Critical confusion? Sir: In criticising a new novel by Hammon d
Innes the reviewer Nick Totton disparages surely for quite wrong reasons the work of Rider Haggard with whom he compares Innes. He writes (19 February) that the Africa of Innes 'is still dominated bY White Hunters of elemental force. And the, Africans still play second fiddle in a land
, that is once again their own . . . in Muer' blacks are childish, ridiculous and depen
dent.' There was nothing childish, ridiculous or dependent about Haggard's African characters, about the Zulu Umslopogaas who makes Allan Quatermain, the 01.11Y White Huntei I remember in his work, PlaY very second fiddle, about the tyrant Chaka: the horrifying Gagool, and Dingaan, a kind of Amin Dada of his day, 'who had the, fierce heart of Chaka without its greatness. In perhaps his best African novel, Ned" the Lily, white men hardly appear at all. I thltl!‘ Nick Totton is confusing Haggard with Hemingway.
Graham Greene 130 Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris 17
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