Indar, during his long speech in chapter 9, describes the Domain as a "construct," but adds "all men live in constructs." Discuss the significance of the Domain as a comment on development in postcolonial Africa.
Salim is attracted to Indar because of his style. To Salim there is a gloss or patina to him that is unidentifiable to him but this particular speech (150) suggests that Indar's world view adopts life as a game to either be won or lost. The keynote of his story happens after this when he realizes London was built by men. Upon this realization he goes into a tirade on manhood (152). The nexus becomes that the men who built these things, things that he once saw as larger then life, are also the men who stole his manhood.
Even though, I find this kind of machismo troubling the perceived symbols of castration and emasculation seem to be thematic to this self awareness. An obsession with dominance in Indar's case manifests as the belief that everything is a "construct" ie mailable and easy to manipulate once one figures out how that construct operates. Sequentially, his next step is join a bohemian acting troupe where he learns how to be things that he doesn't want to be.
The gloss that Salim feels around Indar is absurdly more of a cheap flashiness then a high end gloss. The "construct" of the Domain, to him, acts a mere court to glamor. Even more so because of the weak leadership of the president whose construct it is. According to him leadership, notwithstanding slaves, is that at its best it can evoke or reclaim manhood.
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