Anti-African Themes in "Liberal" Young Adult Novels

Abstract

Anti-African Themes in "Liberal" Young Adult Novels Yulisa Amadu Maddy (bio) and Donnarae MacCann (bio) An anti-African mindset seems to be dominating contemporary children's literature, as it dominated Western literature in earlier eras. In Cristina Kessler's No Condition is Permanent (2000), the traditions of the West African nation, Sierra Leone, are twisted out of all recognition. Eric Campbell's Papa Tembo (U.K. edition, 1997; U.S. edition, 1998) maligns East African peoples. What we see in these novels is a demonstration of how writers who view themselves as progressive and liberal in their advancement of ideas such as feminism and environmental preservation can blithely engage all of the familiar stereotypes in the Western image-maker's toolkit. We also see how they can depart from their intended themes and contrive biased notions about cultures foreign to them. These two novels display the patterns that recur in scores of contemporary fictional works with African settings: • Africans are ridiculed for their lack of "high" (Western) technologies. • Africans are disparaged for medical practices that differ from Western health practices. • African officialdom is presented as largely corrupt and unable to grasp Western business practices and ethics. • Africans are accused of using natural resources in ways that are ecologically unsound, while they are simultaneously shown as being primitive peoples naturally suited to inhabit wild, undeveloped landscapes. • African skin tones are obsessively emphasized (e.g., in Kessler's book "[the skin] glistened like fresh hot tar" [23], or "shone like black, wet marble" [44], or "black carbon paper" [53], or "wet ebony" [75], or "resembled a jet black Siamese cat" [132]). • African spirituality is shown to be inferior to Western spirituality. • African community and family traditions are maligned as Western customs are extolled. We found that the Kessler and Campbell novels maintained these unfortunate literary traditions in their consistent reiteration of Eurocentric assumptions. Mis-stated Feminism in No Condition is Permanent Cristina Kessler was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1981-1983, and she states that her characters in No Condition is Permanent are related to her journal entries from that period. The central adult character is seen returning to Sierra Leone after an absence of about fifteen years. The return visit is for the purpose of stamping out the female initiation rite entailing circumcision (i.e., clitoridectomy, or as some opponents label it, "female genital mutilation").1 This mother/anthropologist does not realize that the rite is scheduled for the same time as her return visit, but once she discovers this, she fears for her free-spirited, fourteen-year-old daughter, Jodie, who has accompanied her. Jodie has become best friends with a young woman who will participate in the rite. The mother's alarm seems justified since her stubborn off-spring will not be dissuaded from interfering in the ceremony, and, consequently, mother and daughter are run out of the village. But after two years, a letter arrives that vindicates the "do-gooders": that is, girls in the village promise to rebel against circumcision for the sake of their future daughters. Also, the older women have found a way to forgive the impetuous American teenager. In arguing against clitoridectomy, Kessler largely employs the tactics listed above: "comic relief" stemming from African encounters with technology; dramatic tension derived from images of unhealthy conditions; social commentary about families oppressed by male tyranny; a moral indictment of spirituality; and a portrayal of dancing as either comic in its exaggeration or depraved in its orgiastic excesses. As for the environment, it is not shown as lacking in proper protection (unlike the Campbell novel), but it seems quite dysfunctional. The people apparently subsist with only a rice crop and a dried fish business—neither of which prevents their extreme poverty. At first, the setting unfolds comically. The American fourteen-year-old, Jodie, is a wise-cracking, smart-ass narrator and is not to be taken as a fully reliable reporter. However, the authorial voice is ever present, and from that perspective, everything in Africa is unsafe. There appears to be as many reptiles as people inhabiting the houses and [End Page 92] make-shift privies. Every family has lost a relative to...