Will - Naipaul - 1/31/11 12

Will Simescu - Naipaul - 1/29/11 12Religious belief is a powerful, yet inconsistent, force in the novel. Often in the story it takes hold of people in times of uncertainty and violence. The old Asian couple Salim dines with once a week lost their business and their family during the uprising, yet they console themselves with religion and tradition: “They had done all that their religion and family customs had required them to do; and they felt . . . that they had lived good and complete lives” (p. 70). The night Metty tells Ferdinand about the violence in his coastal town, he describes the leader of the rebels who tore the town apart. When asked by Ferdinand why the man lead the rebels to kill the Arabs in the town, Metty replies: “He said he was obeying the god of Africans” (p.79). Religion is used to give meaning to bewildering violence. The most devout follower of any faith in the story, Father Huismans, also meets the most horrific end. A white European, he has an interest in African religious beliefs and constructs a museum out of tribal masks collected on his numerous trips outside the town. Though apparently fond of Africa, his museum reflects the hegemonic Western view of Africa: a dark continent whose history will be subsumed within the larger narrative of stabilizing European progress. Within this worldview, it is not contradictory or idolatrous for a white Christian priest to take an interest in African religious masks. The masks are stripped of their context and rendered as bits of local color, remnants of an almost extinct indigenous African culture. The narrator writes: "While he lived, Father Huismans, collecting the things of Africa, had been thought a friend of Africa." (p. 84) But Father Huismans’ efforts to “preserve” these objects fall into the “strategy of containment” discussed in “Intro to the Indo-European Novel.” His objectification of African belief contributed to the continued oppression of the African people. When he ends up with his head on a pike, he himself is objectified as a symbol of the white European oppressor.