The thoughts behind the smiles
Roy Kerridge
THINK AFRICAN by Jack Sislian Nova Science Publishers Inc USA, £30.50, pp. 94, obtainable from Gazelle Book Services, Falcon House, Lancaster My never-ending struggles with pub- lishers have shown me one thing — that original authors and interesting books abound in Britain today. When rejecting my books and posting them back to me, publishers frequently enclose vast chunks of someone else's rejected book in the package, by mistake. Such books invariably make good reading. Thanks to the careless- ness of the rejecting editor of Heinemann's Black Writing, I recently received the rejected manuscript of Think African by Jack Sislian. Having enjoyed the chapters Tit say you've got some sort of fungal infection.' enclosed, I posted them back to Professor Sislian. His book has now been published by an American firm (to Heinemann's shame). His theme is Africa and the African mind, the thoughts behind the smiles.
Sislian uses the device of putting his views in the mouth of a Southern African chief, a wise Black Adviser. Refreshingly unimpressed by everything un-African, the chief begins by praising the African but in all its roundness. Sharp angles are man- made, the circle is a part of nature; made of the red earth of the pathways and thatched with reeds, the but is a part of Africa. The chief points out that the centre pole of the but acts as a ladder for gods of earth and sky. I know a West Indian church in London where angels, invisible to all but the elect, are summoned at the foot of a centre pole in the middle of the hall. `Hello, Angel-o!' the preacher booms impressively, over and over again. I call this the 'fire station church', as the preacher rings a bell and an angel slides down the pole.
Of course, if you have plenty of posses- sions, including Western furniture, you must build a rectangular hut. Unfortunate- ly, no African vernacular style has arisen to cope with sharp corners, and the new style of huts are usually made of breeze blocks and corrugated iron.
Sislian's chief sternly addresses white people, exposing their follies and misdeeds over 20 chapters. Yet he seems unaware of the educated Africans who now rule his country, whichever country in Africa that is. It is the new chief-usurping, educated ruling class of Africa who are inviting in European experts, and ordering Western goods and machinery. To no avail does Sis- lian's chief point out that, as Africans never invented machinery, they regard all machines (including cars and mechanical diggers) as magical gifts from the white man, in no need of maintenance or repair. Broken machines litter Africa, but the cov- etous new rulers simply ask for more. They cannot see the wealth of nature's bounty, for to the sweating men in suits and glasses all wealth comes from the West and is now their neo-colonialist birthright.
All Luddites will rejoice with a chief who can cry, 'Hurrah for those who never invented anything!' This chief speaks for the village African. City Africans, particu- larly those whose city is London, have nothing in common with a man who rejects motor cars. It is sometimes hard to tell if Sislian shares all the views of his idealised chief. It is only too likely that such a chief would complain that his crops must wither because he is no longer allowed to kill witches, but surely Sislian in his own per- sona would disagree. Occasionally the chief laspses into expert-expat jargon for pages on end, before falling back into the easy rhythms of African speech. Such faults aside, this is a remarkable book, and I urge you one and all to think African!
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