Babouk, and the Communist Manifesto

Babouk was far different from what I expected. I understood, before starting it, that it would be about slavery and essentially the oppression by whites. The foreword said that it was a good book, not a great book by literary standards, but a good book. I happen to think it's a great book.

Babouk starts with a man, named Babouk, who is captured and taken into slavery. The author describes why a person might end up enslaved, ranging from war prisoners to debt to one's own family member simply selling this person for extra money or goods. This fascinated me, as I had never put much thought into this. I knew that slaves were taken from Africa to satisfy the demand for workers over in the West. However, why a person might end up there, most likely unwillingly, is an intriguing thing to consider. He also talks about the ship, what the slaves do, how they live, what happens to them on their way to wherever they're being taken. Certainly one might have heard about them being chained together, dying from starvation or wounds or homesickness. But the scenes with the dancing were new and different. And the language barriers, experienced not only between the whites and blacks but also the tribes from Africa presented a challenge that, when in such a situation is obvious, but when set apart, it might not be the first thought in one's mind.

There were many clear points of precarity and oppression throughout the book. The commentary on how the whites remained self-assured was by walking all over the black man each day seemed coarse, but correct. In modern times, it is strange to think about owning another person, and keeping them subordinate by whipping them and making them feel like a lesser race. However, in the context of Babouk, this seems like an accurate description. How could a slave owner keep hundreds of slaves working for him, even though he is one man with a few overseers? The blacks grew to accept that whites were superior, the masters and higher in the food chain. Babouk had to tell his fellow slaves that the whites were the same, except they had different resources. At the end, when looting the houses of their slain masters, the slaves also found out that the "godliness" of the whites was not as real or amazing as they had previously thought. Their houses were nicer, their pictures in frames, their furniture upholstered. But they were disappointed to find that the main house from which they were banned was not so glorious.

One thing that struck me was that the blacks seemed to have a culture, whereas the whites did not. The slave culture was based somewhat on their African backgrounds- they had music, dancing, singing, storytelling, crafts, skills, religious beliefs. The whites, however, were mostly boring. They were supposed to be from France, but what culture did they express? They were Christian. They dressed nicely. They owned expensive things. They danced- but not to express themselves; they danced at balls, in society settings. The contrast between the two, though it showed who did all the work and who had all the money, really just made the whites seem boring and the slaves seem like the real people. And with this point, comes the fact that it was the slaves who were treated like animals.

This book was a great one, which I really enjoyed. It was engaging and enlightening. The stories that Babouk made up, and the effect it had on his audience was enjoyable. Also, the creation stories that were told were very intriguing- how the white men and the black men were changed color- in one, God changed the devil's man black out of anger; in the other, God changed Cain white, because of what he did to his black brother. The contrast, between which man was the result of God's anger, is not immediately noticeable. However, they represent two different ideas- who is the evil one, the whites or the blacks? Who deserves to be considered better, more of a man, the superior man versus the slave/subordinate?

The black men have it ingrained that they are the servers of the white man, that the whites are great and powerful and smart- yet the blacks eventually realized that they're all men; one race of man is "better" than the other.

The Communist Manifesto makes a number points about the effects of the bourgeoisie on the rest of society. These points seem obvious- they do not take much thought to understand. However, they are the sorts of observations that, until they are made, one does not give much thought to. For example, "oppressor and oppressed... stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or the common ruin of the contending classes. " This is not the way that everyone would describe society or history, but it is a very true statement- the major reconstructions of class or even the total upheaval of the system occurs because of contending classes in society. Another point, "Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilized ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois..." the functionality of previously independent societies, both rural and urban, found the need for things that previously were unnecessary. But, the bourgeoisie created within their system the means for their downfall. This is also mentioned, and is innately true. Within a system is always the flaw that can break the system, and in this case, the oppressed have the means to take away the power from the oppressors.

However, just as is seen in Babouk, the truth is- the proletariat must discover that they are equal to the bourgeois, and that they do in fact have the means to rise to that level. The black slaves had always thought that something made them different from white men, that something made the white men able to control them. In reality, they are both the same, except that the black men think they do not have a choice. Once they discover their power in numbers, they have a plan to overthrow the reigning white race. They are defeated by the condition of their class, however- the white men have canons, while the black men have spears. In a contest of weaponry, the money that the white men made off of the black men saved them.

In the case of oppressing the proletariat- because society considers the investor to be the power behind the capital, not the workers who create the capital, it is this which keeps the proletariat from affecting the change necessary to create different conditions.