Write your abstract
here.
In the throes of a riot, just days from the
handover
to
independence, the last British colonial governor of
an
emerging African nation has been killed. His wife,
who
has
lived with him in Africa for thirty years, retreats
deeper
into delusion. The nation her husband administered
is
still
a colony, he still alive as its chief
administrative
and
judicial agent. She has long talks with him as he
strolls
and ambles about their colonial garden---
increasingly
disturbing conversations; his responses at first
make
her
think he's turned racist (neither of them much
respect
the
natives, but she's always considered the
word 'nigger'
de
trop. They are innocents, in her view, who must be
led
by
the hand until they develop, mentally and
emotionally,
enough to be ready for self-rule. In the meantime
an
iron
hand is not always out of place.) Later his remarks
(and
actions) turn so bizarre---ritual cruelty, sexual
fetishism
and is that drool pouring from his lips? and why
the
sudden
craving for bananas?---she begins to wonder if he
isn't
going mad. Her 'husband'---not to put too fine a
point
on
it---is a full-grown male gorilla.
Friends who are making their own departure try
to
rend
this veil of illusion (they don't know the half of
it---
they don't know about the gorilla stand-in for her
mate)
but the illusion proves too sturdy, or she too
fragile
(emotionally and mentally) to have it rent. Is the
unpleasant portrait of her husband that emerges in
his "conversation" a caricature---perhaps, but one
informed
by thirty years of cohabitation. Is it a projection
of
her
own attitudes? in some measure it must be, since
she's
making up all his responses. Is it a concentrated
portrayal
in miniature of colonialism's essence, seen through
the
dark funhouse mirror of a wild satirical premise?
I'd
certainly say it is.
All this must be very puzzling for the gorilla.
His
confused responses lead to a denouement both
farcical
and
tragic.