Abstract:
Literature, which in its simplest form is said to be the mirror of society, does not only mean what is written but also what is being voiced. African author Bessie Amelia Emery Head, popularly known as Bessie Head, buys name not only for her lucidity in expression but also for her voice and concern towards trying times of her contemporary society. She is also an observer of what colonizers skillfully set governance in a society where people are most tradition-ridden. This paper, with an analytical method, mainly aims to incorporate a post-colonial reading of Bessie Head’s “Heaven is not Closed” and analyze the text focusing mainly on the Colonizer-Colonized nexus and the experiences of British colonialism. It also observes how the colonizers institute multiple networks to detach the people from the mainstream.
Keywords: Postcolonialism, subjugation, space, culture.
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Collins English Dictionary defines “colonialism as the practice by which a powerful country directly controls less powerful countries and uses their resources to increase its own power and wealth”. Colonialism, as a process, from the perspective of the colonized, was never welcome. In its simplest concept, colonialism can be defined as the direct domination of a country by another country on the basis of state power. To make the point distinct, some of the definitions regarding colonialism as a process is given below :
“Colonization often destroyed native cultures or altered them significantly, often producing new(hybrid) forms. Thus, colonization cannot, in the twentieth century, can be seen as an innocent settlement in a new place. It must, rather, be seen as a powerful mode of exploitation based on the difference in race, culture, forms of knowledge, technological advancements, and political systems.” (Nayar, 3)
Colonialism is defined as ‘control by one power over a dependent area or people’. In practice, colonialism is when one country violently invades and takes control of another country, claims the land as its own, and sends people — “settlers” — to live on that land.” ( Osman, 1)
Post-colonialism, in the words of Nayar, is a “mode of reading, political analysis and cultural resistance/interaction that deals with the history of colonialism…” (17). It is thus, a way of “remising, remembering, and critically integrating the colonial past” (Gandhi, 4). Nayar also states that:
The 1950s - 1960s in most post-colonial literature were matched by themes of nationalism and the euphoria of decolonization. The preferred mode was realism, as R.K. Narayan’s fiction demonstrated. In the midst of settling down to self-rule, new development agendas and manifestations were visible. Writers such as Wole Soyinka Chinua Achebe were negotiating, in the first round of post-colonial writing, themes as the following :
- Bi – culturalism (European and native)
- Nationalism
- Local and tribal identities as opposed to a universal humanism
- The conflict between European modernization and native tradition
- The usable past
- Generating a discourse about the nature of post-colonial identity (Nayar, 13)
Postcolonialism thus can be said in the words of Robert Young to be “a transformed historical situation, and the cultural formations that have arisen in response to changed political circumstances, in the former colonial power” Therefore it can be said that Postcolonial studies aim at focusing on the historical situations, cultural formations of all the countries that were once colonized(54). One of the most important aims of Postcolonial studies according to M.H. Abrams is “to disestablish Eurocentric norms of literary and artistic values and to expand the literary canon to include colonial and postcolonial writers”(307).
Studying the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is one of the major issues that post-colonial literature takes about, along with the conflict between tradition and the modern way of thinking. Written in the third person narrative, the story “Heaven is not Closed” not only explores the religious conflict but also the colonizer-colonized relationship in a very subtle way:
“The missionary was a short, anonymous–looking man who wears glasses. He had been the resident missionary for some time, and like all his fellows he did not particularly like the people. He always complained to his own head that they were terrible beggars and rather stupid.” (Head, 58-59)
The introduction of the missionary in such a manner and his anonymity is somewhat a technique on the part of Head to portray the character of the missionary as rather a universal character. However, we come across the same missionary with a changed attitude at the very next moment when Galethebege told him about her marriage. His words “Welcome in my dear, let us talk about the arrangement”, somehow reflects the exaggerated affection of the people related to the so-called superior space of the “society”, the missionary. Bassie Head, in a sense, is thus voicing the colonizer-colonized relationship which is no more than a power relationship accompanied by professionalism.
“He stared at her with professional interest. She was a complete non-entity, a part of the vague black blur which was his congregation - oh, they noticed chiefs and people like that, but not the silent mass of humble and lowly who had an almost wired capacity to creep quietly through life.” (Head, 59)
Gelethbege who is shown as a firm believer in Christianity can also be seen as a bridge between the colonizer and the colonized. Her love for Christianity along with her passion to get married to Ralokae in the presence of God (Church) somehow or the other shows the impact of the colonizer over the colonized in the name of “civilization”. To her dismay, the missionary, after coming to know about Ralokae’s wish of marrying Galethebege under the Setswana custom, imposed his power over her and said that they would not allow her to do so. This, however, showcase the power structure that was under work in the name of religion.
“It was beyond her to reason that the missionary was the representative of both God and something evil, the mark of ‘civilization’. His rage and hatred were directed at Raloke, and the only way in which he could inflict punishment was to banish Galethbege from the Church.” (Head, 61)
Even though the whole story tends to look at Christianity at its primary level but deep down, Bassie Head, like many other African writers, takes in the part to talk about the whole concept of civilization in terms of the colonizer and the colonized. Bassie’s technique of imposing the inner instinct in Galethebege can be seen as the process of giving voice to those people who went through the dominant power structure.
Just like many of the writers from the colonized countries, Bassie's head also tried to focus light on the dark curtains of ‘civilization’ and to show the real picture painted over the colonized subjects by the colonizers. The conflict between the modern and the traditional is seen throughout the story. It is Ralokae who at a certain point in time act as a mouthpiece of Bessie Head, who speaks about the real picture of a civilized society under the name of religion.
“The God might be alright, he(Ralokae) explained, but there is something wrong with the people who brought the word of the Gospel to the land. Their love was enslaving black people and he could not stand it. That is why he was without belief. It was the people he did not trust. They were full of tricks. They were a people who, at the sight of a black man, pointed a finger in the air, looked away into the distance, and said impatiently: ‘Boy! Will you carry this? Boy! Will you fetch this!’ They had brought a new order of things into the land and they made the people cry for love. One never had to cry for love in the customary way of life. Respect was there for people all the time. That is why he rejected all things foreign”. (Head, 58)
Bassie Head’s portraiture of Raloke is often seen as her direct voice against colonial oppression over the colonized subjects. She with an extraordinary manner draws a true colored picture of the ‘civilized’ section stained with domination and exploitation over their colonized subjects.
The approach to Bassie Head’s “Heaven is not Closed” with a colonial-colonized relationship standpoint leads us to a conclusion as readers, to the rough, derogative exploitation of the native people that prevailed in the countries that were dominated by the Colonizers. The reality behind the profound showcased superiority of colonial Christian missionaries was set up during that period. After a careful reading of the text, a reader is expected to analyze the text in the above-mentioned ways and obtain a general idea about the prevailing atmosphere in the colonies. The text can also be viewed as a broad pen picture of the social conditions as portrayed by Bassie Head with her extraordinarily simplistic presentation, thus, making the argument ‘literature is the mirror of the society’ valid. As the people have been getting entangled with the age-old traditions and deriving a standard of living to suit their urges and wishes, any outward dominating influence, be it meticulous subjugation or anything else, remains conflicted and the present text, in question, rightly incarcerates such question in a more tangible form.
Works Cited
- Abrams, M.H. and Geoffrey Galt Harphan. A Glossary of Literary Terms. India: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
- Bessie, Head. “Heaven is Not Closed.” Palimpsest. Ed. Bibhash Choudhury. India: Papyrus, 2013. Print.
- Collins, Harper. COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. HarperCollins Publishers. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/colonialism
- Gandhi, Leela. Post Colonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
- Nayar, Pramod K. Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction. India: Pearson India Education Service Pvt Ltd, 2008. Print.
- Osman, Jamila. Colonialism Explained. 22 Nov. 2017. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/colonialism-explained
- Young, Robert. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publication, 2001. Print.
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