Fearing that these political shifts would eventually make their way to his community and dismantle it, Salim deemed it prudent to settle somewhere else. The answer to his prayer came in the form of Nazruddin, a family friend who spent years living in the African interior where he operated a trading goods shop. Nazruddin, who decided to resettle on the African coast, offered to sell his shop to Salim who took him up to his offer. Thus commenced Salim’s long drive to the interior, to a former colonial town situated on the bend of a major river; it is popularly believed that the river referred to in the novel is the Congo River.

As soon as he arrived in his new home, the Indian community he previously called home was destroyed in the aftermath of an uprising on the African coast. This only underlined the wisdom of his decision to resettle in the interior. In his new home and his modest shop trading basic household goods, Salim met an eclectic but interesting cast of characters. Among those he encountered was Zabeth, a trader who was Salim’s first customer. She also had the reputation of being the local witch, enchanting herself with pungent ointments to keep evil spirits at bay. Or perhaps to protect herself from the evil designs of men in general.

Metty, on the other hand, was a former slave and was hired by Salim to be his assistant; he was sent by Salim’s parents while the rebellion was brewing on the coast. Metty’s real name was Ali but he was named Metty by the locals who took a liking to him. The name was derived from the French word métis, meaning mixed race. Metty came in handy, not as a housekeeper but as a company for Salim. Another seminal character was Ferdinand, Zabeth’s son. Zabeth sought Salim’s help in looking after her son who recently enrolled in a lycée close to his shop. Zabeth enlisted Salim’s assistance in looking after her son. Metty and Ferdinand instantly bonded and became friends. They were often seen drinking together and picking up local women.

“You can go back many times to the same place. And something strange happens if you go back often enough. You stop grieving for the past. You see that the past is something in your mind alone, that it doesn’t exist in real life. You trample on the past, you crush it. In the beginning it is like trampling on a garden. In the end you are just walking on ground. That is the way we have to learn to live now. The past is here.” He touched his heart. “It isn’t there.” And he pointed at the dusty road.”

~ Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, A Bend in the River

Just as Salim has adjusted to the rhythm of the town, trouble starts brewing over the horizon. His premonition of an uprising making its way to the interior slowly materialized before him. It started over in the bushes before skirmishes started springing all over the town, threatening to destabilize the town’s harmony. The lycée that Ferdinand attended closed. There was an unrest. Both locals and foreigners were killed. Even before it happened, Salim already made provisions and plans, surreptitiously burying his valuables beyond the naked eye while, at the same time, hoping that Metty hadn’t seen where he buried his valuables. The uprising did not last long as the president sent mercenaries to quash the rebellion. The rest, they say, was history. But is it?

In a sleight of a hand, Naipaul managed to set out the landscape of the story, while, at the same time, vividly portraying the major transformation taking place in the African landscape following the collapse of colonialism. In this context, the town on the bed of the river was a microcosm of Africa. We read about a continent on the cusp of a major shift. All over the continent, former colonies were gaining their independence from their subjugators. However, it came with a steep price. In the wake of the rising call for independence, colonial towns suffered the brunt of the rebellions. These towns were inundated, left in a state of disrepair whilst their former European occupants fled. This was the very same scene that Salim witnessed when he arrived in his new hometown. Vestiges of Africa’s colonial past were ubiquitous.

Through his novel, Naipaul also provided a rather pessimistic perspective of Africa’s post-colonial future. Instability and political turmoil were rife. Different individuals stepped up to lead and unify a fragmented continent. However, their vision of development was, more often than not, misplaced. In the case of Naipaul’s unnamed country, development entailed welcoming the very same colonialists they drove away to gain their independence. The influences of Western powerhouses are indelibly woven into the fine prints of the region. While intellect and critical thinking were cultivated, all of the visions for a modern Africa were undermined by corruption, greed, and the insatiable appetite for power. Meanwhile, the war-weary denizens sing songs of praise for these grandiose visions.

But with the disconnect between the prevailing realities, these visions and plans failed to live up to expectations. The continent goes through a cycle of rebellions and brief periods of peace which stunted the development of the region. There were periods of prosperity, like when the town became a regional center teeming with trade. However, instability still loomed. Autocrats, in the disguise of crusaders for change, are overthrown. Rebellions spark across the region. All of these factors continue to threaten growth and development. The dichotomy between the visions of modern Africa and the real Africa was stark and glaring. By the end of the novel, the region was on the cusp of yet another period of instability.

“A businessman is someone who buys at ten and is happy to get out at twelve. The other kind of man buys at ten, sees it rise to eighteen and does nothing. He is waiting for it to get to twenty. The beauty of numbers. When it drops to ten again he waits for it to get back to eighteen. When it drops to two he waits for it to get back to ten. Well, it gets back there. But he has wasted a quarter of his life. And all he’s got out of his money is a little mathematical excitement.”

~ Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, A Bend in the River

A Bend in the River, however, does not reduce itself to a mere exploration of Africa’s colonial history. Naipaul also explored the sense of home and dislocation. Salim, due to his mixed heritage, was always at odds with his definition of home. He did not feel a sense of belongingness in the coastal Africa he grew up in. This also prompted him to move to the interior. Still, home for Salim was a relative concept. He was displaced twice: first, as an Asian in Africa, and the second instance when he moved he moved to the interior. In his new “home”, he also met several individuals who came from various parts of Africa and of the world. There were characters who were geographically displaced from their homes, either by sheer force or by circumstances.

Being ripped out of his home twice took a toll on Salim. His current circumstances caused him to experience a sense of confusion. He never fully settles as he always feels like an interloper. He constantly grapples with his identity which is inevitably attached to his political and social status. These factors exacerbated the anxieties he experienced. Salim’s confusion was, by extension, a reflection of Africa following the wake of colonialism. It was a region at a crossroads. Through allegories, we read about a region steeped in traditions and tribal ways. Meanwhile, these traditions are slowly dismantled by new technology and the changing attitude of the populace, e.g… placing a premium on education.

Shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, A Bend in the River is, without a doubt, a pillar of Naipaul’s oeuvre, if not of post-colonial literature. It is a thought-provoking masterpiece that transports the readers into a region that is still at odds with itself following decades of colonialism. Through an eclectic set of characters whose fortunes converged on the titular town on the bend in the river, Naipaul was able to evocatively draw the landscape of contemporary Africa, its people, its traditions, and even the maladies that plagued and continue to plague to region. But despite the instability that persists, we read about the resilient spirit of a region and a populace that continues to hurdle these challenges and carry on. A Bend in the River is a classic that transcends time and borders.

“A businessman is someone who buys at ten and is happy to get out at twelve. The other kind of man buys at ten, sees it rise to eighteen and does nothing. He is waiting for it to get to twenty. The beauty of numbers. When it drops to ten again he waits for it to get back to eighteen. When it drops to two he waits for it to get back to ten. Well, it gets back there. But he has wasted a quarter of his life. And all he’s got out of his money is a little mathematical excitement.”

~ Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, A Bend in the River
Book Specs

Author: Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul 
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publishing Date: 1980 (1979)
Number of Pages: 287
Genre: Historical

Synopsis

’A Bend in the River is more than a true and powerful book about Africa. It is… one of those books that make you question many assumptions about the world today.’ ~ Richard West in the Spectator

In the “brilliant novel” (The New York Times) V.S. Naipaul takes us deeply into the life of one man—an Indian who, uprooted by the bloody tides of Third World history, has come to live in an isolated town at the bend of a great river in a newly independent African nation. Naipaul gives us the most convincing and disturbing vision yet of what happens in a place caught between the dangerously alluring modern world and its own tenacious past and traditions. (Source: Goodreads)

About the Author

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, more popularly known as V.S. Naipaul, was born on August 17, 1932, in Chaguanas, Caroni County, British Trinidad and Tobago. He descended from a family of Hindu Indians who immigrated to Trinidad from British India in the late 19th century to work as indentured laborers in a sugar plantation. Naipaul was enrolled at the government-run Queen’s Royal College (QRC). When he was eighteen, Naipaul left Trinidad for England to attend the University of Oxford under a government scholarship grant.

After losing support for his scholarship due to his failing his Bachelor of Letters degree, Naipaul moved to London to pursue his literary career. He first worked at the BBC as a writer and editor for the weekly program Caribbean Voices. While working at the BBC, Naipaul kept on writing, starting with a collection of linked stories based on a childhood memory. The book, Miguel Street, however, was not published immediately; it would be published in 1959, two years after he made his literary debut. Nevertheless, Naipaul’s talent caught the interest of publishers. Naipaul made his long-awaited literary debut in 1957, with the publication of The Mystic Masseur. It was an immediate critical success, earning Naipaul the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1958.

Riding on the wave of his initial success, Naipaul published The Suffrage of Elvira (1958) and Miguel Street (1959). He made his global breakthrough with the publication of A House for Mr. Biswas in 1961. It was inspired by his father’s life. His earlier works were set in Trinidad. He would eventually use other national settings but they still explored similar subjects. Naipaul’s other important works include  In a Free State (1971), Guerrillas (1975), A Bend in the River (1979), and The Mimic Men (1967). In a Free State won the Booker Prize. He also wrote works of nonfiction, such as Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples (1998).

Naipaul also received the Trinity Cross, Trinidad and Tobago’s highest national honor, in 1990. During the same year, he was made a Knight Bachelor in the 1990 New Year Honours. In 2001, Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He holds honorary doctorates from Cambridge University and Columbia University in New York, and honorary degrees from the universities of Cambridge, London, and Oxford. He passed away on August 11, 2018, in London, England.