For my paper, I would be interested in exploring the Latin phrase on page 62. "Miscerique probat populos et foedera jungi" - "He approves of the mingling of the peoples and their bonds of union". On page 63, Naipaul writes that "... the great Roman god approves of the mingling of peoples and the making of treaties in Africa". I would like to compare Salim's life to Virgil's Aeneid, focusing on the Roman hero's accidental landing in Africa instead of Italy, where he was to find the Roman Empire.
Aeneas and his crew, after being caught up in Charybdis' whirlpool, end up on the shores of Africa and through divine intervention by Venus, Aeneas' mother, he meets Dido, the queen of Africa. They fall in love and Aeneas intends to stay with Dido, but Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his true fate, which is to fight a war in Italy and claim it as his own. As Aeneas leaves, Dido kills herself with his sword and with her dying breath, condemns Aeneas' future people and predicts a continually raging war between the Africans and future Romans (Page 62 - "... the great Roman god might not approve if a settlement in Africa, of a mingling of peoples there, of treaties of union between Africans and Romans").
Like Aeneas, Salim is a wanderer and is constantly lost. The Latin phrase applies to his life because he is of South Asian descent and is a "mingling" person and cannot come to make "treaties" with Africa. He is constantly torn between what he wants and what is expected of him, such as moving away to the "true Africa" (10) or marrying Nazruddin's daughter and settling down. The distinctions of Europe and Africa are clear in both men, each having to choose one or the other. But for Salim, it's more of having a European mindset and choosing whether to live like an African (what he thought it was to be an African). Salim doesn't have a grasp on his own identity, having to do with his relationships and being a foreigner in a country he lived all his life.
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