Life and Sovereignity Achille Mbembe

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Life, Sovereignty, and Terror in the Fiction of Amos TutuolaAuthor(s): Achille Mbembe and R. H. MitschSource: Research in African Literatures, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Winter, 2003), pp. 1-26Published by: Indiana University Press

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2/27

Life,

Sovereignty,

and Terror

in

the

Fiction

of

Amos Tutuola

Achille

Mbembe

The

subject

s a

multiplicity.

-Nietzsche

h e

remarks

that follow bear

upon

the

general question

of

life,

sover-

eignty,

and

terror.

To

my

mind,

life does not

exist

in-and-of-itself.

It does

not reflect a

generic

property per

se,

but a

mode

of

being-

in-the-world,

that

is,

a

way

of

inhabiting

the

world;

in

short, a

manner of

confrontation

and

familiarity

with the world and

its full

range

of

potenti-

alities. The

ultimate

expression

of

sovereignty

resides,

to a

large

degree,

in

the

power

and

the

capacity

to dictate who

may

live and

who must

die.

To

exercise

sovereignty

is to exercise control

over

mortality

and to define life

as the

deployment

and

manifestation

of

power.

More

precisely,

I

am interested

in these manners

of

living

and

risking

death

that either

are

situated

beyond

the

political

as

a

vernacular

(and

socially

obligatory)

language

of the social

bond,

or

push

its

frontiers

to

the

point

of

relegating

the

political

to

border

zones;

or,

by

simply ignoring

it

altogether, end up revealing its extraordinary vulnerability and weakening

the

authority

and

centrality

that

our era has wound

up

attributing

to it.

These forms

of existence are born of

singular

experiences

that

I

choose

to call

threshold or

specular experiences.

These

are,

essentially,

extreme

forms

of

human

life,

death-worlds,

forms

of

social existence

in which

vast

populations

are

subjected

to

conditions of

life

that confer

upon

them

the status of

living

dead

(ghosts).

In

the

contemporary

African

context,

these extreme forms

of

human existence

are

experienced through

the

corruption

of the senses

as well

as

through

the horror that

accompanies

wars and

outbreaks of terror

(see

Mbembe,

On the

Postcolony).

To treat the question of the languages of life in their relationship

with

sovereignty, specular

violence,

and

terror,

I

will

depart

from

what

is

conventionally

called Western

thought. Forgetting

for a moment its

heterogeneity,

I will

demonstrate how

(and

implicitly

critique

the

ways

in

which),

when it

treats

the

languages

of

life,

Western tradition-more than

any

other-accords a critical role to the notions of

self, truth,

and

time.'

Using

the

metaphor

of the

mirror,

I will base

my critique

on

a

re-reading

of

two African

texts,

The Palm-Wine Drinkard and

My Life

in

the Bush

of

Ghosts.

This

critique

rests

upon

the

notion--developed

by

Tutuola-of the

ghost,

or

better,

of the

wandering subject.

The

metaphor

of the

mirror,

I

will

argue,

allows us to

envisage

ghostly power

and

sovereignty

as

aspects

of the real

integral

to

a world

of

life and

terror

rather than tied to a

world of

appear-

ances.

Finally,

I

will show how

Tutuola's

fiction allows us to

conceive

of

the

idea

of

life,

sovereignty,

and terror as

fundamentally

linked to that

of

the

imagination,

work,

and remembrance.

Research

in

AfricanLiteraturesVol.

34,

No.

4

Winter

2003: 1-26


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3/27

2

Research

in

African

Literatures

Dualisms

Five

attributes have

been

decisive

in

the

articulation

of

a certain

idea of

being,

time

and

truth

in

modern Western

criticism.

The first is the

quasi-

ontological privilege granted to reason over all other forms of human

understanding

(emotions,

passions,

and

feelings).

Whether

the

subject

under

consideration

is a

knowing,

an

aesthetic,

or

a

speaking subject,

acting

or

producing

and

manipulating

tools,

it is

always

a

question

of

a

self

up against

an

object,

in an

attitude that aims at the

mastery

of

the

said

object

by

means

of

reason and

technique

(see

Hegel,

Phenomenology of

Mind;

Heidegger,

Being

and

Time;

Sartre,

Being

and

Nothingness);

Husserl,

Ideas).

A

corollary

of reason is the

emphasis

placed

upon

self-possession,

the

desire

for

self-perfection,

and

self-mastery (self-government)

through

the

development

of

interiority

(see

Foucault,

History

of

Sexuality;

Ricoeur,

Oneself

as Another; Charles

Taylor,

Sources

of

the

Self;

Elias, La civilization des

moeurs).

To these

attributes,

we must

add two others:

the

differentiation

between

the human

being

and

other animals

through

work

(Marx),

and

the

importance

of

desire and

pleasure

in

the

calculus

of

happiness

(see

Freud,

Civilization

and its

Discontents;

see also

Lacan,

Four Fundamental

Concepts,

and

Foucault,

History

of Sexuality

3).

Self-possession

and freedom with

respect

to

others as

well as

happiness

are

experienced

through

the conscious

mastery

of

the

world,

of one's own

body

and

libido.

In

turn,

mastery

of the world

is

achieved

essentially through

knowledge

and access to truth-the order

of

knowledge,

the order of

truth,

and the

will

to

power constituting

the

ultimate

foundations of

all

subjectivity

and

every happy

life.

Now,

at the base of these

postulates

are

found inherent

dualisms.

These

dualisms have been the

object

of

well-known

critiques,

even

if

it

is

not

certain

that we have drawn from

them all

the

possible consequences:

the

opposition

between the affective and

the

cognitive,

the

subject

and the

object,

appearance

and

essence,

reason

and

passion,

the

corporeal

and the

ideal,

the

human and the

animal,

reality

and

representation,

the

one

and

the

multiple. By foregrounding

these

dichotomies,

modern

Western

tradi-

tion has

favored

thinking

on the self

that

privileges

above

all the

ability

to

reason

(argumentation and deliberation) and the will to power, giving short

shrift to

the

ability

to

feel,

to

remember,

and

to

imagine.

The reason for

this

is the

longstanding

belief

in

Western

metaphysics

that

the

struggle

for

freedom and

happiness, sovereignty,

and

self-rule

is

first

and

foremost a

struggle against

the

libido

and inner

turmoil,

the war

within

us

that

drives

us

to

wage

war

upon

one

another.

The world of the

body,

the

passions,

and the

senses has been

historically

regarded

as the realm of the

false,

the

dream,

and

the mask

(see

Hume,

Treatise

of

the

Passions;

Descartes,

The

Pas-

sions

of

the

Soul;

Hobbes,

Human

Nature).

The senses

in

particular

are

seen

as

deceptive,

and

passions

deemed

ultimately unintelligible.

The

world of

instincts and animality, Western tradition has long held, cannot be relied

upon

to

produce

truth,

knowledge

or a

happy

life.

According

to this

outlook,

there can

be no self

except

in the

stability

and

permanence

of

the

being. Identity

being essentially

incompatible

with

change,

the self is

said

to

always

be identical to itself. It matters little

what




4/27


5/27

4

Research

in

AfricanLiteratures

The

self

that

has

identified with

that

image

and has

taken

it

on is inscribed

in

an irreducible

line of fiction. The

correspondences

that unite the

I to

the

image

are

projected

as

ghosts,

in

a

completely

ambiguous

relationship

of

the

subject

with the world of its fabrication. On

the other

hand,

the

mirror is the

place

where likeness redoubles

presence.

According

to

Lacan,

the

specular

image

seems

to be

the

threshold

of

the

visible

world,

if

we

trust the

disposition

in the mirror

presented

in

hallucination

and in

dream

by

the

imago

of the

body

itself

[...

]

or

if

we notice

the role of the

instrument of the mirror in the

apparitions

of

the

double where

psychic

realities are

manifested,

realities that are

moreover

heterogeneous

( Le

stade du miroir

93-101).

Following

Lacan,

three

properties

of the

mirror are

of

interest to us

in the

interpretation

of

Tutuola's

fiction. These three

properties

allow

us

to

re-conceptualize

the

relationship

between

the

ghost, terror,

and

life

on

the one

hand,

and,

on the

other,

the

function

of the

imagination

and

remembrance

in

this

relationship.

First of

all

there is the

property

of

the

marvelous.

In his

study

of

the mirror

of

Medusa,Jean-Pierre

Vernant

argues

that instead

of

reflecting

appearances

and

returning

the

image

of visible

objects placed

before

it,

the

mirror

opens

a

breach

in the

backdrop

of

'phe-

nomena,'

displays

the invisible

[...

.]

and lets it be seen

in

the

brilliance

of

a

mysterious epiphany

(Mortals

and Immortals

141).

This

property

derives

from

two

types

of

powers belonging

to

the mirror: the

power (experienced

by

the self

looking

at

itself)

first to

project,

create

an

appearance,

and

second to discover its own image.

In

an

operation

that is as

empirical

as it is

imaginative,

the self becomes

its

own

spectator.

The self is

present

at

the

spectacle

of its own division and

duplication,

acquiring,

in

the

process,

the

ability

to

separate

itself

from

itself.

The self that views itself has a

sharp

awareness

of the fact that what

it sees

beyond

the material screen

is

indeed

itself

or,

in

any

case,

a

reflec-

tion

of

itself.

This

power

can be called the

power

of reflection.

The same self

can,

after

the act of

looking

at

itself,

remember more

or less

clearly

its own

reflection

or shadow.

The

power

of the shadow

originates

from

the

possibility

of

escaping

the

constraints that structure perceptible and sensory reality, notably the sense

of

touch.

One can see

in

the

mirror,

but cannot touch what

is

seen.

For the

double

that

is

relayed

by

the mirror is a

fleeting,

fictive

double.

One can

only

touch

oneself

And it is this

touching

oneself

that is

reflected

in

the mirror

and which is

returned to us

through

the mirror.

And what the

mirror

sends

back

to

us

is,

to a

large

extent,

untouchable.

The divorce between

seeing

and

touching,

the flirtation between

touch-

ing

and the

untouchable,

the

duality

between

that which reflects and

that

which

is

reflected

is based

on

the double

principle

of

immateriality

and

unreality,

or,

more

precisely,

on the

spectralization

of

reality.

In

the

mirror,

being

and

identity

are

fugitive,

intangible,

but visible;

they

constitute that

negative

space

which is the

gap

between the

land its shadow. The other law

is that

of

luminosity.

There

is,

in

fact,

no reflection

in

the mirror without

a

certain

distribution of

things

in

proximity

and

distance,

a certain

manner

of

playing light against

darkness,

and

vice versa. Without such

interplay,

there can

be no manifestation of the double.




6/27

Achille Mbembe 5

The

other

property

of the mirror is

what

could

be

called

its

power of

terror.

This

power

is born

of the

disquieting

reality

brought

into

being by

this

place

that

is

not

a

place

for

it

does not rest

upon

any

terrain.

Where,

indeed,

are the

image

and

the self thus

imaged by

the

mirror

situated? What

terrain,

what

ground

supports

them? Sabine

Melchior-Bonnet

provides

this

answer:

The self

is both there and

elsewhere,

perceived

in a

troubling

ubiquity

and

depth,

at

an uncertain distance: we

see

in

a

mirror,

or rather

the

image

seems

to

appear

behind

the

material

screen,

so

that

the

one

who sees himself can

question

whether he sees

the surface itself or across

it,

and

adds,

The

reflection

causes

the

sensation

of an

immaterial under-

world to rise

up

beyond

the mirror

and invites

the

gaze

to a cross-over of

appearances

(113-14).

Now

strictly

speaking,

the

crossing-over

of

appearances

can

be

associ-

ated with

a penetration

into

the

heart

of the psyche. Crossing through

appearances

is not

only

to

go beyond

the

split

between what one can

see,

what one can

touch,

and

what is

hidden,

invisible.

It also means

running

the

risk of

an

autonomy

of the

psychewith respect

to

corporeality, expropriation

of the

body going

hand-in-hand

with

the

unsettling possibility

of an

eman-

cipation

of the fictive double.

The

latter

acquires,

in

such a

setting,

a life

of

its

own,

a life

given

over

to the

dark

work of the

shadow-magic,

dream,

and

delirium

inherent to

any

confrontation

between

self

and self.

The third

property

of the mirror is the

power

offantasy

and

imagination.

That

such a

power

might

be

possible

resides

in

the

fact that

every play

of the

mirror rests-as discussed above-upon the constitution of a gap between

the self and its

representation,

a

space

of

breaking

and

entering

and of

dissonance

between

the

self and its fictive double

reflected in the mirror.

Because the self and

its

reflection are not

superposable,

duplication

can

never

be

easy.

Dissemblance and

duplicity

are thus

an

integral part

of the

relationship

with

the

mirror,

that

is,

in

the

long

run,

in

the confrontation

between

self and self.

Delirium

Let us

break the mirror

on

Tutuola's

writing.

What do

we see? The

spectacle

of a

world

in

motion,

ever

reborn,

made of fold

upon

fold,

of

landscapes

and

topographies,

figures,

circles,

spirals

and

fractures, colors,

sounds,

and

noises.

A

world of

images,

one could

say.

But above

all,

a

world

inhabited

by

beings

and

things

that

pass

for what

they

are

not.

More than

a

geographi-

cal

space,

the

ghostly

realm is foremost a field

of

visions:

fantasies,

strange

spaces,

masks,

surprises,

and

astonishment;

in

short,

permanent

commerce

with families of

signs

that

intersect, contradict,

and

nullify

one

another,

set

themselves back

in

motion,

and

go

astray

within

their own boundaries. Per-

haps that is the reason the ghostly realm escapes synthesis and geometry:

[T]here

were

many

images

and our own

too

were

in

the centre of

the hall. But our own

images

that we saw there resembled us too

much and

were

also white

colour,

but we were

very surprised

to

meet our

images

there

[.

.

.].

So

we asked

from Faithful-Mother

what she was

doing

with

all

of

the

images.

She

replied

that

they




7/27

6 Research

in

AfricanLiteratures

were for remembrance and to

know

those

she

was

helping

from

their difficulties and

punishments.

(248-49)

A

world of hidden

knowledge,

no doubt.

But,

above

all,

as

will be

seen

later,

a world shaped by the remembrance of fragments of life, of the work that

is the

struggle

for life.

It

is also a world that one

experiences

and

that

one

creates,

in

instability,

in

evanescence,

in

excess,

in

that inexhaustible

depth

that

is

generalized

theatralization:

To

my surprise,

when

I

helped

the

lady

to

stand

up

from

the

frog

on

which she

sat,

the cowrie that

was

tied on

her

neck

made a

curious

noise at

once,

and

when

the Skull

who was

watching

her heard

the

noise,

he

woke

up

and blew

the

whistle to

the

rest,

then

the

whole

of them rushed to the place and surrounded the lady and me, but

at the same time that

they

saw me

there,

one of

them

ran to

a

pit

which was not so

far

from that

spot,

the

pit

was

filled with cowries.

He

picked

one cowrie out of

the

pit,

after that he

was

running

towards

me,

and

the whole crowd wanted

to tie

the

cowrie on

my

neck

too.

But

before

they

could do

that,

I had

changed

myself

into

air

[.

.

.].

(210)

We

penetrate

into the

ghostly

realm

through

its

border,

across

the

edges.

From

this

perspective,

the

ghostly sphere

is

a

lateral

space.

But it

positions

itself

equally

as a decor.

It

is found

not

at the

periphery

of life

but

on

its

edges.

It

constantly

spills

out over

its

assigned

time

and

space.

It

is a

scene where events

continually

take

place

that

never

seem to

congeal

to the

point

of

consolidating

into

history.

Life unfolds in

the

manner of

a

spectacle

where

past

and future are reversed.

Everything

takes

place

in

an

indefinite

present.

Before and after

are

abolished,

memory

is

destabilized,

and

multiplication

reigns.

There

is

no life but

a

life that

is

fractured

and

mutilated:

[A]ll

the

hero-ghosts

who

were

fighting

the enemies

with us

were

killed

and

also

many

of the

heads

were cut

away

from their mother's

body

[.. .]. After we won the war the whole of us were

gladly

march-

ing

to

the town. But as the Invisible and Invincible Pawn woke

up

all the dead soldiers and

replaced

their

heads

which

were

cut off

by

the

enemies to their

necks

and as

my

own was cut

off as

well,

so

he

mistakenly put

a

ghost's

head on

my

neck instead

of mine

[

..]

so

this

head

was

always

making

various

noises

both

day

and

night

and

also

smelling badly.

Whether

I

was

talking

or not

it

would be

talking

out the words which

I

did not mean

in

my

mind and

was

telling

out all

my

secret aims which

I

was

planning

in mind whether

to

escape

from there

to

another town

or

to start

to find

the

way

to

my

home town

[...].

(108-09)

The remembrance of the mutilated

organ responds,

as

if in

echo,

to

the

violence

of

decapitation:

the head-the visible seat of

identity-passes

into the void. It has fallen under the

enemy's

blow. Mutilation does

not




8/27

Achille

Mbembe

7

translate

here as an

open

wound.

Another

bodily

structure

and another

organization

of the sensorial

apparatus

are added

on

to the

trunk of the

body.

The

head continues to

speak,

but in a

disorderly

manner.

Every

notion

of the

secret

and of

privacy

is

abolished.

The

subject

lives with a

sense

of

being

perpetually spied upon.

Thejoining

of one's own

body

to a

head that

belongs

to

someone

else renders the self

a locus

of

uncontrollable

speech.

Words are

spoken

in

place

of a self

that does

not

recognize

the statements

uttered as

its own. Both the

body

and the

self are

enslaved

to the

conditions

of

the

symbol.

Sent back

across

the

edge,

the self is

projected

into a

moving

horizon,

at

the core of

a

reality

whose center is

everywhere

and

nowhere. Events do

not

necessarily

have

recognizable

origins.

Some

are

pure

memory-filters.

Others

crop up

unexpectedly,

without

apparent

cause,

or have a

beginning

but

not

necessarily an end. Still others are stopped, then taken up again at a

later

time,

and not

necessarily by

the

same

actors,

in an

indefinite

declension

of

profiles

and

figures

that

are

as

ungraspable

as

they

are

unrepresentable,

and

through designs

that are

as

complicated

as

they

are

ever liable

to modi-

fication. The

causes-never

univocal-entwine,

dis-entwine and

entwine

anew,

willed into

action

by

forces

over which

they

have no

control.

One does

not enter into the

ghostly

realm out

of

curiosity

or

because

one

wants to.

Ultimately,

a

tragedy,

indeed a

loss,

is at the

origin

of

every-

thing.

The

fracture that ensues

derives from the self's

inability

to

control

its

desires and to

bear the

loss-the absence of

enjoyment

previously

associ-

ated with the fulfillment of desire:

I

was a

palm-wine

drunkard

since I

was a

boy

of ten

years

of

age.

I

had no

other work more than

to drink

palm-wine

in

my

life.

[...]

[W]

hen

my

father

noticed that

I

could

not do

any

work

more

than to

drink,

he

engaged

an

expert palm-wine tapster

for

me;

he

had no

other work than to

tap palm-wine

every day.

[...]

So

my

friends were

uncountable

by

that time

and

they

were

drinking palm-wine

with me from

morning

till a late

hour

in

the

night.

[

...]

when it was the

6t month

after

my

father had

died,

the

tapster

went

to

the

palm-tree

farm

on a

Sunday evening

to

tap

palm-wine

for

me.

When

he

reached the

farm,

he

climbed one of

the

tallest

palm-trees

in

the farm

to

tap palm-wine

but as he

was

tapping

on,

he

fell down

unexpectedly

and died at the

foot of

the

palm-tree

as a

result

of

injuries.

(191-92)

Prior to the

split,

the

subject's

life was

centered around a

fixed

object

of desire.

The

effective realization of

pleasure

resulted almost

exclusively

from

tapping

(literally

and

otherwise)

an

inexhaustible

flux,

the

encoun-

ter with the

single

object

that

could

satisfy

his

urge:

palm-wine.

Once the

pleasure

was

achieved,

the

subject

could

then attain a relative

state of

satiety

and happiness, a certain sensual

delight.

In this

exchange,

the

palm-wine

tapster

represented

the

living

mediation

without which there would

be no

satisfaction.

The

brutal and

premature

death of

the

wine-gatherer

is

in

many

regards

a fantastical

castration: the

coupling

of seminal

liquid

and narcis-




9/27


10/27

Achille

Mbembe 9

tion of roads and

I

was

doubtful when I

reached

thejunction,

I did

not

know

which

was

Death's road

among

these roads

[.

.

.]

it was

the

market

day

[.

.

.]

I lied

down on the

middle of

the

roads,

I

put

my

head to

one

of the

roads,

my

left hand to

one,

right

hand to

another

one,

and

my

both feet to

the

rest,

after

that

I

pretended

as

I

had

slept

there.

(195)

Thus are

the

crossroads.

They

open,

unbeknownst

to

us,

onto the

ghostly

domain. We enter into

it almost

unwittingly,

because it has no vis-

ible

border.

The

crossroads

constitute,

in this

regard,

more than

a

simple

point

of

passage.

They

are

the

gate

that

opens

onto the

process

of

unwind-

ing.

The

unwinding

centers

its attack on

the senses: the

visual,

the

tactile,

the

auditory,

the

olfactory.

We do not

penetrate

the

ghostly

theater

without

a

certain

bodily struggle.

The

head,

the

hands,

and the

feet

are set

there

like inert traps in a game of chance in which there are many unwitting

participants, including

passers-by:

But

when all

the

market

goers

were

returning

from the

market,

they

saw me

lied

down

there and

shouted

thus:- Who was

the

mother

of this

fine

boy,

he

slept

on the

roads and

put

his head

towards

Death's

road.

(195)

Knowledge

of the

path

that leads to

the

ghost

world

is

yielded

by pass-

ers-by.

The

body,

the

road,

and the market

goers

all come

together

with

sleep

to mimic death itself in

order to better

discover

its

paths.

The

ghost

world is thus one of roads and

crossroads,

of simulation and resemblance.

The

crossroads are also the site of

strange

ceremonies:

At last

I

found

myself

where

several roads meet

together

[...],

but

all

these roads

were

foot

paths.

[.

.

.]

It was an

open

place, except

the bush

which

spread

on

it.

There

I

remained till the

morning

without

seeing

a

single

creature.

(69)

[I]

t was about

eight

o'clock

in

the

morning

all the

ghosts

and

ghostesses

with their

children of that

town came to me with

two

sheep

and two

goats

and also with some

fowls.

Having

reached there

the first thing they did was that the whole of them surrounded me,

then all

were

singing,

beating

drums,

clapping

hands,

ringing

bells

and

dancing

round me for

a few

minutes before

they

killed

all the

domestic animals which

they

brought

before me and

poured

the

blood

of these animals on

to

my

head

which ran to the

long

neck

and

then into

the

pitcher

in

which the

rest

of

my body

was.

(69)

In

this

nameless,

early

morning

ceremony,

the hole takes the

place

of

the

gallows.

There is no

high

priest.

The

crowd,

in

its

abstraction,

presides

over the

ritual and

performs

the sacrifice.

The victim's

face

is

obliterated at

the expense of his head and its natural extension, the neck. The remainder

of the

body,

already

buried,

is

nothing

but

an

unnamable

magma.

Here, ghostly

terror finds its

expression

in the

combined forces of

song,

dance,

and immolation. In

this

linkage

resides its

spiralaspect,

its

singular

violence,

its

effects

of

terror.

The

uniqueness

of

ghostly power

is its

encircl-




11/27

10 Research

in

AfricanLiteratures

ing

of

the

subject,

surrounding

it

on all

sides,

investing

it and

tightening

around

it to the

point

that it cracks.

From this

perspective,

ghostly

terror

is

above all

physico-anatomical,

deriving

in

large part

from the characteristic

deformity

of the

ghost's body:

[M]

any

of

them had no hands

and some had

no

fingers,

some had

no

feet

and

arms

butjumped

instead of

walking.

Some had heads

without

eyes

and

ears,

but

I

was

very surprised

to see them

walking

about

both

day

and

night

without

missing

their

way

and also

it

was

this

day

I

had ever

seen

ghosts

without

clothes on their

bodies and

they

were

not ashamed of their nakedness.

(27)

Half-bodies

that

are cut

every

which

way,

made

incomplete

through

mutilation

and the

resulting

absence

of

symmetry,

but nevertheless

enjoying

magnified acuity

and

force,

and

capable

of

limping along:

such

is the

genius

of these monsters and

the source of their

power

(see

de Heusch

125-55).

The victim of

ghostly

terror

is

not sheltered

from

this

symbolic

of

asymme-

try.

Where

ghostly power

undertakes

to model its

victim's bodies

in its own

image,

terror

can

easily

be

transformed

into

a

demiurgic

surgery-crippled

bodies,

lost

parts,

scattered

fragments,

misshapings

and

wounds,

the libidi-

nal

dance of

hopeless

wars,

in

short,

generalized

dismemberment:

[T]

here were

many

kinds of African wars

and some

of them are

as

follows:

general

wars,

tribal

wars,

burglary

wars

and the slave wars

which were

very

common

in

every

town

and

village

and

particularly

in famous markets and on main roads of

big

towns at

any

time in

the

day

or

night.

(17-18)

Everyone

was

fleeing,

the

living,

the

dead,

the

next-to-dead,

the

ain't-gonna-make-it,

those who

were

whole,

those who

were

halves,

members,

bits,

that the blasts continued

to

pursue.

(Sony

Labou

Tansi,

La

vie

et

demie

40-41).

There

is another face of

ghostly

terror that ensues

from the

ghost's

ugli-

ness and

wretchedness.

Indeed,

the

ghost's body

teems with

a

multiplicity

of

living species: bees, mosquitoes, snakes, centipedes, scorpions, flies. From

it emanates

a

pestilential

odor

fed

by

never-ending

feces, urine,

blood-in

short,

the waste

of victims that

ghostly power

endlessly

crushes:

All kinds of

snakes,

centipedes

and flies were

living

on

every part

of

his

body.

Bees,

wasps

and uncountable

mosquitoes

were also

flying

round him and it was hard

to

see

him

plainly

because

of these

flies

and insects.

[ ...]

all

his

body

was

full

of

excreta, urine,

and also wet

with the rotten

blood of

all

the animals

that

he

was

killing

for his

food. His

mouth

which was

always

opening,

his nose and

eyes

were

very hard to look at as they were very dirty and smelling. (29)

Together,

the violence

of

deformity

and

the violence

of

ugliness

allow

ghostly power

to

acquire

this

ability

to double

and to divide into a

multi-

plicity

of

opposites

which,

to

paraphrase

Nietzsche,

in

the

end make

of it a




12/27

Achille

Mbembe

11

reality

that ceases

its

becoming

at one

moment,

and then an

instant

later,

is

returned to its

nothingness.

Ghostly

violence

is

deployed

under

diverse

shapes.

At

the base

of

all

these

figures

there is

nevertheless a

common

principle:

the

desire

to

murder:

To

my

surprise

was that when it

was about two o'clock

in

the mid-

night,

there

I

saw

somebody

enter into

the room

cautiously

with a

heavy

club

in

his

hands,

he

came

nearer to the bed on

which he

had told

me to

sleep,

then

he clubbed

the bed

with all

his

power,

he

clubbed

the centre

of

the bed

thrice and he returned

cautiously,

he

thought

that I

slept

on

that

bed and he

thought

also that

he had

killed me.

(198)

Incidentally,

in

the

ghostly realm, life and murder are one and the same

thing. Ghostly

terror

operates

also

through capture.

This too

assumes

diverse

forms.

The most

ordinary

of

these is

physical

capture.

It

consists

simply

in

binding

the

subject

hand

and

foot and

gagging

him like a

convict,

beyond

the

bearable,

to the

point

where he is

reduced to

immobility.

From then

on

he can

neither

run,

nor even

move.

He can

barely

stir: the

spectator

of

his

own

powerlessness.

Other forms

of

capture

occur

through

the

projection

of a

light

whose

starkness,

harshness,

and

brutality

invest

objects,

erase

them,

recreate

them,

and

then

plunge

the

subject

into

a

quasi-hallucinatory

drama:

So as he

lighted

the flood of

golden

light

on

my

body

and when I

looked

at

myself

I

thought

that I

became

gold

as it was

shining

on

my body,

so at

this

time I

preferred

most to

go

to

him

because of his

golden

light.

But as

I

moved forward

a little bit

to

go

to him

then

the

copperish-ghost lighted

the

flood

of

his own

copperish light

on

my

body

too,

which

persuaded

me

again

to

go

to the

golden-ghost

as

my

body

was

changing

to

every

colour that

copper

has,

and

my

body

was then

so

bright

so that I

was unable

to touch

it.

And

again

as

I

preferred

this

copperish

light

more than the

golden-light

then

I

started to

go

to

him,

but at this

stage

I

was

prevented again

to

go

to him

by

the

silverfish-light

which

shone on

to

my

body

at that

moment

unexpectedly.

This

silverfish-light

was

as

bright

as

snow

so

that it

transparented

every part

of

my body

and

it

was this

day

I

knew the number

of bones of

my

body.

But

immediately

I

started

to

count

them these

three

ghosts

shone the three kinds of

light

on

my

body

at

the same time in

such a

way

that

I

could not

move to and

fro

because of

these

lights.

But

as these

three old

ghosts

shone

their

lights

on me

at the same time

so

I

began

to

move round as a

wheel

at

thisjunction,

as

I

appreciated

these

lights

as

the same.

(24-25)

The

light

reflects its brilliance and its radiance on the

body

that has

become,

under

the

circumstances,

a luminous

dust,

a

porous

and translu-

cent matter. This

fluidification of

the

body

results

in the

suspension

of its

prehensile

and motor

functions. Its

component parts

become

legible.

The




13/27


14/27

Achille

Mbembe 13

lose the

memory

of their chains.

They

discard

their habitual

gestures,

liber-

ating

themselves

from

their

bodies,

so to

speak,

in

order

to

better

prolong,

through

a

multiplicity

of

intermingled

lines,

the creation of

the

world:

[W]hen Drum started to beat himself, all the people who had

been dead for hundreds

of

years,

rose

up

and

came

to

witness

Drum

when

beating;

and when

Song

began

to

sing

all

domes-

tic animals

of that new

town,

bush

animals with

snakes

etc.,

came

out

to

see

Song

personally,

but when

Dance

[.

.

.]

started

to

dance

the whole bush

creatures,

spirits,

mountain creatures

and

also all the

river

creatures

came to the town

to see who

was

danc-

ing.

When

these

three

fellows started at

the same

time,

the

whole

people

of the new

town,

the

whole

people

that

rose

up

from the

grave,

animals,

snakes,

spirits

and

other

nameless

creatures,

were

dancing together

with these three fellows and it was that day that

I

saw

that snakes were

dancing

more than

human-beings

or

other

creatures.

(263-64)

The

space

thus created

by

song,

dance,

and the

drum is that of

generalized

spectacle.

All of

the

energy imprisoned

in

the

bodies,

beneath

the

earth,

in

the

streams,

on the

mountains,

in the animal

and

vegetal

world,

is

sud-

denly

liberated,

and

none of

these entities

retains an identifiable

equivalent

or

referent.

In

fact,

they

are

no

longer

referents

of

anything

at all.

They

are

nothing

more

than

their

own inherent

totality.

The

dead,

the

spur

of

dance, the beat of the drum, and the ritual of resurrection dissolve into an

ambivalence

and

general dispersion

of all

things imaginable,

as

if

suddenly

let loose at

random: a telluric

sequence,

indeed,

through

which

that which

was

buried

has

been

jolted

out

of

sleep.

There

is also noise.

Ghostly

violence

consists

equally

in

an art

of

making

noise. That noise

is

not

gratuitous.

It is almost

always

linked

to

specific

operations

of control and surveillance:

I

noticed

carefully

at this

stage

that

if

they

are

breathing

in I would

hear the

cry

of

frogs,

toads,

pigs'

cry,

the

crowing

of

cocks,

the

noises

of

birds and as

if uncountable

dogs

are

barking

at the

same

time

[...

.] (66).

[T]he

cowrie

that was

tied

on her

neck made

a

curious

noise

at

once,

and when

the Skull

who was

watching

her

heard

the

noise,

he

woke

up

and blew the whistle to

the

rest,

then

the whole

of

them

rushed

to the

place

and surrounded

the

lady

and me

[.. .].

(210)

One noise

almost

always

calls

forth

another, which,

in

turn,

generally

gives

rein to

a crowd

movement.

Noise can reach

such a

pitch

that its

immediate

consequence

is

deafness:

[A]ll

these heads were

making

various

fearful

noises

with

louder

voices

along

the

way,

even the rest of us could

not hear

any

other

creatures' voices

except

their

own

which

nearly

made us become

deaf

(108).




15/27

14

Research

in

African

Literatures

The

Order of

Caprice

Ghostly

violence is

also of a

capricious

nature.

Caprice

here is

primarily

an

exercise in the arbitrary. It involves two distinct possibilities. The first is

laughing

at the

subjects'

misfortune:

After she

[Flash-eyed

Mother]

heard

[.

.

.]

from

them

[the

short

ghosts],

then she

flashed

the

fire of

both

her

eyes

on

my body,

and

it burnt

the animal skin which

I

wore as

a

cloth

and also burnt some

part

of

my body

as well at the same

time

[ ...]

but

as

my body caught

fire and

I

cried

suddenly

with a

loud

voice,

so

when

they

heard

my

sorrowful

voice

the

whole

of

them

burst into

a

great laugh

at a

time as

if

uncountable cannons

fired

together,

and her

own

laugh

among

the rest

wasjust

as

if

a bomb

explodes. (100)

The second is

overturning

everything, associating

every

single thing

with

many

others that do

not

necessarily

resemble

it,

all

capable

of

leading

to

totally unpredictable consequences. Caprice

consists,

as

well,

in

dissolv-

ing

the

identity

of each

thing

within

an

infinity

of

identities and

forms with

no

direct

link

to

their

origins. Ghostly

terror,

from

this

perspective,

is

based

on

the

negation

of

all

essential

singularity:

In

the

presence

of

these

guests,

my

boss

was

changing

me to

some

kinds of creatures. First of all he

changed

me

to

a

monkey,

then I

began to climb fruit trees and pluck fruits down for them. After

that

he

changed

me to

a

lion,

then

to a

horse,

to a

camel,

to a

cow

or bull with

horns on

its head

and at last to

my

former

form.

(36)

Ghostly

power presents

itself,

finally,

as

an

art of

savoring

the intoxication

of life:

After all of

them had

eaten and

drunk to their

entire satisfaction

then

they

were

dancing

the

ghost's

dance

round

me

and

beating

drums,

clapping

hands on me and

singing

the

song

of

ghosts

with

gladness

until

a

late

hour

in

the

night

before

every

one of

them

who

came from various provinces [...] returned to his or her province

[...].

(36-37)

In the

economy

of

ghostly

violence,

the

only

valid

archive is

therefore

the one that

brings everything

back

to

the

moment.

No one here is con-

demned

to

scream,

except

the

convict.

No

face

is

disfigured

except

his

own.

Nevertheless,

once

the

ceremony

is

over,

the

convict

is

immediately

returned to his

original

form.

The

ghosts

drink,

they

eat,

and

they

dance

around a

captive

who has been decked

out,

for the

occasion,

in a

garb

of

doubly

erotic and sadistic value.

Later,

the

convict is transformed into a horse that is mounted

and

ridden,

as

if

he

were

being

raped:

[T]hen

he

put

reins into

my

mouth and

tied

me on a

stump

with

a thick

rope,

after this he went back to the house and dressed

in

a

big

cloth which was

made

with a kind of

ghosts'

[.

.

.].

After a while




16/27

Achille Mbembe

15

he

came out with two

of his attendants

who

were

following

him

to

wherever

he wanted

to

go.

Then the

attendants loosened

me

from

the

stump,

so

he mounted me

and

the two attendants

were

following

him

with

whips

in their hands and

flogging

me

along

in

the

bush.

(37)

[A]s

I

was tied in the

sun all the

young ghosts

of this

village

were

mounting

me and

getting

down as

if I am

a tree as

they

were

very

surprised

to see

me

as

a horse.

(39)

[H]e

mounted

me and

the two attendants

were

following

him with

whips

in their hands

and

flogging

me

along

in the bush

[...]

a

fearful

ghost

[.

.

.]

brought

horse's food

[...]

I ate the corn

[...]

another terrible ghost [...

.]

brought urine [...] I tasted it as I was

exceedingly

feeling

thirsty

[...].

(37-39)

Ghostly power

harasses

the

subject,

screams,

beats him

mercilessly,

starves

him

for an

instant,

and then in the

next instant

forces him

to eat

exactly

as one feeds an

animal,

and makes

him drink

his own urine.

The Price of

the Slave

When

he does not

kill his

prey,

the

ghostly

power

seeks to

dismember

him- he told

them that

he would cut me

into

three

parts

and

give

each

part

to each of them so that there would be no more

misunderstanding

(30)

-or

failing

that,

sell

him:

[H]e

chained

me to a tree

together

with the other slaves

that

we

met

there,

all of us were

in

a

straight

line.

But within four

hours

all

the

rest slaves had been

sold and

nobody buys

me because of

the

sores.

When he waited

with

me till about two

o'clock

and

when

he

believed

that no one could

buy

me that

market

day,

then he

was

loosening

the chain from

me,

and when

he

was about to return

to

his town

a rich

man came

to the

market,

he

looked round but

saw

no more slaves except me, because he kept late, then he came to my

boss.

He

priced

me

very

poor

and

my

boss

agreed,

he told

him to

pay

any

amount that

he likes to

buy

me,

but

when

he stood before

me and

looked

at me for

many

hours he said

- I

cannot

buy

sores

for

my

town. Then

he went

back to his town.

But as

nobody buys

me and

I

remained

unsold,

so

my

boss was

flogging

me

repeatedly

along

the

way

back to

his town.

(168)

This exercise

is carried out

over

several weeks.

The master

attempts

to

sell the slave

but can

find

no

buyer.

At that

point

he

maps

out a

plan

by

himself:

If I take

you

to the market

once

more

and

if

nobody buys you

on

that

market

day

as well so

if I

am

returning

from

the

market to the

town

I will

kill

you

on the

way

and

throw

away

your body

into

the

bush,

because

you

are

entirely

useless for

any

purpose,

even I have




17/27

16 Research

in

AfricanLiteratures

told

several

of

my

friends to take

you

free of

charge

but none

of

them

accepts

the offer

[...].

(168)

Unfinished

business,

indeed. The

relationship

between the seller

(the

master) and the individual to be sold (the slave) is not one of filiation.

The master is

not

violating

the slave because

as

such,

the slave is not a

legal

human

subject.

The owner of

a

property simply

seeks to

part

with

his

prop-

erty.

But the

commodity

put

up

for

sale is

repulsive

in

the

eyes

of

potential

buyers. Consequently,

the master lowers

the

price

to the

point

of

its becom-

ing

a

fictive

price.

By

encouraging

the rich man to

make

any

offer

for

the

slave,

the

master

gives up

selling

at

a

high price

what he

purchased

for

little-or

really,

for

nothing

at

all. He

wants to

unload at a

cheap price-at

any price.

Value

is abolished. Terror and

cruelty

have

replaced

the desire to

sell.

Another,

more terrible

law, murder,

is

superimposed upon

an

act

that

is just as violent: the act of sale. Unsold, yet killed, the body emerges from

the

register

of

merchandise and

property.

The

Body

and

the

Burden

of Life

In Tutuola's

universe,

the self

appears

not as

an

entity,

created once and

for

all,

but as

a

subject

au

travail,

in the

making.

Work itself

is a

permanent

activity.

Life is sketched out

through

successive

shapes

that constitute

just

as

many

lived

experiences.

It flows

forth

like

the tide.

In

the work

for

life

(le

travailpour

la

vie)

are

mobilized

several

registers

of

action. One

of

these

registers consists in trapping the other, as the bearer of danger or death:

[..

.]

I

stopped

and

dug

a

pitt

of

his

(Death's)

size

on the

centre

of

that

road,

after that

I

spread

the net which

the old man

gave

me to

bring

him

(Death)

with on

that

pit

[.

..].

When

it was

6

o'clock

in

the

morning,

I went to

his

door

and

woke

him

up

as

usual,

then I

told

him that

I

wanted to return to

my

town

this

morning,

so

that

I

wanted

him to lead

me

a

short

distance;

then

he

got up

from

his

bed and he

began

to

lead me as

I

told

him,

but

when he

led me

to

that

place

that

I

had

dug,

I

told

him

to

sit

down,

so

I

myself

sat down on the road

side,

but

as he

sat

down

on

the

net,

he fell into the

pit,

and without

any

ado I rolled

up

the net with

him

and

put

him

on

my

head

and I

kept going

to the old man's house

who told

me to

go

and

bring

him

Death.

(198)

Work

for life

thus consists in

capturing

death and

exchanging

it for some-

thing

else.

From

this

point

of

view,

the

currency

of life is death.

Death

is

both

the value

of

exchange

and

the means

of

exchange. Capture requires

having

recourse to

subterfuge.

The

objective,

each

time,

is

to

immobilize

the

other

by

enticing

his

body

into one's snares.

Central to the work

for

life is,

obviously,

the

body,

to which several

prop-

erties can be attributed. The

body,

as

such,

is

not endowed with

any

intrinsic

meaning. Strictly speaking,

in the drama of

life,

the

body

signifies

nothing

in

itself.

It is an

interlacing,

or even a bundle of

processes

that

in and of

themselves have no immanent or

primordial

meaning.

Thus,

there is an ele-




18/27

Achille

Mbembe

17

ment of

thing-ness

in

every corporeality

(notwithstanding

Merleau-Ponty

in

Phenomenologie

231).

The work

for

life

also consists

in

sparing

the

body

from

degeneration

into absolute

thing-ness.

A

mode

of

existence that renders this

possible

is

dissimulation,

a

manner

of

groping along

on the back of

things

and

playing

out the

comedy

before oneself and others.

As an anatomical

reality,

the

body

in

Tutuola's

fiction is also an assem-

blage

of

organs,

each

with a

specific

function.

As

such,

it

is not the seat of

any

such

singularity

that

one

could state once and

for all and

absolutely:

I

possess my body.

I

can,

in

fact,

hire out

parts

of

my body

to

others:

As

they

were

traveling along

in

this endless

forest then the

com-

plete gentleman

in the market that the

lady

was

following,

began

to

return the

hired

parts

of

his

body

to the owners

and he was

paying

them

the

rentage

money.

When he reached where

he hired the left

foot, he

pulled

it out, he

gave

it to the owner and

paid

him, and

they kept going;

when

they

reached the

place

where he hired

the

right

foot,

he

pulled

it out and

gave

it

to

the owner

and

paid

for

the

rentage.

Now both

feet had

returned

to the owners

[...].

(203)

The

ability

to

dissociate

oneself from one's own

body

is thus the

prereq-

uisite for all work

for

life.

Through

this

operation,

the

subject

can,

if

neces-

sary,

protect

his life

through

borrowed effect. He

can

feign

his

existence,

shed the

signs

of

servitude,

participate

in

the

masquerade

of the

gods,

or

even,

under the mask

of a

bull,

abscond with

virgins.

Indeed, the one who at one moment can dissociate himself from parts

of his

body

can,

at another

moment,

recover them as

soon

as the

exchange

is

completed.

This does

not mean that there are

parts

of

the

body

that

might

be considered

excess

baggage

and

can

be

squandered.

It

simply

means

that one

does not need

to have with

one,

at the same

time,

all

the

parts

of

one's

own

body.

Suddenly,

the

body's

primary

virtue

does not

reside

in

the

symbolic

extension of which it is the

seat,

but rather

in its

constitution as a

privileged

zone of the

expression

of

the senses.

The

body

resides

in the

potentialities

of

its

organs

taken as a whole or

separately,

in

the

reversibility

and

exchangeability

of

its

pieces,

their mort-

gaging, and their restitution by payment. In the ghostly economy, the body

is

alive

to

the extent that

its

organs

can be

instrumentalized

in

a

process

of

exchange

with

death. It

is

the

deployment

of the

organs,

their

malleability

and their more or less autonomous

power

that renders

the

body

alive.

The

Wandering

Subject

But there is no

body

except

in

and

through

movement.

That

is

why

there

is no

subject

but a

wandering

one.

The

wandering

subject

moves from

one

place

to another.

Journey

as such

does not need a

precise

destination: the

wanderer can

go

about as he

pleases.

There can be

predetermined

stages

for

thejourney.

But the

path

does not

always

lead to the

desired

destination.

What is

important

is where one ends

up,

the road traveled to

get

there,

the

series of

experiences

in which one is actor and

witness,

and above

all,

the

role

played by

the

unexpected

and the unforeseen.




19/27

18

Research

in

African

Literatures

Along

with motor

functions,

work

Jor

lie

rests

upon

olfactory

functions.

These are

inseparable

from the

operation

of other

senses,

for instance

sight

and

taste. Such

is

notably

the case when

the

subject

experiences

hunger

or

thirst.

The

status of

odors and aromas is

nevertheless

complex; they

also

serve to

locate

the road

that could lead to

deliverance:

[A]

s

I

stood

at

the

junction

of

these

passages

with confusion

three

kinds of sweet smells were

rushing

out to me from

each

of these

three

rooms,

but

as

I

was

hungry

and also

starving

before I entered

into

this

hole,

so I

began

to sniff the

best smell so that

I

might

enter

the

right

room at once

from which the best

sweet smell was rush-

ing

out.

Of

course as

I

stood on

thisjunction

I

noticed

through my

nose that the smell which

was

rushing

out

of

the room which had

golden

surroundings

was

just

as if

the inhabitant of

it was

baking

bread and roasting fowl, and when I sniffed again the smell of the

room

which

had

copperish surroundings wasjust

as if the inhabit-

ant of it was

cooking

rice,

potatoes

and other

African food

with

very

sweet

soup

[...].

(23)

The other

ability

required

for

this work

for

life

is the

ability

to metamor-

phose.

The

subject

can

morph

under

any

circumstances. This is

notably

the

case in

situations

of

conflict and

adversity:

Having

left

this

village

to a

distance of a mile

this

ghost magician

came to

me on the

way,

he asked

me to let both of us

share the

gifts,

but when I refused he

changed

to a

poisonous

snake,

he wanted to

bite me

to

death,

so

I

myself

used

my

magical power

and

changed

to

a

long

stick

at the same

moment and started to

beat

him

repeatedly.

When he felt much

pain

and near to

die,

then

he

changed

from

the snake

to

a

great

fire and

burnt this stick to

ashes,

after that

he

started

to burn me too.

Without hesitation

I

myself

changed

to

rain,

so

I

quenched

him

at once.

Again

he controlled the

place

that

I

stood

to become

a

deep

well

in

which I

found

myself

unexpectedly

and without

any

ado he controlled this rain

to be

raining

into the

well while I

was

inside. Within a

second the well

was

full of

water.

But

when

he wanted

to close the door of

the well so that I

might

not be able to come out

again

or to die inside

it,

I

myself changed

to a

big

fish to swim out. But

at the same moment

he saw the fish

he

himself

changed

to a

crocodile,

he

jumped

into the well and came

to

swallow

me,

but

before he could

swallow me

I

changed

to a

bird

and

also

changed

the

gifts

to a

single palm

fruit,

I

held it

with

my

beak and

then

flew out of

the well

straight

to

the

18th town. Without

any

ado

he

changed

himself

again

to a

big

hawk

chasing

me about

in

the

sky

to

kill

as his

prey.

But

when

I

believed that

no doubt

he

would kill me very soon, then I changed again to the air and blew

within

a second

to a

distance

which

a

person

could not travel on

foot for

thirty years.

But when I

changed

to

my

former form at the

end of this

distance,

to

my surprise,

there I met him

already,

he

had reached

there

before me and was

waiting

for me a

long

time.




20/27

Achille

Mbembe

19

Now we

appeared personally

to ourselves.

Then he asked me

to

bring

the

gifts,

but after

both of us

struggled

for

many

hours,

then

I

shared the

gifts

into two

parts,

I

gave

him

a

part,

but he insisted

to

take the whole.

However,

I

gave

him all.

(158-59)

The act

par

excellence

f

morphing

consists

in

constantly

exiting

out of

oneself,

going beyond

oneself

in

an

agonizing,

centripetal

movement

that

is

all the more

terrifying

as

the

possibility

of

returning

to

the

center

is never

assured.

In

this

context,

where

existence is tethered

to

very

few

things,

iden-

tity

can

only

live

its life in

a

fleeting

mode.

Inhabiting

a

particular

being

can

only

be

temporary.

It

is essential to know

how to

disguise

this

particu-

lar

being,

reproduce

it,

split

it,

retrieve

it as

necessary.

Not to be

ahead of

oneself

literally

means

running

the risk of

death.

The Cadaver

There

are

likewise

circumstances of

life in

the

course

of

which,

despite

an

insatiable desire to

exist,

the

living being

is condemned

to

take on

not its

individual and

singular

shape,

but the

identity

of

a dead

person:

He was

exceedingly glad

as

he

discovered

me as the dead

body

of

his

father,

then he took

me on his head and

kept going

to the town

at

once with

joy [...].

When he carried

me and

appeared

in

the town all his town's

ghosts asked him that what sort of heavy load he was carrying and

sweating

as if

he bathed

in

water like

this,

so he

replied

that it

was

the dead

body

of his

father

[ ...].

But

when

his

town's

ghosts

and

ghostesses

heard

so,

they

were

shouting

with

joy

and

following

him

to

his house.

Having

reached his house and

when

his

family

saw

me

[.. .]

they thought

that it was true

I

was

the dead

body

of

their

father,

so

they

performed

the

ceremony

which

is to be

performed

for

deads at once.

[...]

Then

they

told a

ghost

who is a

carpenter

among

them to

make

a

solid

coffin. Within an

hour he

brought

it,

but when

I

heard about

the coffin it was at that time I believed that they wanted to bury

me

alive,

then I

was

trying my

best to tell

them that

I

am not

his

dead

father,

but I

was

unable

to

talk at all

[...]

and

I was

unable

to

shake

my body

to show

them that I am still

alive

[.. .].

So after the

carpenter brought

the

coffin,

then

they put

me inside it

and

also

put

more

spiders

inside

it before

they

sealed

it at once

[.

.

.].

After

that

they dug

a

deep

hole as a

grave

in

the

back

yard

and buried

me there as a dead man.

(90-92)

The father is

thus dead

and

has not left behind

any

exact

replica

of him-

self. This void, created by the absence of this essential mark-the cadaver

of the

deceased-is

experienced

as an

immense

breach in

the

real. For

the mark

of the cadaver is an essential

component

of the

signifier

which

is death. Without this

mark,

the dead

person

and

his death are inscribed

in

Documents

Life and Sovereignity Achille Mbembe