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Essay on Race and Culture: Old Chief Mshlanga
The story of The Old Chief Mshlanga is about a fourteen-year-old girl whose name is not mentioned otherwise than her African nickname Nkosikaas. The adolescent Nkosikaas, who is also the narrator, tells her story of how she grew aware of the immense landscape of Africa, how she met the old chief Mshlanga who intrigued her that she even visited his kraal (village), how her dislike of locals and her fear of them grew into an easy friendliness for the Africans.
Lessing depicts the interactions among her characters honestly and critically, focusing on her own behavior and motivations. For instance, she admits apologetically that her visit to the Old Chief's village had been less motivated by neighborly, friendly interest than by an inappropriate, nosey curiosity. Additionally, she describes her own cruelty in allowing her dogs to terrorize a native by flushing him up a tree as if he were a bird. She also recognizes the meanness of white children’s games that involved hailing a passing native to make a buffoon out of him; they would throw sticks or stones at a small black child with less feeling than they would have had for a dog. This honest and critical portrayal of her experiences allows Lessing to show the development of the little girl from participant to critical observer.
Nkosikaas develops an awareness and sensitivity to the plight of her black neighbors, after several meetings with Mshlanga during which the exchange of courtesies between them seemed to answer the troubling and repressed questions of usurped ownership (Caroline, 2001). Soon after her first encounter with the chief, Nkosikaas only uses her gun for obtaining food, rather than as a crutch for confidence during her long walks and explorations of the African landscape.
The other landscape fades in her mind as she finally becomes truly acclimated to her African home, recognizing and understanding her alienation as a white migrant within it......
