way for independence, was not a nationalist struggle. Quite simply, peasants sought to reclaim the arable land monopolized by white farmers. But rumors of blacks banding together and taking traditional oaths in the forest, along with sporadic attacks on the estates, were sufficient to allow whatever racial hysteria the settlers had held down to burst to the The current interest in a redecorated imperial pastfits snugly with a time when America (selectively defined) feels good about itself andflaunts its right to step abroadfrom a position of unaccommodating strength. surface. Rumors about the most barbarous voodoo rites sent shudders all the way to London, where the Colonial Secretary, in the safety of his office, wrote: “ I would suddenly see a shadow fall across the page—the horned shadow of the Devil.” The settlers intuited that paradise was closing down. And their rage was unbridled. Huxley, Robert Ruark, C.T. Stoneham, C. Wilson, C. Lander, Stuart Cloete, M.M. Kaye, Neil Sheraton. . .a throng of settler writers and settler sympathizers poured out a mixed brew of fiction, “ history,” “ anthropology,” and “ ethnopsychology,” that for its venom is almost without equal in the annals of twentieth-century colonialism. In the African make-up there is really no such thing as love, kindness, or gratitude, as we know them, because they have lived all their lives, and their ancestors’ lives, in an atmosphere of terror and violence. There is no proper “ love” between man and woman, because the woman is bought for goats and is used as a beast of burden. There is no gratitude, because it would never occur to them to give anything to anybody else, and so they have no way of appreciating kindness or gifts from others. They lie habitually, because to lie is the correct procedure, or else some enemy might find a way to do them damage if they tell the truth. They have no sensitivity about inflicting pain, or receiving pain, because their whole religion is based on blood and torture of animals and each other. These insights from Peter McKenzie, the hero of Ruark’s Something of Value, are a far from eccentric expression of white No matter how much Reagan may enjoy bandying phrases like “overt covert aid, ” the day is past when an empire can brazenly announce itself as such. The closest it can come is to don the clothes of a bygone power. When the dust had settled on the six- year revolt, one million peasants had been confined to “ fortified villages,” 90,000 sent to detention camps, and there were somewhere over 13,000 dead. Of those killed, 11,500 were alleged Mau Mau members, along with 1,800 Africans accused by Mau Maus of collaborating with the settlers. Yet only sixty-three white soldiers and thirty-two white civilians died. JL he outcry in the Kenyan press at Pollack’s glossy revival of the proprietary-settler look was partly touched off by the memory of those Mau Mau battles to reclaim the land. But to some Western intellectuals such protests smack, in Conor Cruise O’Brien’s phrase, of “ historical infantilism.” In an Observer column entitled “Why the Wailing Ought to Stop,” O’Brien vilified those he considers belatedly afflicted by the “ the collective self-pity of former subject peoples.” This reprimand was occasioned by the Anglo-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie’s masterly dismembering of the whole phenomenon of Raj nosta lgia. But O’Brien’s point was a more general one. Third Worlders should recognize that colonialism was back then, a different generation’s affair. Finally, let bygones by bygones. To subscribe to O’ Brien’s quietism would be to shrug off colonial nostalgia tion of things past. But paradoxically, the real focus of nostalgia is never so much then as it is now. The current interest in a redecorated imperial past fits snugly with a time when America (selectively defined) feels good about itself and flaunts its right to step abroad from a position of unaccommodating strength. And, on the opposite shore, it befits the era of a Prime Minister Thatcher bent on browbeating her country into believing that the “ sturdier” values of Victorian (and high imperial) times can lead Britain back to greatness. Yet there is a difference between the two. The British empire is in a state of rigor mortis, with the “ Falklands spirit” the last twitchings of the corpse. America, on the other hand, after a post-Viet- nam lull, has a revived faith in its military might and in its prerogative to intervene around the globe—in Grenada, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Angola, Lebanon. But this “ imperialism without colonies,” to borrow Harry Magdoff’s phrase, is also an imperialism without a style of its own. No matter how much Reagan may enjoy bandying about phrases like “ overt covert aid," the day is past when an empire can brazenly announce itself as such. The closest it can come is to don the clothes of a bygone power. The popularity of an antique British look to match a new American mood is nowhere more flagrant than in the Banana Republic stores. There is in all this an elegant variant of the new Cold War jingoism, of Rambo, the blue collar hero for whom patriotism means acting before you can doubt. The refined adventurism of Out of Africa and the Banana Republic offers an image that is more delicately imperial. In a rhapsodic review of the film for Time commending Pollack for “the unspeakably gallant act” of matching Blixen’s romantic idealism with a romantic idealism of his own, Richard Schickel unwittingly says it all: Out of Africa is, at last, the free-spirited, fullhearted gesture that everyone has been waiting for the movies to make all decade long. It reclaims the emotional territory that is rightfully theirs. Writer Rob Nixon lives in New York City. This article is reprinted, with permission, from Grand Street, 50 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10024. Artist Jana Rekosh lives in Seattle. BRE ITEN BU SH ^ iK )^ COMMUNITY > HEALING RETREAT / CONFERENCE CENTER AD INDEX PERSONAL RETREATS: $25-30 / person I day includes cabin accommodations, 3 vegetarian meals, 24-hour use of hot springs. WORKSHOPS: Write to us for complete schedule. OLD GROWTH FOREST: We’ve built 2 new trails through old- growth forest—One through a spotted owl habitat area. We’re working with ONRC & our local Ranger District to build new trail & preserve the remaining old-growth forest. INFORMATION: Please contact us about workshops, visits, & Joining us for work exchange or residency. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED. BREITENBUSH COMMUNITY P.O. BOX 578 • Detroit, OR 97342 (503) 854-3501 Breitenbush is 60 miles east of Salem off Hiway 22. APPAREL Alan Costley 23 Attitudz 21 36 Avalon 37 Clothes Encounter 16 El Mundo 10 Fashion Ministry 42 Gazelle 37 Grin & Wear It 10 Keep Em Flying 37 La Paloma 28 Second Generation 12 ART Abante Gallery 28 Artistic Airbrush 20 Desantis Design 37 M.A.D. Photography 36 O'Connell Gallery 23 Pacific NW Art Expo 43 ARTS & CRAFTS/ OFFICE SUPPLIES Artists Colony 12 City Liquidators 23 Frameworks 12 Marvella's Frames, Gallery 18 Paper Tree 20 BOOKS Ash Creek Press 36 Beaverton Book Co. 28 City Miner Books 42 Great NW Bookstore 36 Hawthorne Blvd. Books 12 Holland's Books 37 Paper Moon 7 Heal Comet Press 31 . Women's Place Books 20 CAR & BICYCLE CARE City Bikes 12 Coventry Cycle 11 Hawthorne Auto Clinic 13 NW Bicycles 31 FILM/VIDEO/THEATER Clinton St. Theatre 41 L'Auberge 29 NW Film Study Center 2 PSU Film 43 FOOD/RESTAURANTS Albert's Champagne Bistro 23 Bread & Ink Cafe 13 Cafe de la Mer (OB) 43 Cassidy's 30 Dugan’s 20 East Ave. Tavern 16 Escape From NY Pizza 42 Foothill Broiler 26 Golden Loaf Bakery 40 The Good Earth 28 Hamburger Patti's 22 Harriet's Cafe 42 Hawthorne St. Cafe 13 Hot Lips Pizza 2 Hunan 42 Indigine 12 Key Largo 10 L'Auberge 22 Martinotti's 23 Maya's Tacqueria 30 Old Wives' Tales 2 Paisano's 20 Paisley's 27 Papa Hadyn 26 Paul Bergen 26 Pharmacy Fountain 26 Pizza the Pie 37 Porretta Pizza 12 Portland Bagel Bakery 36 Himsky Korsakoffe 6 Riverway Inn 41 Sweet Basil 7 The Zoo (E) 42 FOOD/TAKE-OUT Arbor Wine 23 Bridgeport Brewery 27 Broadway Coffee Merchant 20 Coffee Merchant 20 Food Front 31 Genesis Juices (E) 19 Golden Loaf Bakery 12 Jonicole Vineyards 26 Martinotti's 23 Murphy’s Seafood 27 Nature's 28 Pastaworks 11 Paul Bergen 26 People's 13 Popper's Supply 16 Porretta's Pizza 12 Portland Bagel Bakery 36 Ross Island Grocery 28 Starflower 43 GETAWAYS The Boarding House (OB) 43 Breitenbush (OC) 47 Gilbert House (OB) 43 Obrero Hotel (SF) 42 The Sternwheeler 26 The Waves (OB) 43 GIFTS/FLOWERS Ellen's Flower Cart 22 Escential Oils 26 La Paloma 28 Lazar's Bazar 13 Northwest Futon 33 Old Homestead 13 Rainy Day Flowers 36 Real Mother Goose 18 Regina 's Old Fashion Jewelry 28 HEALTH Tori Hudson, Naturopath 22 Clarice Johnson, DMD 19 Portland Naturopathic Clinic 13 Michael Sears Chiropractor 26 Dr. Daniel Sisco N.D. 22 Diane Wilson Yoga 27 SPECIAL PROJECTS Ron Cease 22 Metro Crisis 14 Oregon Marijuana Initiative 42 Ron Wyden 37 HOUSE/GARDEN Bridgetown Realty 20 Bruner Mechanical 31 Chrystals Deja Vu 16 City Liquidators 23 Fiestaware 28 Haggle Shop 13 NW Futon 36 Osborn Artists Co-Op 36 Real Mother Goose 27 Rejuvenation House Parts 6 FINANCIAL & LEGAL ASSISTANCE Consumer Sounding Board 43 Sanders, Dixon 31 PERSONAL TREATS Dermigraphics 19 Escential Oils & Lotions 26 Family Hot Tub 11 Gary Luckey Hair Design 20 Hair Zoo 36 Inner City Hot Springs 6 RECORDS/MUSIC Artichoke Music 11 Bass Basses 41 Budget Tapes & Records 31 Music Millenium 41 Park Ave Records 28 The Ooze 27 SCHOOLS/ CONFERENCES Echo Theatre 12 Human Relations Institute 22 Women with a Heart 13 Red Rose School 2 SPIRITS & ENTERTAINMENTS Bridgeport Brewery 27 Cassidy's 30 East Ave. Tavern 16 Key Largo 10 Monqui 23 Musical 22 Riverway Inn 18 Satyricon 30 Oregon Beach (OB) Eugene (E) Oregon Cascades (OC) San Francisco (SF) Clinton St. Quarterly 47
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz