WHITE MAN AND SAVAGE
The Savage Hits Back. By Julius E. Lips. (Lovat Dickson. 21s.) DR. LIPS has written one of the most original and instructive books that have appeared for some time ; and since it concerns a major problem of modem civilisation, the relations of the white and the coloured peoples, everyone should read it. He has collected and analysed the artistic material in which savages of all races have portrayed the white man and his world ; in the two hundred beautiful illustrations may be seen the white man himself; his ships, his weapons, his soldiers, his women, teachers and administrators, all observed with the penetrating and inquisitive eyes of men to whom they are novel and alien. Sometimes the observations are naive, but always with the naivete of the artist and not of the child or the fool. It is fair to say that most intelligent men will feel more sympathy and affinity with these savage artists than with their subjects. These images of ourselves made by men to whom a white skin is not necessarily a• cause for admiration would,. be depressing if they were' not so skilful, so witty and so beautiful. - What, then, does the black man see ? First of all perhaps the white man's power ; but he rightly attributes it to his material weapons, and especially the rifle, and not to any spiritual superiority. In innumerable drawings and models the rifle appears, of exaggerated size, and almost dwarfing its owner. Less respect is shown for the spiritual qualities, which are observed with humour, detachment and irony. There is something irresistibly comic in comparing these works of art with the legend of the white man as written by white men, with that slightly Buffalo Bill character with whom we uncon- sciously identify ourselves in thinking of our relation to savage peoples ; and the humour is that of seeing the king who has no clothes on. One of these carvings portrays the Great White Queen herself, Victoria Regina, of whose prestige among native peoples we have all heard so much. Prestige she may have had, but to the Guinea Coast artist she is a dumpy
grandmotherly figure from whose somewhat pig-like face malice is not absent. Or look at the soldier to whose courage in so many frontier fights we all know that we owe our lives and our Empire ; in a masterpiece of sculpture from Dahomey he is shown with a stupid good-natured face, low-brow, obedient expression, and a rifle as big as himself, such a portrait as Europe has only produced in the Good Soldier Schweik or in Biichner's Wozzeck. Here also are Europe's great teachers, who bring light into savage darkness ; they are short serious men with stiff collars a la Schacht, earnest faces and narrow clumsy minds. These images have a relentless good humour that destroys every illusion of superiority in us. But the savage is quick also to seize on any manifestation of wisdom, integrity, kindliness, in short, of humanity x and it is notable that, though here also he displays his gift of mockery, he finds these features most often in the missionary ; and in this, as Professor Malinowski says in his Introduction, the savage has again shown more good sense than those who have heaped on missionaries a satire more justly reserved for themselves.
It is impossible to convey a fraction of the pleasure and amusement given by these drawings and models and by Dr.
Lips' comments on them. Yet they are profoundly serious. Dr. Lips quotes a remark of Gauguin's : " Above all they have taught me to understand myself better ; I have heard from them nothing but the most profound truth." It is because he has recognised the truth of this that Dr. Lips has written what Professor Malinowski describes as " one of the first contributions to real anthropology—first in rank and first in priority of time." He sets the wisdom of the savage's observations beside the racial theories that now dominate Europe and threaten to dominate the world. Thus it is not surprising that among these savage works of art Dr. Lips draws our attention especially to one by a Loango artist ; it is beautiful but terrifying ; mockery, satire, irony have given way to hatred.
One thing. is certain, that we have here before us the plastic work of a black artist far ahead of his day, and on the base of the model might well be inscribed 'The Savage flits Back.' ... The cen- tral figure is that of a negro who has disdained giving his body the out- ward attributes of the white man, a negro without hat or umbrella—. things which he now knows to be ridiculous. His body -is painted .as it was painted thousands of years ago, his face is tattooed, his front teeth filed in native fashion. . He stands. ready to attack, with a weapon in his right hand. This weapon is not the white man's once adored rifle, it is the native's ancient lance, forged of iron melted in African blast furnaces, furnaces Which had been in use long before the white man had fathomed the secret of metal alloys. On his body this savage wears the container of sacred magic medicine, and his lower limbs are clothed with an apron of native material. His left hand is holding the upper part of a European rifle but it is not ready for firing, its butt is resting on the black man's foot. Possibly it has been retained as a precaution in case the trusty ancient weapon fails, in case the spear does not suffice. It is a subordinate reserve arm but it is no longer a firearm of magic power. And there, in European dress, stands a small figure between the black man's legs, a figure seeking protection."
Such is the savage of the future, if Herr Hitler and the other lunatic's have their way ; how ironic it is that when the white man first appeared the savage thought him a god, a tribal hero returned to life, Quetzalcouatl, Kasongo, Kabaso Baku ; or that when Dr. Lips asked an American Indian what were the greatest blessings in his life, he answered without hesitation, " Peace, freedom and justice."
GORONWY REES.
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