Actually.....This is not a review...This is an analysis/critique/reading of Soyinka's Novel, "The Interpreters"....A Must Read...

It is very hard to find a copy of this one and I was only able to read it thanks to a prof who got her copy in the States..

The Interpreters....

Characters:

Sagoe- a journalist

Egbo- an elite intellectual

Sekoni- an engineer, who dies in an accident

Kola- a painter

Golder- a gay theater actor

Dehinwa- Sagoe’s live in partner

Monica Faseyi: A Foreigner who is married to a reactionary member of the faculty

Theme:

The detachment, indifference, and alienation of the upper-middle/ elite class intellectuals, from society in general.

Plot:

The story centers on the lives of Nigeria’s intellectual classes. The story revolves around their discourses, their interpretation of the society, their dissatisfaction with it. The story shows their way of living and coping up with the society that they consider as backward and unacceptable.

Analysis:

The main theme of Soyinka’s novel The Interpreters is the petty-intellectuals detachment from the society. The characters in the novel is composed of an artist (Kola), a writer/journalist ( Sagoe), an engineer and sculptor ( Sekoni), a member of the elite tribal royalty (Egbo), and other unique characters like Golder, who is a gay theatre actor and lecturer, and Monica Faseyi who is a foreigner married to Faseyi, a very highly reactionary persona. The characters in the novel are mostly intellectuals(elite/petty- bourgeoisie), and artists who try to rationalize the utterly meaningless society that they are in (The time of Nigerian Independence). Being part of the middle-class Nigerian elite, their experiences are separated from the upper class that controls the nation, and from the working classes that they view as ignorant. These criticisms and rationalizations of society give them the role of “interpreters”(hence, the title), a class in itself which is separated from the lower classes, but powerless against the upper classes.

1. Dialectics, Post-Colonial societies and the Role the Intellectuals Play.

If we are going to study Marx’s dialectics, an individual or a group of people(class consciousness) experiences a certain event (thesis), which leads them to form an idea to serve as a remedy to the problems they experience (anti-thesis), which leads them to take action or to revolt against pre-existing orders (synthesis), in this set-up it means that when a class experiences, let’s say hardships or exploitation this will lead them to revolt or to take action in order to safeguard their present positions and interests. In the case of the middle- class elite, once they experience the same oppression from the ruling classes, their desire to preserve their positions and interests will lead them to join forces with the lower classes to take action. (Mao Tse-tung, Marx’s Truth and Consequences as cited in the appendix,91).

However, there is a different case in the novel. In The Interpreters, the group of intellectuals have different individual experiences that lead them to have a consciousness that alienates them from both the upper and lower classes. For example in the cases of Sagoe, and of Egbo, who both are educated in the west, and are both members of the middle-class bourgeoisie, their foreign education gave them experiences that are highly separated and different from the Nigerian masses which they underrate, due to the masses’ ignorance and also from the ruling classes which they view as self-centered and very highly reactionary in nature. This aspect symbolizes the middle-class, post-colonial elite whose consciousness is highly fragmentary given that this elite is distinctly separate from the working-class as a whole, yet, is without its own powerbase, given on its dependence on foreign capital, investments and the ruling classes. As this elite has no position to exert a campaign of hegemony, it does not feel any linkage to the working class in the classic sense in which we see (as in Mao’s division of classes) the bourgeoisie having to necessarily link itself to the working class in it’s attempt to exert hegemony through condensing it’s ideology(* condensing- the sharing of similar languages, narratives, symbols through which experience is organized).

Sagoe, Sekoni and co. being the symbols of the intellectual elite feels no links on the surface, friendly or antagonistic, with the working-class. Hence, there is a sense of autonomy, and individualism, even a sense that this class does not see itself as a class. Aside from the groups alienation from the lower classes the group of intellectuals are also separated from, alienated and even powerless against the ruling upper-classes. Instances are frequently seen in the novel in which Sagoe uses his witty criticisms against his bosses in the press and the upper-classes. However, Sagoe still sticks to his philosophy of “Voidancy”, in which he strongly believes in being critical yet passive. Or, the case of Sekoni in which the engineer’s brilliant ideas were rejected and denied, in which, even as hard as he tried to plead to the officials to consider his plans, he was still neglected and the engineer was powerless against them. Another symbol of the elite’s feelings of superiority, and their detachment over the lower-classes is Kola’s painting “ The Pantheon of The Gods”, in which Kola depicts his intellectual friends as mythological gods—gods which the uneducated worship, but are only mythological, superior only because of their make-believe attributes, and powerless against man that created them and powerless against foreign influences.

2. Reification/ Alienation in the Novel.

In the book Man Alone, Harvey Swados writes about how the white collar worker becomes alienated. According to him like the blue-collar worker, who is separated from the materials he works on (raw materials), and from the products that he creates but cannot own; so does the white collar worker and the bourgeoisie who, as they climb the bureaucratic structure becomes alienated from the materials they control and manipulate (the workers, who are under them), and are also dehumanized because they are also under the control and manipulated by the system ( Harvey Swados, “Myth of the Happy Worker”, as cited in Man Alone, 107-113). This can be seen in the novel in Sagoe’s relationship with the janitor, which he befriends and gives lectures on “Voidancy”, though they are together, there is still a barrier that separates him from the janitor.

However, there is still another great factor that separates their group from the other classes, that is, going back to dialectics, is their having of different experiences, and different consciousness, which lead them to individual autonomy which causes detachment to the other classes and alienation even to their own group. Because of this alienation, fragmentation and detachment from each other this “intellectual class”, does not even see itself as a class. In the novel there is in every character a symbolism of an “expert” elite, a specialist elite and there is also in the character of Kola, an artist’s view and artistic activity as specialist which believes itself to be a force of clarity and truth, where as the masses are blind and directionless, and the upper-classes are reactionary.

3. Historical Influences.

All historical progress, said Marx, results from a human desire to keep things as they are. He then proceeded to resolve this seeming contradiction. People come together, establish communities and employ given modes of production (Keller, Marx’s Truth and Consequences,1). In line with this, historical progress is a result o9f humans working together to fight oppression in a given historical event, and what leads to this is their similar experiences which lead them to a class consciousness, that ignites them to preserve their interests. However in the context of the novel, the group is separated not just from experiences and consciousness, but also on how these intellectuals experience, and perceive history as it unfolds in front of them. Say for example, let us look at how the relationship of past and present between Joe Golder, and Sekoni differs. Sekoni believes in the unity and continuity of his “dome of life”. It is said that Sekoni “.. would not laugh at the actual moment of an event”(17), he only laughs later as if the experience of the moment of humor is not immediate or rather a humorous moment is not is not interpreted immediately, only later after the event. Joe Golder “..has a habit of recollecting things as if they are just happening”(185). Memory(historical moments), is not the same for him, and perhaps is not memory at all but the complete repetition in all it’s senses and perceptions of a previous event. He is made to say of his habit of recollecting experience as immediate that “…it is a bad habit. When I am in company and I remember something unpleasant, I try to take flight before it assumes control of me.”(185). He cannot distance a previous event as of the past but experiences it as contemporaneous.

Sekoni’s memory works in fits and starts, and makes him out of sync and out of step with other people; he does not react or experience with others but understands and interprets through a framework that does not include immediacy and the present. Sekoni is a symbol of a force that cannot react spontaneously or react to the historical moment (colonial, or post-colonial),(Uskalis, “Contextualizing Myths in Post-Colonial Novels”, taken from the internet). Because of the difference in the way these individuals experience an historical moment, they become out of sync with the masses and the other classes. Even the intellectuals themselves are isolated and do not consider themselves as a class; even in their small group there are different ways in which the memory is deployed.

4. Egbo, and Existentialism.

“ … because there is no god, there is no objective standard of values….we establish and invent our values.” - Sartre

Another main factor that alienates the characters in the story from the other classes, is the passive following of the masses to the value system they blindly follow and which these intellectuals scoff at ( e.g. in the religious congregation led by Lazarus, the group is detached from the worship practice of the masses, where they just observed and gave criticisms on the service), and the protocols, rules and reactionary attitudes of those in the upper-class which the characters refuse to follow. We can see here Sekoni’s disgust with present social conditions which demand some actions and change, which rejects his breakthrough ideas for some previously based objectives. Monica Faseyi’s continuous conflicts with the absurd protocols of middle-class society life (such as her absence of gloves in the gathering). And, perhaps the best example in the novel, which is Egbo’s case.

In an absurd world, in which there are no values or social codes ready made, humans create standard sets of conducts to give meaning to the meaningless, and to create “order” to absurdity. In the novel there is a clash between Egbo’s tribal upbringing an, his early colonial education, and his college education in England. Being educated in a colonial school during his early years he encounters scolding and beatings from his tribal family because of his disregard for tribal traditions, and codes of conduct, and the same negative treatment from school officials, because of his primitive beliefs which he brings with him to school. The clash between value systems continue up to his more mature years, where his western education and his new codes of conduct, clashes with his tribal upbringing which offers him a tribal government post, and his “enlightenment” which leads him to challenge the norms and the protocols set by the upper middle-class community. Because of invented value systems, any acting out of desire might disrupt society. The invention of values and taboos causes the alienation of a thinking individual, and forbids the acting out of desire. In The Interpreters, encountering social codes causes Egbo to feel isolated and withdrawn. Being intellectuals in the novel, from Dehinwa’s letting her boyfriend to stay in her flat, to Golder’s questioning of the norms, to Sekoni’s non-conformity to the set objectives of his job, their non-conformity, questioning of the norms of society detaches them further from the reactionary consciousness of the people around them.

5. Class and Power in The Interpreters.( …conclusion)

According to Chairman Mao, the bourgeoisie is an important part of the revolution, for being intellectuals they play the role of educating the working-class and the peasants. But this can only be achieved if the bourgeoisie experiences the hardships that is pressed upon the lower-classes through immersion and direct experience in a said historical moment.

In the case of Soyinka’s The Interpreters, the intellectual classes are so detached from the working class. Emphasizing the nature of class conflict, this bourgeoisie needs to exert hegemony over the working class in order to negate the working class’ own aspirations. Fear of the working class leads to it’s symbolic negation and it’s representation as a class that does not know itself (Uskalis). In a post-colonial class relationship, the bourgeoisie is not a ruling bourgeoisie, but is powerless against the face of foreign capital, foreign influences and the country’s ruling classes.

In The Interpreters, the working class is presented as a class that acts and experiences but never understands or comes to consciousness. While the intellectuals are isolated and powerless but conscious of itself ( Hence, they are presented as powerless gods in Kola’s “Pantheon of Gods”).

References and Related Readings :

Soyinka, W. (1965): The Interpreters,

Andre Deutsch, UK

Keller, T. (1985): Marx’s Truth and Consequences,

Prismatique Publications, Ca.

Gordon, E. (1997): “China on the Brink: Workers Political Revolution or Capitalists Enslavement?”, The Spartacists,

International Executive Committee of the International

Communist League (Fourth International)

Barrett, W. (1967): What is Existentialism,

Grove Press, NY

Swados, H. (1962): “Myth of the Happy Worker”, Man Alone Alienation in

Modern Society,

Dell, Ny

Uskalis, E.: Contextualizing Myths in Post-Colonial Novels, retrieved at

http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/jouvert/v5i1/uskal/htm.

For lack of sources, j.luna only smokes marijuana once a week.