The Anachronism of Conservatism: A Postmodern Figure of History in

Rene Maran’s Batuoala

In postmodernism, a kind of temporal distortion is used in a variety of ways. It is either

the author jumps forward or backward in time (nonlinear), or features cultural and historical

references that do not fit in the actual period (anachronism). In Batuoala, it employs the latter.

Anachronism in historical postmodern fiction is an effective example of temporal disorder

because it flaunts “glaring inconsistencies of detail or setting” (Jayasena, 2007). One such

glaring inconsistency is the presence of Batuoala, as the chief, who is bound to worn-out

traditions in his modernizing environment.

Since Batuoala comes from the biographical perspective of its author Rene Maran, the

narrative of colonialism would play an important role in the process of understanding history.

However, while the novel shows the gradual destructive effect of the French colonial rule in an

African society, the anachronism of Batuoala practicing Conservatism is also significant. This

philosophy of Conservatism according to Mastin (2008) favors tradition in the sense of a cultural

belief and tradition. It is rooted in the tradition, hierarchy, and inherently skeptical or resistant to

modernization. It is from this idea that a literary analysis of the African novel Batouala with the

anachronism of conservatism is proposed.

Batuoala, the old chief in the village of Ubangui-Shari, reflects an African culture that

shows being a good member of the tribe. Each member is expected to contribute to the tribe by

being faithful to its customs and traditions. In the novel, he was introduced with his simple

pleasure of morning ritual of scratching himself, yawning, rubbing his eyes with the back of his

hand, smoking, and making love to his sleeping wife. These mundane acts he performs daily and

mindlessly are very old habit that he adapted from his parents, who also inherited from theirs. As

a guardian of obsolete customs, he (Batuoala) remained faithful to the traditions which his

ancestors had passed on to him, but didn’t go deeply into anything outside of that. If anything

were in opposition to custom, all reasoning was useless. (p. 23).

The novel also introduces the theme of sexual tradition in which the entire village

participates in a festive love dance called Ga'nza. This is when the circumcision of the young
boys initiated to the secret cult of the “Somales” and the excision of the girls is held in public.

(p. 22). It is significant, for it highlights the concept of socialized sexuality, and the erotic

association between nature and man; between the African and his surroundings. The sound of the

drum is fundamental in creating this highly charged sexual atmosphere. "And what cries, what

laughs, what gestures! The presence of so many men and of so many women, the beer, the hemp,

the activity, the joy pushed the quivering heat of desire little by little to its culmination" (p. 93).

Batuoala’s thoughts and actions are tradition-inspired, he rejects anything that opposes

custom. He hates the ridiculousness of whites, the boundjous, who are “the vilest and most

perfidious of men” and therefore worthy of contempt. According to Batuoala, the whites’

inventions from shoes and the radio to the telescope and the bicycle, their proud claim of

knowing “everything and then some,” their atrocities and exploitation of the natives in the name

of civilization, their paternalism and enslavement of the black people, and their “malignity and

omniscience” make them “terrifying”. More important to Batouala, the boundjous robbed the

villagers of their dances and songs, their whole life. Batouala vows that he will not tire of telling

about the boundjous’ cruelty until his last breath. “I will never tire of telling”, uttered Batouala,

of the wickedness of the ‘boundjous’. Until my last breath, I will reproach them for their cruelty,

their duplicity, their greed. (p. 75).

Batuoala represents how Maran gives extreme respect for tradition as a reasoned

conservatism. Just like most Conservatives Maran patriotically support and identify with his own

nation. His patriotism could not blind him to the barbarism of colonial life in Africa. While he

worked as a dutiful civil servant, he collected stories of exploitation and cruelty. He saw how

local people were taxed, bullied and abused by French officials and how indigenous African

culture was derided in the name of the “civilizing mission.” These personal experiences formed

the background of the novel that he worked on for nine years.

This classic novel captures this underlying theme of conservatism, which is anachronistic

in a postmodern writing, and reaffirms its deeply rooted tradition in an African literature of

French expression.
References:

Jayasena, N. (2007). Contested Masculinities: Crises in Colonial Male Identity from Joseph
Conrad to Satyajit Ray, New York, Routledge.

Maran, R. (1972). Batuoala. Black Orpheus Press Inc., Washington D.C., U.S.A.

Mastin, L. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_conservatism.html