Adam Marr “The Invisible Bridge Between Cultures”
¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Dear Reader,
¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 To this purpose I feel I could best surmise this with my exploration of the Islamic faith of the Sudanese and the Europeans worship of Capitalism. While at first glance they appear so vastly different that there is nothing similar at all, if one is prepared to examine what both ideologies mean to the people that practice them, the conclusion is that they are one and the same, albeit with different key players and idols.
¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Looking forward I feel as though I may need to sharpen my examination of Islam in Season of Migration to the North, as I am not convinced that it is as strong as the parts on Capitalism in Heart of Darkness. I also feel I could devote a bit more time to Mustafa Sa’eed as he is such a central character and I may have skirted around him a bit too much.
¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Adam Marr
¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 Professor Peer
¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 ENG 2850
¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 November 14, 2016
¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 The Invisible Bridge Between Cultures
¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 1 Due to the wide spread availability of resource tools such as the internet and the ever-increasing movement of people across borders, the modern world of today feels minuscule when compared to ages past. While as little as 100 years ago it would have been quite rare for an average person to encounter someone from a culture different to their own, this is an everyday occurrence for most people in the developed world. Joseph Conrad’s 1899 book, Heart of Darkness, and Tayeb Salih’s 1966 novel, Season of Migration to the North, both present fine examinations of what can, and what did, happen when European and African cultures met around the turn of the 20th century. Given that there is much ignorance and mistrust between differing cultures in the present times, it is of little surprise that the two books highlight even greater differences in the not so distant past. These cultural differences are sometimes stark and clear, other times muddy and murky, some of those exposed to another culture prove capable of adapting to their new surroundings, other times the exposure only causes further misunderstanding. At first glance it would appear that most cultural barriers are so vast that they can never be bridged, upon closer inspection there is not that much difference after all.
¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 2 Mustafa Sa’eed’s experiences in England highlight some cultural misunderstandings by Europeans. Given that Mustafa is in England between the world wars, it is easy to understand that a lack of information about other cultures would be the cause of this. Yet Mustafa himself, happy to tell stories of “desserts of golden sands and jungles where nonexistent animals called out to one another” (Salih 32-3), does little to enlighten their points of view. The narrator’s conversation with an Englishman in Sudan many years after Mustafa has left England revels more of English misunderstandings than Mustafa does. Whether the Englishman is talking out of jealousy or is telling the truth when he claims that Mustafa was a “show-piece exhibited by members of the aristocracy” (Salih 48) and that he only obtained his academic post to prove how “liberal and tolerant” (Salih 49) the English are, is not revealed. Despite the unclear motives of the man, the conversation portrays his mistrust of someone from a different culture. These xenophobic actions are certainly not unique to post world war one Europe as we see the same kind of behavior played out time and time again throughout history when different cultures meet.
¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 3 While Mustafa travelled from Africa to experience European culture in England, Marlow travels from Europe to experience African culture in the Belgian Congo. The difference in their travels can also be seen in another light, that of the Marlow’s conquering culture visiting the newly conquered lands, while Mustafa is the dominated supplicant guest in the father land. Marlow’s views on the colonization of Africa as being pure business rather than the lie of “weaning the ignorant millions from their horrid ways” (Conrad 27) that most Europeans believed at the time present him as a more enlightened individual than most of his contemporaries. Despite this worldly view presented, Marlow’s descriptions of the locals he comes across, “she was savage and superb” (Conrad 77), “they had faces like grotesque masks” (Conrad 28), for example, display that even he was far from immune to acting in a superior manner. This is further demonstrated by Marlow’s feelings towards Kurtz. While travelling up the river Marlow is obsessed with the “universal genius” (Conrad 89) that is Kurtz, yet after meeting him and discovering that he had gone ‘native’, Marlow’s opinion of the man is so reduced that he claims that “he has kicked himself loose of the earth” (Conrad 83). Given how highly Marlow regarded Kurtz before he met him it is understandable that upon meeting him on his deathbed he would be disappointed, yet statements such as this present Marlow’s view that Kurtz was only diminished due to falling from European customs and becoming as the “savages” he described.
¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 1 One of the key cultural identities portrayed in Season of Migration to the North is that of the Sudanese devotion to the Islamic religion. While devotion to religion is not confined to African cultures the characters in the narrator’s home village see any society that is not Islamic as being foreign and inferior to their own. Statements such as “We were afraid you’d bring back an uncircumcised infidel for a wife” (Salih 5) by Bint Majzoub and “We here lop it off and leave it like a piece of land that is stripped bare” (Salih 68) by Wad Rayyes demonstrate that the barbaric and crude practice of circumcising women due to it being “one of the conditions of Islam” (68), is still carried out. Given the disgust and contempt that Western societies display towards forced circumcision it is clearly one of the greatest divides between the two cultures. The fact that the practice is only carried out by certain Islamic cultures gives further credence to the argument that some cultural barriers can never be crossed.
¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 While the Sudanese villagers have Islam for their religion, the Europeans of Heart of Darkness have an entirely different religion: Capitalism. Even though a lot of the characters are sold on the lie that European colonization was primarily about “weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways” (Conrad 27) or “bear(ing) the spark from the sacred fire” (Conrad 19), Marlow sums it up best when he “ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit” (Conrad 27). The ‘Company’ can be viewed as a metaphor for the collective European countries that were splitting up and pillaging Africa at the time and Marlow is correct in that colonization was completely about the taking of resources by any means possible. Many resources were being taken from Africa but there is one above all else that is held in a reverent manner by Europeans: Ivory. Conrad mentions this specifically in the following passage: “The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it.” (38) The relentless hunt for ivory at any cost that is displayed by almost all the Europeans in Heart of Darkness is a perfect example of the capitalist culture that is predominant throughout the Western world. There was no better instrument to bring the capitalist religion to Africa than Kurtz. Kurtz was fully aware of how best to bend natives to his will writing that “we approach them with the might as of a deity” (Conrad 66) with rifles and shotguns to be his “thunderbolts of that pitiful Jupiter” (Conrad 76). Kurtz was so invested in capitalism as a religion that he took it upon himself to be the vessel that would spread it throughout Africa. As with many clashes of ideology, he had no problems using force to spread his personal beliefs.
¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0 While Mustafa manages to adapt well while living in England, the attitudes displayed by the rest of the Sudanese men regarding women are a clear difference to Western values. During his time in England, Mustafa is a sexual predator of the of the highest order. Despite his hunger for sexual conquests, he maintains an indifference towards women that is not displayed by his fellow countrymen. To Mustafa, the women that he beds are “prey” (Salih 118), many of whom he comes to own in a spiritual sense. Mustafa telling the narrator how Ann Hammond would tell him that he was her “master and my lord” (Salih 121) is a prime example of Mustafa owning one of his women. The westernized Mustafa would not seek to hold women as possessions, they would give themselves to him wholly and willingly. This is in direct contrast to the men of his village that seek to own women as objects. It is true that a similar story to Wad Rayyes’ “I forcibly stripped her of all her clothing until she was as naked as the day her mother bore her” (Salih 62), could and are told by men all of any society, it is comments such as “women belong to men, and a man’s a man even if he is decrepit” (Salih 83) from the level headed and community leader Mahjoub that truly underline how much men in Sudanese culture treat women as inferior subjects, there to be dominated and possessed, rather than treated as equals.
¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 2 In a similar manner to Sudanese man dominating the women of their tribes and villages, the Europeans of Heart of Darkness treat the natives of Africa in a dominant way. While slavery is not the exact method by which natives are ‘employed’, the cannibals on Marlow’s steamer are paid a wage of “three pieces of brass wire, each about nine inches long” (Conrad 56-7) a week for example, but conditions are not far off. Business methods imported from Europe, what Marlow describes as “a piece of paper written over in accordance with some farcical law or other” (Conrad 56), are used by Europeans to exploit the natives. When detailing a group of ‘criminals’ being worked in a chain gang, Marlow states that “the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the sea” (Conrad 30). The “insoluble mystery” Marlow is referring to highlights his understanding of the ridiculousness of a native being charged by a foreigner with a crime under laws from a country halfway around the world. Conrad does not delve deeply into why the men had been arrested, yet it is not hard to imagine that the only crime the men are guilty of is being born into a time and place where colonization was happening.
¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 2 Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness both deal with cultural differences. Both books highlight some key differences between European and African cultures such as, the Islamic practice of female circumcision, European capitalist societies, Sudanese possession of women, Europeans possession of people in general, and European superiority complexes. Most of these cultural differences appear to be completely alien to one and another and could never be fully understood. But if one were to examine the differences a little deeper, it is possible to see that is not the case. The Sudanese are devoted to Islam, while the Europeans are devoted to Capitalism. Vastly different ideologies yet, they both show a strong devotion to their preferred ideology. Sudanese men claim dominion over women, while European men claim dominion over any they can manage to capture. Again, these practices are very similar even if they are played out to different audiences. Despite these similarities, some practices like female circumcision will never be understood by a different culture. Kurtz and Mustafa Sa’eed are examples of adapting to one’s new surroundings which is further proof that it is the environment that shapes the culture, not the people behind it. If this is true, then there are no differences that are too great to surmount between cultures.
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¶ 19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0 Works Cited
¶ 20 Leave a comment on paragraph 20 0 Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Edited by Ross C Murfin. 2nd edition. Bedford St. Martins, Boston. 1996.
¶ 21 Leave a comment on paragraph 21 0 Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. Translated by Denys Johnson-Davies. New York Review Books, New York. 1969.
Adam, your not in my group but i wanted to tell you that i really enjoyed reading your essay. i was originally going to approach the same topic but was overwhelmed with how to attack it. Personally, I think you did an AMAZING job.
Thank you Holly 🙂