The Great Discoverers

Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe won the Man Booker international prize earlier this month and in The Guardian article prompted by this award, the writer refers to him as “a relatively obscure but richly merited choice.” She then pauses and asks the question: “Obscure for whom?” and goes on to say, “I was struck anew by how towering figures in world literature can fall beneath the radar in the west, or slip from memory.”

It reminded me again how West-o-centric our sense of culture, art and literature tends to be. Even our sense of civilization, innovation, invention and discovery. Part of it is to due to the West’s love of the arts and a belief in the arts power to illuminate, uplift and educate - as well as in its use to entertain, communicate and persuade. We see all over the world stories in fiction, film, theatre and art created and disseminated by Western creatives. There is a power in these stories that reaches out across cultures to move the human heart - whether to anger, laughter, compassion or tears. That’s down to the skill of great story-telling. But inevitably those stories place the Westerner and Western values at their core. Why? Because we all like to hear stories about ourselves so of course the West will tell stories about themselves and gravitate towards stories about themselves.

In the same way that Malaysians or Nigerians or Indians and so on like to hear stories about themselves.

So, it was that West-o-centric view that created the great discoverers of olden days. Off Columbus went to “discover” America. Off Raffles went to “discover” Singapore. One might equally ask, “Discover for whom?” Thanks very much but for the Native Americans, they already knew that America was there. As did the Malays and Chinese with Singapore.

I remember an old Punch magazine cartoon which showed Sir Edmund Hillary arriving at the top of Mount Everest full of self-satisfied, over-excited bug-eyed joy at his great achievement for mankind. In the background is a family of Indians, the ladies in saris, having a picnic - all turning to gaze bemused at this mad Englishman. (The cartoon I am sure was drawn by an Englishman!)

I have many questions: is this so-called “cultural imperialism” to do with there not being enough great writers / artists in non-Western cultures? Or is it to do with a bias towards stories about “us” by people like “us”? Is it to do with different levels of education, literacy and appreciation of the value of art in different cultures? Or is it something more banal like the economic power of Western nations to create and distribute more widely their artistic products?

Photo: of Columbus and the people he “discovered” thanks to umich.edu