|
3.The English realistic anti-colonial novel in the 50-60’s of the XX-th century developed in the way of representation of the fall of the English colonialism in artistic form. The main representatives of this kind of novel in the second half of the XX-th century were the following writers such as Basil Davidson (“The Rapids”), Desmond Stewart (“The Unsuitable Englishman”), James Aldridge (“The Diplomat”) and Graham Greene (“The Quiet American”).
Basil Davidson (1914 - 2010) was born in Bristol, England, and led a rich and successful life. He became an accomplished contributor to the studies of African history. His important contributions in the field developed a school of modern African history, where the prejudices and presumptions of African civilization were abandoned and archaeological evidence was embraced. His study of African history and archaeology helped change the view of African civilizations from being "backward" or unrefined to a view of an Africa that was sophisticated both culturally and technologically. His career includes the membership of the editorial staff for The Economist. Afterwards he served in the British Army from 1940-1945, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His military accomplishments include the Military Cross and the US Army Bronze Star. Afterwards he returned to writing as a Paris corespondent in London for The Times, he held this position until 1947 when he became a European leader writer for two years. Throughout this career he spent much of his time on free-lance writing. Davidson's book "The Lost Cities of Africa" won him the 1960 Anisfield-Wolf Award for the best book which dealt with racial problems in creative literature. He earned a lot of other medals, awards and honorary degrees from the Open University of Great Britain in 1980, and the University of Edinburgh in 1981. For his film "Africa" he won the Gold Award from the International Film and Television Festival of New York in 1984. Basil Davidson's work helped break the narrow views of Africa and promoted study of the history and culture in a more favourable light. Davidson’s book West Africa before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850emphasizes the sophistication of pre-colonial Africa in a very accessible manner. It is written for people not familiar with West African history. Davidson gives many stories on various kingdoms and themes in this book. Some of the chapter topics include: antiquity of West African history, the Ghana empire, Mali, eastern Sudan and other societies. Davidson challenges his readers to forget racial boundaries and understand the enormous, complex region.
Another book, The Black Man's Burden, collects most of Basil Davidsons's ideas. Davidson made this book as an attempt to offer all of his wisdom and conclusions from a lifetime of study of Africa. He notes the difficulty in analysing African history, especially in dealing with the Eurocentric point-of-view. The liberation of Africa was not true. It was just a change from one kind of dominance to another. Africa was still somewhat under the power of Europe after all the countries had been freed. Davidson emphasizes the use of Eurocentric and racist approaches of the colonists towards the Africans. He emphasizes the strength of pre-colonial Africa and its ability to solve its own problems.
The Search for Africa is a collection of essays and articles written by Davidson between 1953 and 1992. He wrote these as Africa broke free from colonial rule and began to recover. The troubles currently existing in Africa are the result of the poor colonial rule. Colonial rule hurt Africans because they used it as their example of democracy. Under such circumstances nationalism was a uniting and freeing force, but it has expired. Davidson suggests that Africa needs to rescue the social policies of pre-colonial Africa that created stability and curbed corruption. Davidson does not offer many concrete solutions to the problems of Africa. He merely presents his ideas but just the same he is consistent in his passion for African studies.
Davidson was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and MI6, D Section. He was sent to Budapest, Hungary in December 1939 under the cover of establishing a news service. In April 1941, with the Nazi invasion, he fled to Belgrade,Yugoslavia. In May, he was captured by Italian forces and was later released as part of a prisoner exchange.
From late 1942 to mid-1943, he was chief of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) Yugoslav Section in Cairo, Egypt, where he was James Klugmann's supervisor. He parachuted into Bosnia on 16 August 1943, and spent the following months serving as a liaison with the Partisans, as he would describe in his 1946 book, Partisan Picture. Davidson moved east intoSrem and the Fruška Gora. He was nearly captured or killed several times. SOE higher-ups sent him to Hungary to try to organize a rebel movement there, but Davidson found that the conditions weren't ripe and crossed back over the Danube into the Fruska Gora. The Germans encircled the Fruška Gora in June 1944 in a last attempt to liquidate the Partisans there, but Davidson and the others made a narrow escape. After the Soviets moved into Yugoslavia, Davidson was airlifted out. Davidson had enormous appreciation for the Partisans and the communist leader Josip Broz Tito.
From January 1945 Davidson was liaison officer with partisans in Liguria and Genoa, Italy. He was present for the surrender of the German forces in Genoa on 26-27 April 1945. He finished the war as a lieutenant-colonel and was awarded theMilitary Cross and was mentioned in despatches on two occasions.[5]
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
