•ISSUE NUMBER TWO*  1 9 9 7*

Noise, Odour & Politics
of  Representation

DURING  an  electoral  campaign  in  the  early  1990s,  Jacques  Chirac,  the  incumbent

president  of France, found  it expedient  to exploit the growing anti-immigration  ambi-
ence in France with a view to whipping up. nationalistic sentiments. The average French
worker,  he  complained,  does  not  only  undergo  the  unbearable  agony  of  sharing  his

Pius  Adesanmi

Rayda Jacobs, EYES OF THE SKY, Heinemann,
Oxford,  1996, 231pp

space  with  an  immigrant
who,  most  often,  has  more
than  one wife  and  a horde of
children,  but  must  also  con-
tend  with  'the  noise  and
odour'  generated  by  those
unwanted  'Others.' It is needless pointing out
the  fact  that  in  contemporary  France, the pe-
jorative  term  'immigre' (immigrant)  has  come
to refer mainly to Africans  of sub-Saharan  and
Maghrebian  extraction.

Chirac's seething representation  of'othered'
immigrants as purveyors of offensive  noise and
odour  draws  powerful  attention  to  the  power
relations between the West and its others, spelt
out  in terms of an  agelong politics of represen-
tation which has become the cornerstone of post
colonial discourse. Indeed, the works of Edward
Said,  especially  Orientalism  constitute  the
most extensive illustration of the politics of rep-
resentation.  Said  argues convincingly that  the
power to represent the native, to construct him
as  lazy, indolent  and  barbaric  is  foundational
to the power to dispossess him under the guise
of a jaded  'mission  civilisatrice.'

Interestingly,  representation  provides  the
theoretical praxis for understanding the issues
at  stake  in  Eye  of  the  Sky,  the  first  novel  of
South African  writer, Rayda Jacobs. Set in the
eighteenth century, the novel traces the begin-
nings of uneasy contacts between white settlers
in  the  Cape  and  the  brown-skinned  Sonqua
people,  contacts  which  eventually  culminated
in the  horrors  of  apartheid.

Willem  Woof, a farmer  and  prominent  set-
tler  lives  with  his  large  family  in Woof's  Nek,
the  farm  site  where  the  story  begins.  Conflict
sets  in  when  Roeloff  Woof, Willem's  youngest
son  begins  to  demonstrate  his  love  for  the
disempowered  Sonqua  natives.  Realising  the
danger in the young boy's incipient  liberalism,
Harman  Woof,  Roeloff's  grandfather  quickly
moves  in  to justify  a  politics  of  dispossession
which  Roeloff  finds  reprehensible:
We live  by the  same  laws  of the
Veld, Thoff. Bosjesman  (bushman)  takes
what  he can from  the land  by  his
nature,  we take  by the smoke  in
our guns.  Both  of us have  to live (37).

And, of course, the  settlers  in  this  interesting
novel do not leave the reader in doubt that  the

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16

only  nature  they  are  ready  to  ascribe  to  the
natives is that of noise and odour. The language
of  the  Soqua  is  to  them  incomprehensible
babble. When Roeloff pushes  his liberalism  to
the  point  of trying  to  get  married  to  the  only
girl  he truly loves, Zokho - who happens  to be
a  native  - the  elderly  Wynand  quickly  draws
his attention  to the dangers  ahead:

Bosjesmans  are at  the  bottom  of the  heap.
They  have  no  status...  when  you  marry
•Zokho - and
don't get me wrong, I like  the girl  - you'll  set
the course
for the rest of your  life. People won't look at
who you  are,
only at  what  you  have  done  (124).
But  Roeloff  is  not  the  type  to be  discour-
aged  easily.  He  believes  in  the  concept  of hy-
bridity. His long association  with  the  Sonqua,
especially with the  ageless Twa who plays  the
role  of  his  spiritual  guide  and  slave  at  once,
convinces  him  of the  possibilities  of a  negoti-
ated  existence  that  can  be  energised  by  his
multiple  identities.

Unfortunately,  these  possibilities  fly  off in
the face of the acute pragmatism and  near-fated
pessimism of Zokho who knows deep within her
that  Roeloff

...wasn't  Soqua.  Would never  be. He
spoke  the language  and  played  at  being
one of them,  but  he was  what  he was  and
would  always  be: the  son  of  a  whiteman.
(50)
But  we  must  not  conclude  too  fast  that
Rayda  Jacobs  has  written  one  of  those  pain-
fully  familiar  novels  in  which  the  natives  are
merely objectified  as marionettes  incapable of
thinking and making any meaning of their dis-
tress.  Indeed,  the  natives  in  Eyes  of  the  Sky
know  the  enemy.  And  they  are  not  afraid  of
naming him as exemplified  by Limp Kao's emo-
tional  outburst:

The  whiteman  has  not  treated  us  kindly.
Everyday  he pushes  us further  and  further
to the sun.  We are not selfish  about  his  tak-

•ISSUE  NUMBER TWO*  1 9 9 7*

ing a piece of our land but  he wants the
fruit  of the soil and the animals on it, and
doesn't want us to have anything...This was
all  ours  before  he  came  here  with  his
guns...soon we will fall off the edge of the
earth.
Unfortunately, the racial and cultural ten-
sions are left largely unresolved at the end of

the novel. Roeloff eventually marries one of his
kind and goes back to join his people. Can this
apparent failure  of hybridity have deeper im-
plications for the  post-aparthied  polity of con-
temporary South Africa?

•Adesanmi, poet and critic, is of the department  of
modern  European  Languages, University  of Ibadan.

Women of the South Ayo Olukotun

Nina Emma Mba,  NIGERIAN WOMEN MOBILISED: WOMEN'S
POLITICAL ACTIVITY IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA, 1900-1965, Inter-
national and Area studies (IAS), University of California  & Cru-
cible publishers, Lagos, 1997,  344pp

Ibadan  history  school.  Mba
fills several gaps in our under-
standing of the  role-definition
and  self-image  of women  in
Nigerian society, as those roles
and  images  have  evolved
through  the rapid  flux of the
colonial  experience  and  the
early postcolonial period.

Anchored  solidly  on  pri-
mary  sources  in  the  shape of
painstaking  interviews  with
major compatriots such as Mrs
Olufumilayo  Ransome-Kuti,
and Chief (Mrs) Janet Makelu
as  well  as  archival  material
and  the  private  papers  of
women activists, the book con-
ducts a detailed  investigation
into the many battles fought by
several  women  organisations
and  shows us  the  connecting
threads.  It  delves  into  the
organisational character, lead-
ership  styles,  mobilisation
frameworks and the concerted
factors  which  informed  such
women  unprisings  as  the
Nwaobiala -the  anti-taxation
protests, the water rates con-
flict and the political party in-
volvement  of women in  East-
ern and Western Nigeria. In fo-
cusing specifically  on the role
of women in well known anti-
colonial protests, she uncovers
a fresh  perspective which she
employs to retell the social and
political  history  of  colonial
southern Nigeria. For example,
although  much of the history

of political parties  has been
ably condified in such monu-
mental  works  as  Richard
Sklar's  Nigerian  Political
Parties this is the first book
I  know  that  extensively
treats  both  the  problematic
and  unfolding  of  women's
participation in colonial poli-
tics. In this way it shows up
the gender bias of the male-
dominated  accounts  upon
which  our  knowledge,  until
now, is based.

Mba  shows  as  well,
through  case  histories  that
women activism, as exempli-
fied in Miss Adunni Oluwole
and  Mrs.  Ransome-Kuti,
while  it  sometimes  dove-
tailed with male protest,  of-
ten ran deeper,  and had au-
tonomous sources even as it
employed  innovative  tech-
niques  of  mass  action.
Equally  valuable  are  her
sketches  of  the  place  and
prestige of women in the pre-
colonial  social  milieu,  in
which  she  seeks  to  demon-
strate  that  women's  repre-
sentation  in  politics  at  the
highest 
was
institutionalised, and there-
fore,  conferred  with  more
power and influence than the
succeeding  colonial  and
postcolonial  period.  Some
may  quip  at  this  startling
conclusion, which could only
be  arrived  at,  I  feel,  if we

levels 

H ISTORY may be

a sloppy teacher,
in that historical
parallels 
are
fumbling  or 
inaccurate
guides  for the more complex
challenges of our generation,
but  it  certainly  does  cast  a
long  shadow  over  today's
giddy  events.  History  may
not explain the present, but
it  does  help  to  situate  it  in
perspective.

In  a  world  in  which

4

V

x

J

women's  empowerment  and
gender  parity  have  become
not just buzz concepts but the
resonant slogans of a call to
arms  of  an  omnipresent
struggle,  a  scholarly  search
for the roots of activism is a
much  valued  undertaking.
Dr.  Mba's  prodigiously  re-
searched book reflects on ex-
acting  standpoints  of  the

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