Naipaul's Darkness

The novel begins ominously "The World is what it is ; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to be nothing, have no place in it." "A Bend in the River" describes the story of an East African country in the early post-colonial days from the eyes of an Indian, Salim.

Salim belongs to an Indian Muslim family living on the east coast of Africa. Frustrated with his family's antiquated life, he travels to the town at the bend of the river(presumably Zaire) . It is in this town, stripped off his family's support, he sees the world for what it is.

It describes the vicious circle of modern day African countries. Destruction of an existing regime, a new name that offers optimism and economic security, only to be quickly replaced by corruption and disaffection and ultimately followed by another destruction. "To talk of trouble is to pretend there were laws and regulations that everyone could acknowledge. Here there was nothing."

Salim lives in constant fear of this impending destruction. He veers between craving for security and resentment towards his family for not equipping him for this life. "It isn't that there's no right and wrong here. There's no right." In the end Salim is driven from the town for being an "outsider" as the country begins another descent into chaos.

This is so much a book of displacement; of homes and homelands that exist only in the historical memories of people. The alienation that comes with independence, loneliness and quest for a new home. "You see the past is something in your mind alone, that it doesn't exist in real life. You trample on the past, you crush it. In the beginning it is like trampling on a garden. In the end you are just walking on ground."

It is not just Africans, but an outsider's attitude to them that comes to the fore. "Slaves are physically wretched, half men in everything except in their capacity to breed the next generation."

For writing this book, Naipaul was called the lackey of neo-colonialism. But not for Naipaul the naive or crafty arguments used by his fellow writers to describe post-colonial societies. He puts experience over imagination. This takes its toll. The first-hand experiences in post-colonial societies combined with his own unsympathetic view result in bleak observations and caustic portrayal. At some level he drowns in his own truth, failing to transcend it.

Walking the market near Makerere in Uganda, Naipaul in 'an inspector's gait, hands clasped behind his back, moving fast yet looking at everything' proclaimed to skies, "This is turning me into a racialist, for God's sake."