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Laura Bohannan Leura Bohannan is a former professor ity, the old man spent most of his time of enthropology at the University of l- performing ceremonies. seldom seen — linois, a: Chicaga. these days in the more accessible pans i of the tbe. Iwas delighted. Soon there w would be tree months of enforced iso- 8 BE us: before 1 Jett Oxford forthe TW ination and Keisure, between the harvest Te West Alia, comersaion tured 10 the tht takes place just before the rising of saws BBP cason at Statiord. “You Americans” the swamps and the clearing of now ime BE ice trend “often have difficulty with farms when the water goes down. Then, SE BB Stakespeare. He was, afer all a very thooght they would have even more sien IB English poct, and one can easly misin- time 10 perform ceremonies and explain £6. BBB egret the univeral by misunderstand. them to me. ing the panialar® Twas quite mistaken. Most of the ae 1 protested that human nature is cctemonies demanded the presence of prety much the same the whole world elders from several homesteads. AS the {ner at Jest the general plot and moti-. Swamps rose, tbe old men found it 100 vation of the greater tragedies would al. cificul: 10 walk fiom one homestead 10 ways be clear—everywhere—alihough the next, and the czremonies gradvally seme ceils of cusiom might have to be czased. As the swamps rose even highes, ‘rpisined and cifficulies of translation all activities but one came to an end. ‘right produce other slight changes. To The women brewed beer from maize rd. argument we could not conclude, and mille, Men, women, and children ‘ny fiend gave me a copy of Hamlet to sat on their hillocks and drank it study in the African busk: it would, he People began 0 driak at dawn. By hoped, lift my mind above its primitive midzorming the whole homestead was surroundings, and possibly I might, by singing, dancing, and drumming. Whea pwionged meditation, rained, people had to ait inside their of correct interpret dha there they drank end sang or hey sas my sscond fel trp tothat AF crank and told stories. In any cate, by nein tribe, and I tought myself ready 19 xoon oF before, I either hd to join the line it one of i tercte sections —an area party or retire to-my oun but and my. Uifcu to cross even on-foct. Leventu- hooks: “One does rot discuss serious llyasetled onthe hillock of a very matters when there is beer. Come, crink eowledgesble olf man, the head of 2 with us." Since I lacked their capacity hemestead of some hundred and fory for the thick native beer, I spent’ more peopl, all of whom were either his and more time with Hamlet Before the lose Felaives or their wives and chil- end ofthe second rr nth, prace descend- Like ihe cther elders of the vicin- ed on me, was quite sure that Hamlet Article il ‘Shakespeare in the Bush hhad only one possible interpretation, and that one universally obvious. Early every morning, in the hope of having some serious talk before the beer pany, I used to call on the old man at his reception hut—z circle of posts sup- porting a thatched roof above # Jow mud sll to keep out wind and rain. One day crawled through the low doorway and found most of the men of the homestead siting huddled in their ragged cloths on stools, low plank beds, and reclining chairs, warming themselves against the chill of the rain around a smoky fre. In the cemer were three pots of beer. The party had started. ‘The old man grecied me cordially, “Sit down and drink.” I accepted a large calabash full of beer, poured some into 2 small drinking gourd, and tossed it down. Thea I poured some more into the came gourd for the man second in seniority 10 my host before I handed my calabash over to'a young man for further distribution. Important people shouldn't Idle beer themselves. “It is better like this,” the olé man said, looking at me approvingly and plucking at the thatch that bad caught in my hair. “You should sit and drink swith-us more oftea-Your-servanis tell me that when you are-not with us, you sit inside your hut looking at a paper.” ‘The old man was acquainted with four kinds of “papers”: tax receipts, bride price receipts, court fee receipts, and lewers. The messenger who brought him levers from the chief used them From Natt Hoy, Rope eptente 1966. ©1966 by Uae Echannen. Rep by pein 2B 2 & CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION mainly as a badge of office, for he al- ways knew what was in them and told the olé man. Personal lexers for the few who had relatives in the government oF mission sations were kept und! some fone went to large market where there was 2 letter writer and reader. Since my artival, leters were brought to me to be read. A few mea also brought me bride price receipts, privately, with requests to change the figures to a higher sum I found moral arguments were of no avsil, since inlaws are fair game, and the technical hazards of forgery difficult to ‘explain to an iliterte people. | did not wish them to think me silly enough to look at any such papers for éays on end, and I hastily explained that my “paper” was one of the “things of long ago" of my country. AN” said the old man, “Tell us” protested that I was nota storyteller. ‘Story telling isa skilled art among them: their standards ate high, and the audi fences critical—and vocal in their crit= ism. I protested in vain, This morning they wanted to hear 2 story while they rank They threatened to tell me no ‘more stories until | told them one of mine. Finally, the old man premised that 10 one would criticize my style “for we know you are struggling with our lan- guage.” “But” put in one of the elders, “you must explain what we do not un- derstand, as we do when we tell you our stories.” Realizing that here was my chance to prove Hamlet universally in telligible, I agreed, The old man handed me some more beer to help me on with my storytelling. Mes filed their long wooden pipes and knocked coals from the fire to place in the pipe bowls; then, puffing conten:- ely, they sat back to listen, I begen in the proper style, “Not yesterday, not yesterday, bat long ago, a thing oc- curred. One night three men were keep- Jing watch outside the homestead of the great chief, when suddenly they saw the former.chief spproach them.” “Why was he no longer their chief” “He was dead.” I explained. “That is why they Were troubled and afraid when they saw him.” “Impossible.” began one of the el- ders, handing his pipe on to his neiphber, who interrupted, “Of course it wasn't the dead chief. It was an omen sent by 2 witch. Go on” Slightly shaken, { consinved, “One of these thse was a man who kaew things"—ahe closest ransaton for scholar, bur unforuracly i also meant witch. The second elder looked triumphantly at the fist “So be spoke to the dead chic! say- ing, “Tell us wiat we must do so you may rest in your grave) but the dead chief did not answet He vanished, and they could see him no mors. Then th man who knew things—his name was Horatio—said this event was the atf of the dead chief's son, Hamlet” ‘There was 9 general shaking of heads round the circle. “Had the dead chief n0 living brothers? Or was this son the chief "Nos" | replied. “That is, he had one living brother who became the chief ‘when the elder brother died” ‘The old men muttered: such omens were matters for chiefs and elders, not for youngsters; no good could come of going behind a chief's ‘back: clearly Horatio was nots man who knew things. "Yes, he was," I insisted, shooing a chicken’ sway from my beer. “In our ‘country the son is next tthe father. The ead chief's younger brother tad be- ‘come the great chiet. He had also mar- ried his elder brother's widow only about a month after the funeral.” “He did well” the old man beamed and announced 10 the others, “I told you that if we knew more about Europeans, swe would find they rally were very Hike us In our country also,” he added to me, “the younger brother martes the elder brother's widow and becomes the father of his chiléren. Nos, if your uncle, who married your widowed mother, is your father’s full brother, then he will be a teal father to you. Did Hamlet's father and uncle have one mother? His question barely penetisted my mind; I was too upset and thrown 100 far off balance by having one of the ‘most important elements of Hamlet ‘mocked straight out of the picture Rather uncertainly 1 said tha! | thought ‘they had the same mother, but 1 wasn’t sure—the story didn’t say. The old man told me severely that these genealogical details made all the difference and that when I got home I must ask the elders about it, He shouted out the door to one of his younger wives to bring his goar skin bag Determined to save what I could of the mother motif, | tock a deep breath and began again. " very sad because his mother had married ‘again so quickly. There was no need for ber to do So, and it is eur custom for a widow not to go to her next husband until she has moumed for two years” “Two years is too long," objected the wife, who had appeared with the old man’s battered goaiskin bag. “Who will hoe your farms for you while you have ro husband?” “Hamlet” | retorted without think- ing, “was old enough to hoe his mothers farms himself. There was no need for her to remarry” No one looked convinced. I gave up. "His mother anc the great chief told Hamlet not 10 be sad, for the great chief himself would be a father to Ham- let Furthermore, Hamle: would be the next chief: therefore he must stay to eam the things of chief. Hamlet ‘agreed to remain, and all the rest went off to drink beer” ‘While I paused, perplexed at how t0 render Hare's disgusted soliloquy 10 an audience convinced that Claudius and Gertrude had behaved in the best poss- ble manner, one of the younger men asked me who had marsied the other wives of the dead chief. He had no other wives," I told him. “But a chief must have many wives! How else can he brew beer and prepare food for all his guests?” | seid firmly that in our country even chiefs had only one wife, that they had servants to do their wort, and that they paid ther from tax money. I was beter, they retumed, for chief to have many wives and sons who would help him hoe his farms and feed his people; then everyone loved the chief who gave much and took noth- ‘ing—taxes were a bad thing, T agreed with the last comment, tut for the rest fell back on their favorite ‘way of fobbing off my questions: “That is the way it is done, so that is how we do i.” I decided to skip the soliloquy. Even if Claudius was here thought quite right n te many hie brother's widow, there re rained the poison motif, ard 1 knew they would disapprove “of frticide Mote hopefully I resumeé, “That night Hamlet kept watch with te three who had seen his dese father. The desd chief ‘gain appeared, and although the others were afi, Hamlet followed hie dead father off © one se. When they were sone, Hamlet's ead father spoke “Omens can’ talk!” The old man was emphatic “Hamlet's dead father wasn’t an omen. Seeing him might nave been an ‘omer, but he was not” My audience Uke as confused ss! sounded. "I was Hamlet's deed father It was 2 thing we call ghost! "Thad io use the English wo, for unlike many of the neighbor- ing vibes, these peopl didn’t believe in the survival after death of any indivi sting part of the personality. What isa ‘ghost? An oment™ “No, 2 ‘ghost istsomeone who is Jead but who walls around snd ean ‘alle, snd peeple can eat him and soe him hat not touch im.” They objected. “One can touch 2om- “No, nol It was nox a dead body the witches tad animated to sacrifice and cat, No one else made Hamlet's dead fo ther walk He ig it himself” “Dead men cas't walk” protested my | was quite willing 1 compromise "A “ghost” is the dead man’s shadow” But again they objected. “Dead men ast no shadows.” “They do in my country.” | snzpped. The old man quelled the babble of Uisbele! that arose immediately and told ‘ve with thet insincere, bar coureous, sgreement one extends to the fancies of the young, ignorant, and superstitions, “No doubt in your country the dead can also walk withou! being zombis." From the depths of hic bag he produced a withered fragment of kols nat, bit off ‘one end to show it wasn't poisoned, end handed me the rest as a pesce offering, “Anyhow” 1 resumed, “Hamlet's lead father sad that his own brother, the ‘ome who becsme chief, hed poisoned him. He wanted Hamle: to avenge him. amit believed this in his heart, for he lid pot lke his father's brother” 1 100k nother swallow of beot. “in the country of the great chief, living in the same homestead, for it was 2 very large one, was ar imporiant elder who was often with the chief 10 sdvise and belp him. His name wes Polonius, Hamlet was courting his daughter, but her father snd her brother... [I east hasily sbout for some tribal arsiogy] wamed her not to Jet Hamlet visit her when she was alone ‘on her farm, for he would be a grest chief and so could not marry her” “Why not?” asked the wife, who had settled down on the edge of the old man’s chait. He frowned at her for ask- ing stupid cuestions ane growled, “They lived in the seme homestead.” “That was rot the reason,” 1 informed them, “Polonius was a stranger who lived in the homestead because he helped the chief, not because he was 8 relative?” “Then why couldn’! Hamlet mary hee" “He could have," 1 explained, “but Polonive didn't think he would. After all, Hamlet was a man of great impor tance who ought to mamy 2 chiefs daughter, for ia his country 2 man could have only one wife. Polonius was afra that if Hamlet made love to his daughter, then no one else would give a high price fot het” “That might be trve,” remarked one of the shrewéer elders, “buts chief's son ‘would give hie mistress father enough presenis and patronage to moze than make up the difference. Polenius sounds ike a fool to me” “Many people think he was," I agreed. “Meanwhile Poloaius seat his son Laertes off to Faris 10 Jeam the things of that country, for it was the homestead of a very great chief indeed. Because he was afraid that Lacrtes might waste lot of money on beer and ‘women and gambling, of get into trouble by fighting, he seat one of his servants ic Paris secrely, to spy out what Laertes was éoing. One day Ham- Je) came: upc “Poloniue’s daughter Ophelia. He behaved so oddly he frigh!- ned het. Indeed’—I was fumbling for swords to express the dubious quality of Hamle’s madoess—"the chief and ‘many others had also noticed that when Hamlet talked cne could understand the words but not what they meant. Many people thought that he had become mad” My audience suddenly became ‘much more attentive. “The grest chief wanted to know what wae wrong sith Hamlet, so he seat for rwo of Hamlet's ‘age mates [school friends would have taken long explanation] to talk to Ham- let and find out wha! troubled his heart. Hamlet, seeing that they had been bribed by the chief to betray him, told them nothing. Polonius, however, in- sisted that Hamlet was mad heeause he had been forbidden to see Ophelia, ‘whom he loved" “Why.” inquired a bewildered voice, ould anyone bewitch Hamlet on that account” “Bewiteh him?” “Yes, only witcherafi can make any- fone mad, unless, of course, one sees the beings that lurk in the forest.” I stopped being s storyteller, took out my noiebook and demanded to be told ‘more about these two causes of mad ness. Even while they spoke and [jotted notes, | tied 10 calculate the effect of this new factor on the plot, Hamlet had not been exposed to the beings that lurk in the forests. Only his relatives in the male line could bewitch him. Barring relatives not mentioned by Shakespeare, it had to be Claudias who was artempt- ing to harm him. And, oF course, it was. For the moment 1 staved off ques- ions by saying thatthe great chief also refused to believe that Hamlet was mad forthe love of Ophelia and nothing els. “He was sure that something mach more important was troubling Hale's hear.” “Now Hamlet's age mates," I contin~ ved, “had brought with them + famous storyteller. Hamlet decided to have this rman tell the chief and all his homestead 2 story about a man who had poisoned his brother because he desired his brother's wife: and-wished 10 be-chiet himself. Haraet was sure the great chief could not hear the tory without making a sign if he-was indeed guilty; and then: he would discover whether his dead fe- ther had tld him the truth.” The old man interrupted, with deep cunning, “Why should a father lie to his son?” he asked. 1 hecped: “Hamlet wasn’t sure that it really was bis dead fathex” It was im- s

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