pynchon-l-digest V2 #1331

[jbor]

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>From: "Christina L. Svendsen" <cls4r at unix.mail.virginia.edu>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: pynchon-l-digest V2 #1331
>Date: Fri, Jul 28, 2000, 1:27 AM
>

> not christian or european but Islamic culture, coming out of the Maghreb
> area and the Sudan, was the major foreign presence in West Africa for a
> long time. that's why so many west africans, as far south as senegal, are
> muslim.

This is very interesting. I had assumed that during the centuries of
(Modern? early Modern?) European imperial expansion in Africa (c.
1400?-1970?) there had been a break in the traditional/existing social
orders and cultures, which had impacted on if not entirely obliterated the
accompanying belief systems, whether animist or Muslim, and that what has
been happening in the last few decades is a *re*adoption of Muslim naming,
cultural practice and faith in Western Africa as in Jamaica and the US.
Haile Selassie-I and all.

But certain West African tribal cultures have remained intact haven't they?
The Maasai, for example? There are terrible inter-tribal persecutions and
murders going on in the Horn and Tanzania still.

> in v. pynchon is talking about south africa, which is REALLY DIFFERENT
> from central & northerly parts of africa.

Perhaps, but the picture he is delineating of German imperialism in Sudwest
-- the oppression, decimation and subjugation of the "Bondelschwarz" -- can
be applied on a much wider scale to the Belgians in the Congo, the French,
Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Italians etc etc. The forms which
European imperialism took, the mentality, was pretty much the same during
this era, whatever the culture of the tribal peoples they usurped.
Christianity was a common denominator.

> ya think? this was aristotle's entire point!

He had others -- far better ones imo -- as well! Like the one about every
story having a beginning, middle and end. Poetry being worth more than
history. And man being by nature a political animal (politikon zoon), though
this might be the other side of the "natural slaves" coin. Anyway, he wasn't
*just* an apologist for slavery and political oppression, though he was that
as well.

> i was trying to discuss the different ways ppl engaged in slave-holding
> societies can organize & perceive their forms of slavery, in ways that
> sometimes seem strange to us now

Yes. But this conundrum about moral systems isn't delimited by temporality
or culture alone. In my country, as in most states of the US, it is illegal,
and thereby officially deemed "immoral" or wrong, to execute any human
being. In Texas, for example, this is not the case. So, when a Death Row
criminal is executed in Texas, whose code of morality applies/should be
applied? Who is "right"?

> oral
> history in the w. african tradition of strict memorization is not to be
> dismissed

By no means. The Islamic tradition of memorising the Koran being a primary
example. But "oral history" comes in many shapes and forms and includes
legend, myth, propaganda. It is not to be dismissed, however, certainly.

> after all it's an awful fact but (think of the greeks) slavery is
> considered by some historians as a kind of prerequisite for the blooming
> of a really complex cultural & artistic system, because it relieves
> certain members of society from the pressure to survive & creates leisure
> time for those select people.

Yes, it is an awful fact, and it points up the way in which intellectual
elitism, decadence and political oppression can sometimes go hand in hand.

>> I guess my point is that, despite its truth, none of what you point out can
>> or should be used as justification for slavery and racial oppression in the
>> US c.1700-2000.
>
> well one would hope not!

It has been and still is, apparently. Historical revisionism and racial
discrimination in the US are alive and well it seems. Unhappily.

best
(btw, welcome)