File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2000/postcolonial.0007, message 2


From: "Eric Dickens" <eric.dickens-AT-wxs.nl>
Subject: 1) Banipal 2) The White Man's Burden
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 16:36:43 +0200


1st July 2000

Dear PoCos,

1) Firstly, a word about the new British Arab cultural magazine "Banipal". I
know little about the Arab world, but I did read in the London Review of
Books that a new, [English] Arts Council-subsidised magazine is going to
appear, devoted to Modern Arab Literature. I quote from the advert:

"Banipal is an indepedent magazine started in February 1998. It is dedicated
to cutting through the cultural divide and presenting in English translation
the widest range of contemporary poetry and fiction by Arab authors. Each
issue of between 88 and 96 pages contains newly translated original work by
more than 25 writers and poets, plus interviews, reviews and literary
criticism (...)."

You can obtain it from:

BANIPAL, PO Box 22300, London W13 8ZQ, England

e-mail: banipal-AT-compuserve.com

Subscriptions vary between 20 and 30 pounds sterling for one year, depending
on various factors.

***

2) Now on to the White Man's Burden.

I respect Muhammad Deeb for his respecting me, but before we get into too
much ritual bowing, I'd better answer his points:

1) The "people" one is easy.  Surely everyone who reads these e-mails is a
human being. Singular "person", plural "people". I believe "Postcolonial
Studies" should wake up to more postcolonialism that the 90% post-British
which it is now. So I keep riding my "hobby horse", as someone put it. I
note that British Arabs must agree with me to an extent, otherwise they
wouldn't have started "Banipal". Note: the word "translation" appears there.

2) If Muhammad wants to regard me as [intellectually] superior to him,
that's his problem. As I've never met him, we can't possibly tell who thinks
in a more balanced or subtle way. But sometimes the tone of people's e-mails
provokes me into saying things like I said.

3) The third point is the most interesting. I may look in the mirror and see
that the melanin content of my skin is less than that of the majority of the
world's population. I may remember (via history books) the events of the
13th of April 1919 in India, plus others around 1900 in southern Africa. But
should I take the guilt of my forefathers onto my shoulders and pride myself
on suffering for what my grandfather's generation did?

In the Christian religion, Jesus Christ is said to have
suffered for the sins of the world, a very noble thing to do. But just like
I do not wish every German to constantly walk around mentally flagellating
themselves because some of
their forefathers murdered around 6 million Jews, or the Turks for around
one
million Armenians, so I feel I cannot, in my humble if reasonably
comfortable life, spend every day doing penance for what my forebears did.

To turn the tables, surely not all Moslems are responsible for the murders
carried out by fundamentalists in, say, Algeria and Egypt?
Should Muhammad Deeb do penance for any atrocities committed by people who
come from the country he comes from [I don't know which one this is]? The
idea
of collective guilt is a slippery slope.

Finally, while I too can see that we should be careful not to let the
superpowers dominate our countries and our lives, I do think some people are
being a little disingenuous when they draw their salaries from institutions
funded by certain reasonably prosperous states, while at the same time
railing against every move made by these same states and their neighbours.
Those who wish to change the world by violence should be prepared to fight
and die next to their comrades on the barricades, rather than becoming
desktop revolutionaries, perpetuating the struggle from the safe sanctuary
of academe in the metropolitan countries.

Best wishes,

Eric Dickens



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