Letter from Paris

Princes and Powers

T and
a E Conference of Negro-African Writers
Artists (Le Congr~sdes Ecrivains et
were suffering was due to the fact that their
political destinies were not in their hands. A
,4rtistes Noirs) opened on Wednesdaymorning, people deprivedof political sovereigntyfinds it
Septemberxgth, i956, in the Sorbonne’s Amphi- verynearly impossibleto recreate, tor-itself, the
theatre Descartes, in Paris. It was one of those imageof its past, this perpetual recreation being
briLght, warmdays and by ten o’clock the lecture an absolute necessity, if not, indeed, the defini-
hall was already unbearably hot, people choked tion of a living culture.
the entrances and covered the woodensteps. It His speechwona great deal .of applause. Yet,
was hectic with the activity attendant uponthe I felt that amongthe dark people in the hall
setting up of tape recorders, with the testing of there was, perhaps, somedisappointmentthat he
ear-phones, with the lighming of flash-bulbs. had not been more specific, more bitter, in a
Electricity, in fact, filled the hall. Of the people word, more demagogical; whereas, among the
there that first day, I shouldjudgethat not quite whites in the hall, there wascertainly expressed
two-thirds were coloured. in their applause a somewhatshamefaced and
Behindthe table at the front of the hall sat uneasy relief. And, indeed, the atmospherewas
eight coloured men. These included the Ameri- strange. Everyonewas tense with the question
can novelist Richard Wright; Alioune Diop, the of which direction the conference would take.
editor of Presence .4fricaine, and one of the prin- Hanging in the air, as real as the heat from
cipal organisers of the conference; the poets which we suffered, were the great spectres of
Leopold Senghor, from Senegal, and Aim6 Americaand Russia, of the battle going on be-
Cesaire, fromMartinique; and the poet-novelist, tween them for the domination of the world.
Jacques Alexis, from Haiti. FromHaiti, also, The ultimate resolution of this battle might
camethe President of the Conference,Dr. Price- very well depend on the earth’s non-European
Mars, a very old and very handsomeman. population, a population vastly outnumbering
It was well past ten o’clock when the con- Europe’s, and whichhad suffered such injustices
ference actually opened. Alioune Diop, who at European hands. With the best will in the
rather resembles,in his extremesobriety, an old- world, no one nowliving could undo what past
time Baptist minister, madethe openingaddress. generations had accomplished. The great ques-
He referred to the present gathering as a kind of tion was what, exacdy, had they accomplished:
second Bandung. As at Bandung, the people whether the evil, of which there had been so
gathered together here held in common the fact much,alone lived after them, whetherthe good,
of their subjugation to Europe, or, at the very and there had been some, had been interred with
least, to the European vision of the world. their bones~
"History," he said, "has treated the blacks in a
rather cavalier fashion. I wouldeven say that ~ ~read
H E immediately
messagesfrom well-wishers which
O were after Diop’s speech,
history has treated black menin a resolutely
spiteful fashion wereit not for the fact that this the one whichcaused the greatest stir camefrom
history with a large H is nothing more, after America’s W. E. B. DuBois. "I am not present
all, than the Westerninterpretation of the life of at your meeting," he began, "because the U.S.
the world."He referred to the variety of cultures governmentwill. not give me a passport." The
the conferencerepresented, saying that they were reading was interrupted at this point by great
genuine cultures and that the ignorance of the wavesof laughter, by no means good-natured,
West regarding them was largely a matter of and by a roar of applause, which, as it clearly
convenience. And, in speaking of the relation could not have been intended for the State
betweenpolitics and culture, he pointed out that Department, was intended to express admira-
the loss of vitality fromwhichall Negrocultures tion for DuBois’plain speaking. "AnyAmerican

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
 Princes and Powers 53
Negrotravelling abroad today must either not the banal and abruptly quite overwhelmingfact
care about Negroesor say whatthe State Depart- that we had been born in a society, which, in a
mentwishes him to say." This, of course, urew way quite inconceivable for Africans, and no
more applause. It also very neatly destroyed longer real for Europeans,was open, and--in a
whatever effectiveness the five-man American sense which has nothing to do with justice or
delegation then sitting in the hall might have injustice--wasfree. It wasa society, in short, in
hoped to have. It was less DuBois’communica- which nothing was fixed and we had therefore
tion whichdid this than the incontestable fact been born to a greater numberof possibilities,
that he had not been allowed to leave his wretched as these possibilities seemedat the
country. It was a fact which could scarcely be instant of our birth. Moreover,the land of our
explainedor defended: the very attempt at such forefather’s exile had beenmade,by that travail,
an explanation, especially for. people whosedis- our home.It mayhave been the popular impulse
trust of the West,howeverrichly iustified, also to keepus at the bottomof the perpetuallyshift-
tends to make them dangero,u, sly blind and ing and bewildered populace; but we were, on
hasty, was to be suspected of caring nothing the other hand, almost personally indispensable
about Negroes," of saying what the State De- to each of them, simply because, without us,
partment "wished" you to say. It was a fact they could never have been certain, in such a
whichincreased and seemedto iustify the dis- confusion, where the bottom was; and nothing,
trust with which all Americans are regarded in any case, could take awayour title to the land
abroad, and it madeyet deeper, for the five which we, too, had purchased with our blood.
American Negroes present, that gulf which This results in a psychologyvery different--at
yawns between the American Negro and all its best and at its worst--from the psychology
other menof colour. This is a very sad and which is produced by a sense of having been
dangerous state of affairs, for the American invaded and overrun, the sense of having no
Negrois possibly the only manof colour who recourse whateveragainst oppression other than
can speak of the Westwith real authority, whose overthrowing the machineryof the oppressor.
experience, painful as it is, also proves the Wehad been dealing with, had been made and
vitality of the so-transgressed Westernideals. mangledby, another machineryaltogether. It
The fact that DuBoiswas not there and could had never been in our interest to overthrowit.
not, therefore, be engagedin debate, naturally It had been necessary to make the machinery
madethe more seductive his closing argument: workfor our benefit and the possibility of its
which was that, the future of Africa being doingso had been, so to speak, built in.
socialist, African writers should take the road Wecould, therefore, in a way, be considered
take,n, by Russia, Poland, China, etc., and not the connecting link between Africa and the
be betrayed backwards by the U.S. into West, the most real and certainly the most
colonialism." shockingof all African contributions to Western
Whenthe morning session ended and I was cultural life. But the articulation of this reality
spewedforth with the mobinto the bright court- wasanothermatter. It wasclear that our relation
yard, Richard Wright introduced me to the to the mysteriouscontinent of Africa wouldnot
Americandelegation. Andit seemedquite un- be clarified until we had found somemeansof
believable for a moment that the five menstand- saying, to ourselves and to the world, more
ing with Wright (and Wright and myself) were about the mysterious Americancontinent than
defined, and had been brought together in this had ever beensaid before.
courtyard, by our relation to the African con-
tinent. Thechief of the delegation, ]ohn Davis,
was to be asked iust whyhe considered himself M ¯ Lafternoon
^ s ~ B x x ~ N, fromNigeria, spokethat
on the tonal structure of
a Negro--hewasto be told that he certainly did Youribapoetry, a languagespoken by five mil-
not look like one. He is a Negro,of course, from lion people in his country. Lasebikanwasa very
the remarkablelegal point of viewwhichobtains winning and unassumingpersonality, dressed
in the United States; but, moreimportandy, as in a most arresting costume. Whatlooked like
he tried to makeclear to his interlocutor, he was a white lace poncho covered him from head to
a Negroby choice and by depth of involvement foot; beneath this he was wearing a very sub-
--by experience, in fact. But the question of dued but very ornately figured silk robe, which
choice in such a context can scarcely be coherent looked Chinese;and he worea red velvet toque,
for an African, and the experience referred to, a sign, someonetold me, that he was a Moham-
which produces a John Davis, remains a closed medan. The Youriba language, Lasebikan ex-
book for him. plained, had only becomean oral language in
What,at bottom, distinguished the Americans the middle of the last century, and this had
from the Negroes whosurrounded us, menfrom been done by missionaries. His face expressed
Nigeria, Senegal, Barbados, Martinique, was somesorrow at this point. But--and his face

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
54 James Baldwin
brightened again--he lived in the hope that one part of la ]orce vitale. Theartistic imageis not
day an excavation wouldbring to light a fine intendedto represent the thing itself, but, rather,
literature written by the Youribapeople. In the the reality of the force the thing contains. Thus,
meantime,with great good nature, he resigned the moonis fecundity, the elephant is force.
himself to sharing with us that literature which
already existed.
I doubt that I learned muchabout the tonal M trthough
c r~ of this madegreat sense to me,even
Senghor was speaking of, and out
structure of Youribapoetry, but I found myself of, a way of life which I could only very dimly
fascinated by the sensibility whichhad produced and perhaps somewhatwistfully imagine. It was
it. M. Lasebikan spoke first in Youriba and the zsthetic which attracted me, the idea that
then in English. It was perhaps because he so the workof art expresses, contains, and is itself
clearly loved his subiect that he not only suc- a part of that energy whichis life. Poemsand
ceededin conveyingthe poetry of this extremely stories, in the only situation I knewanything
strange language, he also conveyedsomethingof about, were never told, except, rarely, to child-
the style of life out of whichit came. Thepoems ren, and, at the risk of mayhem,in bars. They
quoted ranged from the devotional to one which were written to be read, alone, and by a handful
described the poundingof yams. Andone some- of people at that--there wasreally beginningto
howfelt the loneliness and the yearning of the be somethingsuspect in being read by more than
first and the peaceful, rhythmic domesticity of a handful. These creations no more insisted on
the second. Someof the poetry demandedthe the actual presence of other humanbeings than
use of a marvellously ornate drum, on which they demandedthe collaboration of a dancer and
were manylittle bells. It was not the drumit a drum. They could not be said to celebrate
once had been, he told us, but despite whatever the society any more than the homage which
mishaphad befallen it, I could have listened to Westernartists sometimesreceive can be said to
himplay it for the rest of the afternoon. have anything to do with society’s celebration
He was followed by Leopold Senghor. Senghor of a work of art. The only thing in Western
is a very dark and impressivefigure in a smooth, life which seemedeven faintly to approximate
bespectacled kind of way, and he is very highly Senghor’s intense sketch of the creative inter-
regarded as a poet. He was to speak on West dependence,the active, actual, joyful intercourse
Africanwriters andarti,s, ts. Hebeganby in,v, ok- obtaining amongAfrican artists and what only
ing what he called the spirit of Bandung. In a Westerner would call their public, was the
referring to Bandung,he was referring less, he atmosphere sometimes created among jazz
said, to the liberation of black people than he musicians and their fans during, say, a jam
was saluting the reality and the toughness of session. But the ghastly isolation of the jazz
their culture, which, despite the vicissitudes of musician,the neurotic intensity of his listeners,
their history, had refused to perish. Oneof the was proof enough that what Senghor meant
things, said Senghor--perhapsthe thing--which whenhe spoke of social art had no reality what-
distinguishes Africans from Europeans is the ever in Western life. He was speaking out of
comparative urgency of their ability to feel. his past, which had been lived where art was
"Sentir c’est apercevoir." The reasoning of the naturally and spontaneouslysocial. (Yet he was
African is not compartmentalised,and, to illus- not there. Here he was, in Paris, speaking the
trate this, Senghorused the image of the bIood adopted language in which he also wrote his
stream in which all things mingle and flow to poetry.)
and through the heart. He told us that the Just whatthe specific relation of an artist to
difference betweenthe function of the arts in his culture says aboutthat culture is a verypretty
Europe and their function in Africa lay in the question. The culture which had produced
fact that, in Africa, the function of the arzs is Senghor seemed, on the face of it, to have a
more present and pervasive, is infinitely less greater coherence as regarded assumptions,
special, "is done by all, for all." Thus, art for traditions, customs, and beliefs than did the
art’s sake is not a concept whichmakesany sense Western culture to which it stood in so prob-
in Africa. The division betweenart and life out lematical a relation. Andthis might very well
of which such a concept comes does not exist mean that the culture represented by Senghor
there. Art itself is taken to be perishable, to be was healthier than the culture represented by
madeagain each time it disappears, or is des- the hall in whichhe spoke. But the leap to this
troyed. Whatis clung to is the spirit which conclusion, than which nothing would have
makesart possible. Andthe African idea of this seemedeasier, wasfrustrated by the question of
spirit is very different from the Europeanidea. just what health was in relation to a culture.
Europeanart attempts to imitate nature. African Senghor’sculture, for example, did not seemto
art is concerned with reaching beyond and be- needthe lonely activity of the singular intelli-
neath nature, to contact, and itself becomea gence on whichthe cultural life--the morallife

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
 Princes and Powers 55
--of the West depends. Anda really cohesive have something to survey; but then seemedcon-
society, whichis one of the attrib,,utes, perhaps, founded, as indeed we all were, by the dimen-
of what is taken to be a "healthy culture, has, sions of the particular cultural surveyin progress.
~T erally, and I suspect necessarily, a much
wer level of tolerance for the maverick, the
It was necessary, for example, before one could
relate the culture of Haiti to that of Africa, to
dissenter, the manwhosteals the fire, than have know what the Haitian culture was. Within
societies in which, the common groun,dof belief Haiti there were a great manycultures. French-
having all but vanished, each manin awful and men, Negroes, and Indians had bequeathed it
brutal isolation is for himself, to flower or to quite dissimilar waysof life, CathoF=s,voodoo-
perish. Or, not impossibly, to makereal and ists, and animists cut across class mdcolour
fruitful again that vanished commonground, lines. "Alexis described as "pockets"of culture
which,as I take it, is nothing moreor less than those related and yet quite specific and dis-
the culture itself, endangered and rendered similar ways of life to be found within the
nearly inaccessible by the complexities it has borders of any country in the world, and wished
itself inevitablycreated. to knowby what alchemy these opposing ways
of life becamea national culture.
T onH Etwoevening debate rang perpetual changes
questions. These questions--each of
which splintered into a thousand more each S E N G H O R
tion,
remarked, apropos of this ques-
that one of the great difficulties posed
time it was asked--were, first: Whatis a cul- by it, particularly within the borders of Africa
ture? This is a difficult question underthe most herself, was the difficulty of establishing and
serene circumstances.In the context of the con- maintaining contact with the people if one’s
ference, it was a question whichwas helplessly language had been formed in Europe. And he
at the mercyof another one: Is it possible to went on, somewhatlater, to makethe point that
describe as a culture what maysimply be, after the heritage of the American Negro was an
all, a history of oppression?That is, is this his- African heritage. He used, as proof of this, a
tory and these present facts, which involve so poemof Richard Wright’s which was, he said,
manymillions of people, whoare divided from involved with African tensions and symbols,
each other by so manymiles of the globe, which even though Wright himself had not been aware
operates, and has operated, under such very dif- of this. He suggested that the study of African
ferent conditions, to such different effects, and sources might prove extremely illuminating for
which has produced so many different sub- AmericanNegroes. For, he suggested, in the
histories, problems,traditions, possibilities, aspi- samewaythat "whiteclassics" exist--classic here
rations, assumptions,languages,hybrids--is this taken to meanan enduring revelation and state-
history enoughto have madeof the earth’s black mentof a specific, peculiar, cultural sensibility--
populations anything that can legitimately be "black classics" mustalso exist. (This raised in
described as a culture? For what, beyond the mymi,n,d the question of whetheror not "white
fact that all black menat one time or another classics did exist, in distinction, that is, to
left Africa, or have remained there, do they merelyFrenchor English classics.) If Black Boy,
really have in common? said Senghor,were to be analysed, it wouldun-
Andyet, it becameclear, as the debate wore doubtedly reveal the African heritage to which
on, that there was something which all black it owedits existence; in the sameway, I sup-
men held in common, something which cut posed, that Dickens’ A Tale o/ Two Cities
across opposing points of view, and placed in would, upon analysis, reveal its debt to
the same context their widely dissimilar ex- /Eschylus.
perience. Whatthey held in commonwas their Yet, in so handsomelypresenting Wrightwith
precarious, their unutterably painful relation to his African heritage, Senghorrather seemedto
the white world. What they held in common be taking awayhis identity. Blacl( Boy is the
was the necessity to remakethe world in their study of the growingup of a Negroboy in the
ownimage, to imposethis image on the world, Deep South, and is one of the major American
and no longer be controlled by the vision of the autobiographies. I had never thought of it, as
world, and of themselves, held by other people. Senghorclearly did, as one of the major/1/rican
What, in sum, black men held in commonwas autobiographies--only one more document, in
their ache to comeinto the world as men. And fact, speakingof the African’s long persecution
this ache united people whomight otherwise and exile. Even granted that there was some-
have been divided as to what a manshould be. thing African in Black Boy, as there was un-
Yet, whether or not this could properly be doubtedly something African in all American
describedas a .c, ultural reality, remained another Negroes, the great question of what this was,
question. Haiti s JacquesAlexis madethe rather and how it had survived, remained wide open.
desperate observationthat a cultural survey must Moreover,Blacl( Boy had been written in the

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
56 James Baldwin
English language; its form, psychology, moral --not £or the first time--by long and prolonged
attitude, preoccupations, in short, its cultural applause.
validity, were all due to forces whichhad noth- "The situation, therefore, in the colonial
ing to do with Akica. Or was it simply that we countries, is tragic," Cesaire continued. "Wher-
had been rendered unable to recognise Africa in ever colonisationis a fact the indigenousculture
it? For it seemedthat, in Senghor’s vast re- begins to rot. And, amongthese ruins, some-
creation of the world,the foot-fall of the African thing begins to be born which is not a culture
wouldprove to have covered moreterritory than but a kind of sub-culture, a sub-culture whichis
the foot-fall of the Roman. condemned to exist on the margin allowed it by
European culture. This then becomes the
T HCesaire’s
URS~)AY’S great event was Aimd
speech in the afternoon, dealing
province of a fewmen,the ~lite, whofind them-
selves placed in the most artificial conditions,
with the relation betweencolonisafion and cul- deprived of any revivifying contact with the
ture. Cesaire is a ¢aramel-coloured man from masses of the people. Under such conditions,
Martinique, probably aroundforty, with a great this sub-culture has no chancewhateverof grow-
tendencyto roundnessand smoothness,physically ing into an active, living culture." Andwhat,
speaking, and with the rather vaguely benign he asked, before this situation, can be done?The
air of a school-teacher. All this changes the answer would not be simple. Cesaire spoke of
momenthe begins to speak. It becomesat once the energy already proven by black cultures in
apparent that his curious, slow-movingbland- the past, and, declining to believe that this
ness is related to the grace and patience of a energyno longer existed, declinedalso to believe
jungle cat and that the intelligence behind those that the total obliteration of the existing culture
spectacles is of a very penetrating and dema- was a condition for the renaissance of black
gogical order. people. "In the culture to be born there will no
Thecultural crisis through whichwe are pass- doubt be old and new elements. Howthese
ing today can be summedup thus, said Cesaire: elements will be mixed is not a question to
that culture whichis strongest fromthe material which any individual can respond. The response
and technological point of view threatens to must be given by the community. But we can
crush all weakercultures, particularly in a world say this: that the responsewill be given, and not
which, distance counting for nothing, the tech- verbally, but in tangible facts, and by action."
nologically weaker cultures have no means of This speech, which was very brilliantly de-
protecting themselves.All cultures have, further- livered (and which had the advantage, also, of
more, an economic, social, and political base, being very little concerned,at bottom,with cul-
and no culture can continueto live if its political ture), wrungfrom the audience which heard it
destiny is not,in its ownhands. "Anypolitical the most violent reaction of joy. Cesaire had
and social regime which destroys the self- spoken for those whocould not speak and those
determination of a people also destroys the whocould not speak thronged around the table
creative powerof thatpeople." Nowthe civilisa- to shake his hand, and kiss him. I myself felt
tions of Europe, said Cesaire, speaking very stirred in a very strange and disagreeable way.
clearly and intensely to a packed and attentive For Cesaire’s case against Europe, whichseemed
hall, evolved an economybased on capital and to me unanswerable, was also a very easy case
the capital was based on black labour; and thus, to make. The anatomisingof the great injustice
regardless of whatever argumentsEuropeansuse whichis the irreducible fact of colonialism was
to defendthemselves, and in spite of the absurd yet not enoughto give the victims of that in-
palliatives with whichthey have sometimestried justice a newsense of themselves. Onemaysay,
to soften the blow, the fact, of their domination, of course, that the very fact that Cesaire had
in order to accomplish and maintain this domi- spoken so thrillingly, and in one of the great
nation-in order, in fact, to make money--they institutions of Westernlearning, invested them
destroyed, with utter ruthlessness, everything with this newsense, but I do not think this is
that stood in their way: languages, customs, so. He had certainly played very skilfully on
tribes, lives; and not only put nothing in its their emotions and their hopes, but he had not
place, but erected, on the contrary, the most raised the central, tremendousquestion, which
tremendousbarriers betweenthemselves and the was, simply: Whathad this colonial experience
people they ruled. Europeans never had the made of them and what were they now to do
remotest intention of raising Africans to the with it? For they were all, now, whether they
Westernlevel: "The famousinferiority complex liked it or not, related to Europe,stained by the
one is pleased to observe as a characteristic of Europeanvisions and standards, and their rela-
the colonised is no accident but somethingvery tion to themselves, and to each other, and to
definitely des!,red and deliberately inculcatedby their past had changed. Their relation to their
the coloniser. He was interrupted at this point poets had also changed, as had the relation of

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
 Princes and Powers 57
their poets to them. Cesaire’s speechleft out of peans, due to the immensescaffolding with
accountone of the great effects of the colonial whichthey havecoveredit and the fact that this
experience: its creation, precisely, of menlike religion has no effect whateveron their conduct.
himself. There are, nevertheless, morethan twenty mil-
lion Christians in Africa, and Dr. James be-
R I DAY’Ssession began in a rather tense
F atmosphere and this tension continued
lieved-the future of their country was very
largely up to them. The task of makingChris-
throughout the day. Diopopenedthe session by tianity real in Africa was madethe morediffi-
pointing out that each speaker spoke only for cult in that they could expect no help Whatever
himself and could not be considered as speaking from Europe: "Christianity, as practised by
for the conference. I imagined that this had Europeansin Africa, is.. a cruel travesty." This
something to do with Cesaire’s speech of the bitter observation, whichwas uttered in sorrow,
day before and with someof its effects, among gained a great deal of force from the fact that
which, apparently, had been a rather sharp so genial a manhad felt compelledto makeit.
exchange between Cesaire and the American It made vivid, unanswerable, in a way which
delegation. rage could not have done, howlitde the West
This was the session during which it became has respected its ownideals in dealing with
apparent that there was a religious war going subject peoples and suggested that there was a
on at the conference, a war whichsuggested, in price we wouldpay for this.
miniature, someof the tensions dividing Africa. M. Wahal, from the Sudan, spoke in the
A Protestant minister from the Cameroons, afternoon on the r61e of the law in culture,
Pastor T. Ekollo, had beenforced by the hostility using, as an illustration, the r61e the law had
of the audience the day before to abandon a played in the history of the ^,AmericanNegro.
dissertation in defenceof Christianity in Africa. He spoke at length on the role of French law
He wasvisibly upset still. "Therewill be Chris- in Africa, pointing out that Frenchlaw is simply
tians in Africa, even whenthere is not a white not equipped to deal with the complexityof the
manthere," he said, with a tense defiance, and African situation. Andwhat is even worse, of
added, with an unconsciously despairing irony, course, is that it makesvirtually no attempt to
to which, however, no one reacted, "supposing do so. The result is that Frenchlaw, in Africa,
that to be possible." He had been asked howhe is simply a legal means of administering in-
could defend Christianity in viewof what Chris- justice. It is not a solution, either, to revert to
tians had done in his country. To which his African tribal custom, which is also helpless
answerwas that the doctrine of Christianity was before the complexities of present-day African
of more momentthan the crimes committed by life. Wahalspokewith a quiet matter-of-factness,
Christians. The audience was extremely cold which, lent great force to the ugyl story he was
and hostile, forcing him again, in effect, from telhng, and he concluded by saying that the
the floor. But I felt that this also had something question was ultimately a political one and that
to do with Pastor Ekollo’s rather petulant and there wasno hopeof solving it within the frame-
not notably Christian attitude towards them. workof the present colonial system.
Dr. MarcusJames, a priest of the Anglican
Church, from Jamaica, picked up where Ekollo
left off. Dr. James is a round, very pleasant- w~s followed by George Lamming.
looking man, with spectacles. He began with Lammingis tall, raw-boned, untidy, and
a quotation to the effect that, whenthe Chris- intense, and one of his real distinctions is his
tian arrived in Africa, he had the Bible and the refusal to be intimidated by the fact that he is
African had the land; but that, before long, the a genuine writer. He proposed to raise certain
African had the Bible and the Christian had the questionspertaining to the quality of life to be
land. Therewas a great deal of laughter at this, lived by black people in that hypothetical to-
in whichDr. Jamesjoined.Butthe postscript morrowwhenthey wouldno longer be ruled by
to be addedtoday, he said, is that the African whites. "The profession of letters is an untidy
not only has the Bible but has found in it a one," he began, looking as though he had
potential weaponfor the recovery o~ his land. dressed to prove it. He directed his speech to
The Christians in the hall, whoseemedto be in Aim~Cesaire and Jacques Alexis in particular,
the minority, applaudedand stampedtheir feet and quoted Djuna Barnes: "Too great a sense
at this, but manyothers nowrose and left. Dr. of identity makes a man feel he can do no
James did not seemto be distressed and went on wrong. Andtoo little does the same." He sug-
to discuss the relationship betweenChristianity gested that it was important to bear in mind
and democracy. In Africa, he said, there was that the word Negro meant black--and meant
none whatever.Africans do not, in fact, believe nothing more than that; and commentedon the
that Christianity is any longer real for Euro- great variety of heritages, experiences,and points

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
58 James Baldwin
of view which the conference had brought to- ~E evening session began with a film,
gether under the heading of this single noun. T which I missed, and was followed by a
He wished to suggest that the nature of power speech from Cheik Anta Diop, which--in
was unrelated to pigmentation, that bad faith sum--claimed the ancient Egyptian empire as
was a phenomenonwhich was independent of part of the Negropast. He quite refused to re-
race. He found--from the point of view of an mainwithin the twenty-minutelimit and, while
untidy manof letters--something crippling in his claims of the deliberate dishonesty of all
the obsession from which Negroes suffered as Egyptian scholars may be quite well founded
regards the existence and the attitudes of the for all I know,I cannot say that he convinced
Other--this Other being everyone whow~s not me. Hewas, however,a great success in the hall,
Negro. That black people £aced great problems secondonly to AiredCesaire.
was surely not to be denied and yet the greatest He was followed by Richard Wright. Wright
problem facing us was what we, Negroes, would had been acting as liaison man between the
do amongourselves "whenthere was no longer Americandelegation and the Africans and this
any colonial horse to ride." He pointed out that ’had placed him in rather a difficult position,
this was the horse on which a great many since both factions tended to claim him as their
Negroes, whowere in what he called "the skin spokesman.It had not, of course, occurred to
trade," hoped to ride to power, power which the Americansthat he could be anything less,
would be in no way distinguishable from the whereasthe Africans automatically claimed him
power they sought to overthrow. because of his great prestige as a novelist and
Lamming was insisting on the reverence which his reputation for calling a spadea spade--par-
is due to the private life. I respected him very ticularly if the spade werewhite. Theconscious-
much,not only because he raised this question, ness of his peculiar, and certainly rather gruelling
but because he knew what he was doing. He position weighedon him, I think, rather heavily.
was concerned with the immensity and the He began by confessing that the paper he had
variety of the experience called Negro; he was written, while on his farm in Normandy,im-
concernedthat one should recognise this variety pressed himas being, after the events of the last
as wealth. He cited the case of AmosTutuola’s few days, inadequate. Someof the things he had
Palm Wine Drinkard, which he described as a observedduring the course of the conferencehad
fantasy, madeup of legends, anecdotes, episodes, raised questions in him which his paper could
the product,in tact, of an oral story-telling tradi- not have foreseen. He had not, however, re-
tion which disappeared from Western life written his paper, but would read it now,
generations ago. Yet, "Tutuola really does speak exactly as it had beenwritten, interrupting him-
English. It is not his second language." The self wheneverwhat he had written and what he
English did not find the book strange. On the had since been made to feel seemed to be at
contrary, they were astonished by howtruthfully variance. He was exposing, in short, his con-
it seemed to speak to them of their ownex- science to the conference and asking help of
perience. It seemed to me that Lammingwas themin his confusion.
suggesting to the conferencea subtle and diffi- Therewas, first of all, he said, a painful con-
cult idea, the idea that part of the great wealth tradiction in being at once a Westerner and a
of the Negro experience lay precisely in its black man. "I see both worlds from another,
double-edgedness. He was suggesting that all and third, point of view." This fact had nothing
Negroeswere held in a state of supremetension to do with his .will, his desire, or his choice. It
betweenthe difficult, dangerousrelationship in was simply that he had been born in the West
which they stood to the white world and the and the West had formed him. As a black
relationship, not a whitless painful or dangerous, Westerner, it was difficult to knowwhat one’s
in which they stood to each other. He was attitude should be towards three realities which
suggestingthat in the acceptanceof this duality were inextricably woventogether in the Western
lay their strength. fabric. Thesewere religion, tradition, and im-
Lamming was interrupted at about this point, perialism, and in none of these realities had the
however,for it had lately been decided, in view lives of black menbeen taken into account.
of the great numberof reports, still to be read, Wright then went on to speak of the effects
to limit everyoneto twenty minutes. This quite of Europeancolonialism in the African colonies.
unrealistic rule was not to be observed very He confessed--bearing in mind always the great
closely, espe:ially as regarded the French- ga~ between human intentions and human
speaking delegates. But Lammingput his notes eaects--that he thought of it as having been, in
in his pocket and ended by saying that, if as manyways, liberating, since it smashed old
someone had remarked, silence was the only traditions and destroyed old gods. One of the
~ommon language, politics, for Negroes, was things that had surprised him in the last few
the only commonground. days had been the realisation that most of the

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
 Princes and Powers 59
delegates to the conference did not feel as he wouldhave caused the conference to lose itself
did. He felt, nevertheless, that, though Euro- in a war of politica.l ideologies. Moreover,the
peans had not realised what they were doing in conference was being held in Paris, manyof the
freeing Africans from the "rot" of their past, delegates represented areas which belonged to
they had been. accomplishing a good. In sum, France, most of them represented areas which
Wright said, he felt that Europe had brought were not free. There was also to be considered
the Enlightenmentto Africa and that what wa.s the delicate position of the Americandelegation,
good for Europe was good for all mankind. I which had sat throughout the conference un-
felt that this was, perhaps, a tactless way of comfortably aware that they might at any
phrasing a debatable idea, but Wright went on moment be forced to rise and leave the hall.
to express a notion whichI found evenstranger. The declaration of political points of view
Andthis was that the West, having created an being thus prohibited, the "cultural" debate
African and Asian 61ite, should now"give them which raged in the hall that morning was in
their heads" and "refuse to be shocked"at the perpetual danger of drowningin the sea of the
"methods they will feel compelled to use" in unstated. For, accordingto his political position,
unifyingtheir countries. Presumably,this left us each delegate had a different interpretation of
in no position to throwstones at Nehru,Nasser, his culture, and a different idea of its future, as
Sukarno, etc. should they decide to use dic- well as the meansto be used to makethat future
tatorial methodsin order to hasten the "social a reality. A solution of a kind was offered by
evolution." In any case, Wrightsaid, these men, Senghor’s suggestion that two committees be
the leaders of their countries, oncethe newsocial formed, one to take an inventory of the past,
order was established, wouldvoluntarily sur- and one to deal with present prospects. There
render the "personal power." He did not say was some feeling that two committees were
what would happen then, but I supposed it scarcely necessary. Diopsuggested that one com-
would be the Second Coming. mittee be formed, which, if necessary, could
divide itself into two. Then the question arose
as to just how the committee should be
S ATURDAY was the last day of the con-
ference, which was scheduled to end with
appointed, whether by countries, or by cultural
areas. It was decided, at length, that the com-
the invitation to the audience to engage with mittee should be set up on the latter basis, and
the delegates in the Euro-Africandialogue. It should have resolutions drafted by noon. "It is
was a day markedby muchconfusion and excite- by these resolutions," protested MercerCook,
ment and discontent--this last on the part of "that we shall makeouiselves known.It cannot
people whofelt that the conference had been be done in an hour."
badly run, or whohad not been allowed to read He was entirely right. At ~I.2O a committee
their reports. (Theywere often the samepeople.) of eighteen membershad been formed. At 4.00
It was marked, too, by rather agreat deal of in the afternoonthey werestill invisible. Bythis
plain speaking, both on and off, but mostlyoff, time, too, the most tremendous impatience
the record. The hall was even more hot and reigned in the crowdedhall. At 4.25 the im-
crowdedthan it had been the first day and the patience of the audienceeruptedin whistles, cat-
photographers were back. calls, and stampingof feet. At 4.3o AliouneDiop
The entire morning was taken up in an arrived and officially openedthe meeting. He
attempt to agree on a "cultural inventory." This tried to explain someof the difficulties such a
had to be done before the conferencecould draft conference inevitably encountered and assured
those resolutions which they were, today, to the audience that the committeeon resolutions
present to the world. This task wouldhave been wouldnot be absent muchlonger. In the mean-
extremely difficult even had there obtained in time, in their absence,and in the absenceof Dr.
the black world a greater unity--geographical, Price-Mars, he proposed to read a few messages
spiritual, and historical--than is actually the from well-wishers. But the audience was not
case. Under the circumstances, it was an en- really interested in these messagesand was mani-
deavour complicated by the nearly indefinable festing a very definite tendency to get out of
complexities of the word"culture," by the fact hand again when, at 4.55, Dr. Price-Mars
that no coherent statement had yet been made entered. His arrival had the effect of calming
concerningthe relationship of black cultures to the audience somewhatand, luckil]z, the com-
each other, and, finally, by the necessity, which mittee on resolutions camein very shortly after-
had obtained throughout the conference, of wards. At 5.7 Diop rose to read the document
avoidingthe political issues. which had comeone vote short of being unani-
Theinability to discuss politics had certainly mously approved.
handicappedthe conference, but it could scarcely As is th~ waywith documentsof this kind, it
have been run otherwise. The political question was carefully wordedand slightly repetitious.

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
60 James Baldwin
This did not makeits meaningless clear, nor from the instruction and education which could
diminish its importance. It spoke first of the be afforded them within this framework. It
great importanceof the cultural inventory here spoke of the progress which had taken place in
begunin relation to the various black cultures the world in the last few years and stated that
which h d been systematically misunderstood, this progress permitted one to hope for the
underestimated, sometimesdestroyed." This in- general abolition of the colonial systemand the
ventory had confirmed the pressing need for a total and universal end of racial discrimination.
re-examination of the history of these cultures Andended: "Our conference, which respects the
("la v~rit3 historique") with a viewto their re- cultures of all countries and appreciates their
evaluation. The ignorance concerning them, the contributionsto the progressof civilisation, en-
errors, and the wilful distortions, were among gagesall black menin the defence, the illustra-
the great contributing factors to the crisis tion, and the dissemination throughout the
through which they nowwere passing, in rela- worldof the national values of their people. We,
tion to themselves and to humanculture in black writers and artists, proclaim our brother-
general. The active aid of writers, artists, hood toward all menand expect of them (’nous
theologians, thinkers, scientists, and technicians attentions d’eux’) the manifestation of this same
wasn.ecessaryfor the revival, the rehabilitation, brotherhood toward our people."
and the development of these cultures as the first Whenthe applause in which the last words of
step towardtheir integration in the active cul- this document were very nearly drowned had
tural life of the world. Black men, whatever ended, Diop pointed out that this was not a
their political and religious beliefs, wereunited declaration of war; it was, rather, he said, a
in believing that the health and growthof these declaration of love--for the culture, European,
cultures could not possibly come about until which had been of such importance in the his-
colonialism, the exploitation of undeveloped tory of mankind. But it had been very keenly
peoples, and racial discrimination had cometo felt that it was nownecessary for black mento
an end. (At this point the conference expressed makethe effort to define themselves "au lieu
its regret at the involuntaryabsenceof the South d’dtre toujours ddfini par les autres.’" Blackmen
African delegation and the reading was inter- had resolved "to take their destinies into their
rupted by prolonged and violent applause.) All ownhands." He spoke of plans for the setting
people, the documentcontinued, had the right up of an international association for the dis-
to be able to place themselvesin fruitful contact semination of black culture and, at 5.22, Dr.
with their national cultural values and to benefit Price-Marsofficially closed the conference.
James Baldwin

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
 NO TES FR OM DI IR Y
"Does our feeling about Hungaryremind you myself with one part of me despairing for my
of what your generation felt in the a93o’s?" an country as well as the other militant for Hun-
Oxfordundergraduate asked meat a meeting in gary free from Russia: and until the conflict
the Union held on behalf of the Hungarian resolves itself, I find myself impotent to do
refugees. Until now, he told me, undergradu- either."
ates had felt leaderless and without a cause to This demonstratesthat thoughthe feelings are
care about. I felt faiJatly surprised that they muchthe same, the situation is in manyways
should want to care about causes, remembering different. Twentyyears ago, the cause of the
the disadvantagesof doing so. Spanish Republic seemed as good as a public
"Does our kind of reaction to things seem cause could possibly be. Moreover,it offered a
naive and clumsy?.... Nothing, of course, could scene of action, and prescribed the nature of the
have been less sophisticated than undergraduate action required: to go to Spain. There was the
anti-Fascism," I replied. moredubiousbenefit of a politics from outside,
Yes. The Oxford Union meeting showed that intervening in Spain, concerning which we had
the response of Oxford youth to Hungaryhas illusions. Thosewhotoday are the self-branded
been very like that of an earlier generation to destroyers of Hungarianliberty were then the
Spain. The sameyoung, rather bored with them- leaders of the PopularFront.
selves and very bored with everything else, Todaya meetingis held to discuss--Whatcan
suddenly awakenedby a demandon their sym- be done ? Apart from Mr. Philip Toynbee’splan
pathies by other humanbeings in a country all for a Youth Crusade to Hungarywhich has the
one prison. Once again inhumanity--the op- double purpose of reproaching the Russians and
pression of a people whoseresistance and out- confessing our ownguilt about Suez, the most
cries have been heard--has made politics positive proposals of the meeting were those
human again. As Peter Wiles said at this madeby Mr. Peter Wiles, and these were con-
meeting: "The twelve extremely disorderly and cerned with the material needs of Hungarians.
unshaven young men from Oxford and Cam- Theyneed plate glass for brokenwindows,more
bridge who took medical supplies to Hungary than they need clothes, he said. George Mikes
received a tremendous emotional welcome suggested that there should be no morecultural
everywhere they went. In fact, it is not too relations with Russia--the kin.1 of suggestion
muchto say that they will be rememberedin whichstirs in the English eventoday a lingering
Hungaryas Byron was rememberedin Greece." uneasy memoryof the First ~rorld War, when
orchestras were not allowed to play Beethoven.
However, when the young envy an older
The Politics of the Unpolitical generation I suspect that they often envy them
Weseem to be back at the politics of the for their illusions. Wewere crammedwith
unpolitical, whenthose, especially the young, illusions--about Stalinist Russia, about Collec-
whodo not think of politics in terms of parties, tive Security, about the League of Nations.
intrigues, and structures, are infusing passion Today, Sir AnthonyEden, Marshal Bulganin,
into what they would like to think a simple and President Eisenhowerhave left us with no
moral situation. As usual, they are being badly excusefor havingillusions aboutanythingat all.
let downby the political leaders, whopresent It is true that Mr. Gaitskell also is a kind of
them with a distorted scene instead of the illusionist, when(ff he is correctly reported)
straightforward one in whichthey fed they could says---for examp!e--"Thefirst essential thing
act without compromise. Another undergradu- we must do as a nation is to say to the Llnited
ate writes: "The issue was quite clear to me Nations: ’We obey you. Weaccept Whatever
until Suez. Since then I’ve been unable tojbd you say’ ; and set an exampleby reacting to the
about the Hungarians. I wouldwillingly go and collective decisions of the klnited Nations."
fight for them, howeverhopeless, ifI didn’t find (The Observer, November 2gth, ~996’.)
6I

PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG

ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED