King Solomon's Mines (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Read Online Free
Author: H. Rider Haggard
fratricidal story of Cain and Abel from the Bible is surely not far behind. This richness of reference is part of the lasting fascination of King Solomon’s Mines.
When the travelers arrive at the Hall of the Dead to discover the beheaded, mummified corpse of a Zulu king, Quatermain likens this horrific image to Hamilton Tighe, a beheaded sailor who in The Ingoldsby Legends appears carrying his own head (p. 176).
Racism and Sexism
The depiction of Africans in King Solomon’s Mines has rightly attracted much condemnation in recent years. At the start of the book, Quatermain announces that he doesn’t like calling natives by the term that today has become known as “the n-word” and yet he abundantly uses another term, kafir, which in South Africa is hardly less offensive (p. 11). The villainous king Twala is introduced as having “the most entirely repulsive countenance we had ever beheld. The lips were as thick as a negro’s, the nose was flat, it had but one gleaming black eye ... and its whole expression was cruel and sensual to a degree” (p. 96).
It is true that Quatermain says some Africans are gentlemen, while some “mean whites with lots of money” are not (p. 10). Still, the book contains some mean-spirited jokes against Africans, such as when some natives sample champagne belonging to their employers and Quatermain tells them that it is medicine and they are “as good as dead men. They went on to the shore in a very great fright, and I do not think that they will touch champagne again” (p. 27). Presumably this joke was intended as punishment for stealing champagne, but it seems unjustified all the same.
Africans are also the subject of some bluff, gross-out humor, such as the gratuitous account of a native whose toe amputation “was a pleasure to see,” followed by the “Kafir” asking after the operation for a white toe to be attached in place of the missing one (p. 33). Perhaps the most low-minded instance of racism in the book occurs when Umbopa, eventually revealed as exiled royalty whose real name is Ignosi, states that “black people” do not “hold life so high as [whites]” (p. 118). By having an African say this, Haggard lends extra authority to this dehumanizing notion. Similarly, the native maiden Foulata declares herself opposed to miscegenation: “‘Can the sun mate with the darkness, or the white with the black?’” (p. 197). Putting racist sentiments in the mouths of African characters is a particularly insidious form of racist discourse.
Yet the nobility of Umbopa/Ignosi as depicted in King Solomon’s Mines is undeniable. Haggard does not have a uniformly low opinion of Africans, at least not much lower than his view of humanity in general. Elephants stampeding during a hunt are described as pushing one another “in their selfish panic, just like so many human beings” (p. 44). Haggard is suggesting that animals at their worst can be as bestial as humans. Africans who are spared the impediments of modern Western culture might be noble, but they can sometimes reveal character flaws as bad as Western man’s.
Similarly, Quatermain’s translations of what certain Africans say in the narrative reflect his view of Africa and Africans. Umpoba speaks of the mountains leading to the treasure as “a strange land there, a land of witchcraft and beautiful things; a land of brave people, and of trees, and streams, and white mountains, and of a great white road” (p. 50). The noble Umbopa’s prose cadences seem to prefigure the style of Ernest Hemingway. Yet elsewhere the ancient, evil African crone Gagaoola intones: “Blood! blood! blood! rivers of blood; blood everywhere ... Footsteps! footsteps! footsteps! the tread of the white man coming from afar” (p. 100). The thrice-repeated rhythmic incantations are comparable to the Civil War tune, “Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The boys are marching,” by George Frederick Root (1820-1895), as well as ballads by Haggard’s friend
When the travelers arrive at the Hall of the Dead to discover the beheaded, mummified corpse of a Zulu king, Quatermain likens this horrific image to Hamilton Tighe, a beheaded sailor who in The Ingoldsby Legends appears carrying his own head (p. 176).
Racism and Sexism
The depiction of Africans in King Solomon’s Mines has rightly attracted much condemnation in recent years. At the start of the book, Quatermain announces that he doesn’t like calling natives by the term that today has become known as “the n-word” and yet he abundantly uses another term, kafir, which in South Africa is hardly less offensive (p. 11). The villainous king Twala is introduced as having “the most entirely repulsive countenance we had ever beheld. The lips were as thick as a negro’s, the nose was flat, it had but one gleaming black eye ... and its whole expression was cruel and sensual to a degree” (p. 96).
It is true that Quatermain says some Africans are gentlemen, while some “mean whites with lots of money” are not (p. 10). Still, the book contains some mean-spirited jokes against Africans, such as when some natives sample champagne belonging to their employers and Quatermain tells them that it is medicine and they are “as good as dead men. They went on to the shore in a very great fright, and I do not think that they will touch champagne again” (p. 27). Presumably this joke was intended as punishment for stealing champagne, but it seems unjustified all the same.
Africans are also the subject of some bluff, gross-out humor, such as the gratuitous account of a native whose toe amputation “was a pleasure to see,” followed by the “Kafir” asking after the operation for a white toe to be attached in place of the missing one (p. 33). Perhaps the most low-minded instance of racism in the book occurs when Umbopa, eventually revealed as exiled royalty whose real name is Ignosi, states that “black people” do not “hold life so high as [whites]” (p. 118). By having an African say this, Haggard lends extra authority to this dehumanizing notion. Similarly, the native maiden Foulata declares herself opposed to miscegenation: “‘Can the sun mate with the darkness, or the white with the black?’” (p. 197). Putting racist sentiments in the mouths of African characters is a particularly insidious form of racist discourse.
Yet the nobility of Umbopa/Ignosi as depicted in King Solomon’s Mines is undeniable. Haggard does not have a uniformly low opinion of Africans, at least not much lower than his view of humanity in general. Elephants stampeding during a hunt are described as pushing one another “in their selfish panic, just like so many human beings” (p. 44). Haggard is suggesting that animals at their worst can be as bestial as humans. Africans who are spared the impediments of modern Western culture might be noble, but they can sometimes reveal character flaws as bad as Western man’s.
Similarly, Quatermain’s translations of what certain Africans say in the narrative reflect his view of Africa and Africans. Umpoba speaks of the mountains leading to the treasure as “a strange land there, a land of witchcraft and beautiful things; a land of brave people, and of trees, and streams, and white mountains, and of a great white road” (p. 50). The noble Umbopa’s prose cadences seem to prefigure the style of Ernest Hemingway. Yet elsewhere the ancient, evil African crone Gagaoola intones: “Blood! blood! blood! rivers of blood; blood everywhere ... Footsteps! footsteps! footsteps! the tread of the white man coming from afar” (p. 100). The thrice-repeated rhythmic incantations are comparable to the Civil War tune, “Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The boys are marching,” by George Frederick Root (1820-1895), as well as ballads by Haggard’s friend
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