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The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi
Posted by Lale on 7/3/2002, 15:46:52
The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi
Translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke
I received this book as a gift from Anna van Gelderen who has been a strong supporter and contributor of this site ever since the beginning. This is the second book I've read by a Dutch author, as you may remember our reading group read Louis Couperus' The Hidden Force a few months ago. The two books are written 100 years apart, and have little in common, but it makes good sense to read them in succession while the descriptions of The Hague and The Indies are fresh in one's mind.
Kwasi Boachi covers 3 continents. Based on a true story, the book and its title hero travel from Africa to Holland to Indonesia. Compared to all the race/slavery books I have read that deal with the issue in America and written by American or African-American authors, this book is the best one (maybe the only one) that so accurately and yet so unassumingly, so delicately reveals the puzzlement of all concerned when a person is removed (involuntarily) from the only world he has ever known and placed into another world. The new world he has been put into is not better or worse, it is not comparable, it is just, simply, a different world. The host and the "guest" (!) run through many, often conflicting, emotions. They adjust and re-adjust their reactions. They are mystified, they are puzzled, they sway between the extremes.
Then there is the royalty, the noble blood, the princehood... Just as irrelevant as the colours of the faces. And blown out of proportion just as much. The hero of the book, Kwasi Boachi is the son of the king of Ashanti (people of South-central Ghana). Kwasi and his cousin Kwame (the designated future king of the Ashanti), as a result of a deal between the King and the Hollanders, are removed from their homeland at the age of 10, to be educated as Europeans in Delft. Thus starts the life story, and the bewilderment of the two boys.
"Do you long for the fatherland, Boachi?"
"I think I have one fatherland too many."
"No, I suppose not," he said, and lit a fresh cigarette.
"I have changed sides too often."
The book peels the human fascination, and alternatingly rejection or toleration (but never acceptance, upon which Kwame points out "being tolerated is not the same thing as being accepted") of the other humans who are different in physical appearance than that of themselves and most of the others in their ordinary lives.
And then there is the government's mandate of honouring the "noblesse de peau"...
This is the author's first novel. He is described as "an actor, opera singer and writer".
I am attaching excerpts of a few pieces of related information I searched for during and after reading the book.
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European exploration of what is now Ghana began early in the 15th century, when the Portuguese landed on the Gold Coast. Later in the century they established a settlement at Elmina as headquarters for the slave trade. By the 17th century the Portuguese slave monopoly had given way to traders from the Netherlands, England, Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia. By the mid-18th century the Gold Coast was dominated by numerous forts controlled by Dutch, British, or Danish merchants. Britain made the Gold Coast a crown colony in 1874, and British protectorates over the Ashanti and the northern territories were established in 1901.
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Ashanti: people of south-central Ghana and adjacent areas of Togo and Côte d'Ivoire. Most of the Ashanti live in a region centred on the city of Kumasi, which was the capital of the former independent Ashanti state. They speak a Twi language of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family of African languages and constitute a section of the Akan peoples.
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This web site has a very comprehensive collection of history and other info related to Ashanti.
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Posted by Lale (a message from Eric) on 8/3/2002, 23:07:34, in reply to "The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi"
I contacted the author of one of the reviews of this book that I read in amazon. This reader/reviewer, Eric, was kind enough to send me his comments on the book. Until he can access "talk literature" himself (currently he is prevented by a firewall but he will try from another system during the weekend), he allowed me to post his quick remarks on his behalf.
I believe that book is most telling as a commentary on the ACTUAL state of things. That is, the worldwide race hierarchy is a mirror image of Kwasi and Kwame's story. In this case, Black power and acceptance is at best nominal, though it may even be relevant -- Kwasi. On the other side, there seems to be a delusional faith in the unique power of Black culture, at least the way it comes forth through the media -- Kwami, the most vulnerable to being hurt by his own because he was most capable of love.
The convoluted joining of these two poles also seems to be a common sight: he/she has a warped sense of Kwami's cultural love AND dances for mass acceptance like Kwasi -- see Martin Lawrence in American films, Eddie Murphy not as actor but as producer of "The Klumps", to start.
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Posted by Anna van Gelderen on 9/3/2002, 12:50:16, in reply to "The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi"
Lale, I am really glad that you appreciated my gift. Normally I am not very patriotic about Dutch literature (a lot of it is second rate), but I make an exception for this sophisticated novel. It is excellent by any standard and deserves a wide reading public.You have caught the essence quite well and I don't really have much to add to your piece, apart from a few observations.
The novel presents two ways to deal with the special position the two nephews find themselves in: one is make the best of it and try to adapt (without ever being completely accepted); the second is to resist and forcefully reject the culture you have been transplanted to. The two ways are beautifully and subtly dramatized. Kwasi chooses the first option, his nephew Kwame the second. I won't divulge the outcome of these choices (read and judge for yourself), but neither leads to happiness and both stories are equally poignant and moving in very different ways. This is the strength of the novel: there is no lecturing in it, only these very telling stories, it never becomes sentimental, but you get to feel what it is like to be a conspicuous stranger in an alien culture.
What the novel brings home very well, is that once again racism is used as an excuse for sheer greed, i.e. the exploitation of other countries: "if we [white people or whoever does the exploitation] make ourselves believe that the people we exploit in our colonies are inferior creatures and not even fit to govern themselves, then we won't have any qualms about subjecting them and satifying our greed; after all, in that case we are only doing them a favour in imposing order upon their barbaric country." This reasoning was used by the English in occupying India ("the white man's burden" ), by the Dutch in squeezing the Indonesians dry and by the Americans in using black slaves, to name but a few instances. From an excuse it became an ingrained dogma that all kinds of charlatans even "prove(d)" scientifically. Greed, often euphemistically called "economic motives", is responsible for horrible things. Read this book to see what it did to these two historical individuals.
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Posted by Lale on 9/3/2002, 13:47:22, in reply to "Re: The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi"
Very nice review, Anna. Truly a good book. Multi-faceted. No lecturing, simply conveying various feelings, dealing mechanisms and outcomes.
What did you think of Cornelius? He was a curious character. What happened to him? Surely that carriage incident with van Drunen can't be the cause of his complete change of heart, change of behaviour; in fact going from a reasonable and affectionate young boy to a hate-filled, cruel extremist who was capable of severely beating Kwasi in a life-endangering fashion.
Another point worth mentioning is that at one point Kwasi notes that in his home country they were showing racist attitudes towards other African races. They even treat people with different physical features as freaks.
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Posted by Eric Henderson on 15/3/2002, 1:11:21, in reply to "Re: The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi"
Anna: I appreciate your view on this book. Since language holds so much that cannot be (or simply is not) translated with integrity to original meaning, I always wonder how someone from the "host" culture of a particular work or event thinks, feels, etc.
You hit what I appreciate the most in this book. It does not preach or teach. Mr. Japin has a great prose gift to just tell the story with a rhythm that is essential but does not become the focus itself.
I think for anyone wanting a non-fiction follow-up to this work, there is a vital work by Howard Winant called "The World is A Ghetto". In it he traces the development of the modern nation-state and the keen use of race as the primary lever. If "the" seems a strong word, then consider any of the great powers today without the wealth-creating benefits of slavery and colonialism.
It is the clearest contemporary statement I have seen on the matter in that it gives a hard, well researched look to many sides.
It is an eye-opening journey for the reader of any racial disposition, especially for the one who feels he doesn't have one.
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Posted by Anna van Gelderen on 16/3/2002, 12:15:33, in reply to "Re: The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi"
Hello Eric, I placed the paperback edition of this book (to be published in June) on my wish list. I will soon have to give up my job in order to keep up with all the reading I plan to do. Only then I won't have any money to buy books with. What a dilemma ;-)