A Book and a Film Frame the Discussion of Racism and Discrimination

NOWHERE IN AFRICA & SMALL ISLAND

Sometimes it seems as though we look for differences between peoples as a means of making ourselves feel superior, set apart, better than. To fail to seek similarities as a means of uniting us as humans leads only to war, discrimination, and, for many, lives of unimaginable despair. Our guest blogger CHRISTINE WEEBER introduces us to a film based on a novel and a novel that deal beautifully and thoughtfully with the topic. Thank you, Chris! -- Rosemary

Racial and ethnic divisions and hierarchies separate people all over the world, not just in the U.S. We increasingly recognize these as barriers to overcome and not simply accept but, in public conversations about race, we tend to get stuck in the racist/not-a-racist dichotomy. Two works that successfully get us beyond this dichotomy are Nowhere in Africa, a German film written by Caroline Link based on the autobiographical novel of Stefanie Zweig, and Small Island by the Jamaican Brit Andrea Levy.

Both of these stories are set in the context of World War II. In Nowhere in Africa, a Jewish family escapes Nazi Germany in 1939 to live in Kenya, then a British colony. Small Island traces the story of two Jamaicans who migrate to the Mother Country, i.e., England (Jamaica was a colony until 1962), in 1948. In both, the authors capture the complexities of migration, displacement, and loss of home, as well as the day-to-day grit of racial and ethnic oppression. In addition, we get to know people who are “racist.”

In Nowhere in Africa, Walter Redlich and his wife, Jettel, move to an arid, rural farm in Kenya with their five-year-old daughter, Regina—a far world from their middle-class life in Germany. Walter learns Swahili and humbly works alongside local Kenyans—a position he didn’t have to accept as a white man, given British dominance. Young Regina forms strong bonds with the cook and local Kenyan kids, becoming more and more Kenyan as time goes on. Proud Jettel despises the locals, tries to keep her distance and distinction from them, and attempts to force them into subservient roles.

Jettel is a privileged, prejudiced European woman who looks down on the “dirty” Africans. But through arguments with Walter and ever-worsening news from home, she is forced to confront the irony and vulnerability of her position as a Jewish refugee. She is forced to search her soul for a different identity than elite, white westerner.

In Small Island, the two main characters have no choice but to deal with the racial box they are thrown into. Hortense and Gilbert grew up in Jamaica learning the King’s English but, in moving to post-war London, they are surprised to find England does not want them. This, despite that Gilbert fought in the British Royal Air Force and Hortense is a schoolteacher.

Queenie, their white landlord, is the only one in her neighborhood to take in Jamaicans. Her neighbors despise her for it. Bernard, her husband, is away serving in the Royal Air Force and takes a few years to make his way back home. When he does arrive, he says, “I didn’t defend my country to give it over to them.” Unlike Jettel, he resists change. As for Queenie, she has a greater surprise in store for Bernard than simply her rebellious room renting to “coloured” people.

Through both of these stories we enter the lives of people who inhabit different sides of the racial divide—and some who have lived on both sides. We get to know people forced to navigate racialized societies. And we get inside the heads of so-called racists—and, in the case of Jettel, to watch her work her way out of that label.

By walking in these people’s shoes, we can feel the almost gravitational pull of race and ethnicity, and it becomes clear that this pull is maintained by more than those few we might call racists. Neighbors, bosses, and government employees are among those who enforce racial codes in England. In Kenya, British settlers and government officials uphold the country as a British colony.

Our conversation deepens. We are forced to ask ourselves, when confronted with change, with “difference,” and with power inequalities, how will we react? Will we cling to a real or imagined status quo? Or will we change, grow, adapt, and learn new ways of being? How do our choices affect us and other people?

CHRISTINE WEEBER works as a freelance writer and editor. She holds an MA in cultural anthropology, a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies, and a BA in English Literature and Philosophy. Her master’s thesis focused on white South African immigrants in Colorado. She recently won the Great Lakes Story Contest for her piece Breaking Skin (see her website). Her essay, “An Unladylike Journey,” appears in the popular anthology Solo: On Her Own Adventure . For more, see http://www.christineweeber.net/. In the photo, Christine is teaching her nephew one of her favorite pastimes.