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The African God of Isak Dinesen
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16579 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1989 |
8,238 Words |
| Author
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Chris Woltermann
Chris Woltermann is an independent securities trader living in
Springfield, Ohio. He has a doctorate in political science
from Purdue University and has studied at the University of
Cape Town, South Africa. |
An aristocracy may be defined by reference to its eschatological attitudes. So thoroughly did Isak Dinesen accept this belief that she often made discourse on the "final things"--on God, death, immortality, and related matters--central to her portrayals of aristocratic cultures. Herself a scion of Denmark's old nobility of the sword, she recognized certain African peoples as having kindred values. Thus, while other early settlers in British East Africa saw only primitive savages, Dinesen bore witness to native Africans' great spiritual depth and dignity.
Her descriptions of the Somalis are noteworthy. Discussing their courtship rituals, she explains the calculated prudery of Somali maidens: "The great sweetness of it lay in the play of opposite forces within it. Behind the eternal principle of refutation, there was much generosity; behind the pedantry what risibility, and contempt of death". Here Dinesen's association of an awareness of death with the most pressing concerns of life (in this case sexual tension and energy) is entirely typical. Characteristic, too, is her terse syntax, with its luminous qualities. Yet, the beauty of her words does not prevent her from perplexing our modern sense of emotional propriety. To be aware of death is one thing. But to scorn it, to concurrently experience risibility or an inclination to laugh, and finally, to situate these attitudes in the context of courtship strikes us as being tastelessly improper.
Our difficulty in appreciating Dinesen's view of the Somalis is just that--our own difficulty. The most perfect of all aristocrats, the ancient Roman patricians, would have had no such problem. To be ever aware of death, even to enjoy friendly terms with its approach, was part of
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