Shikasta

by Doris Lessing

  Letter enclosed with this Report to CHEN LIU’S friend, Chairman of the Council, KU YUANG

  I have not heard from you. Does that mean you did not get my last letter? Or that you did – I do not know which thought is worse.

  If you did, you will not need to read this.

  I beg of you to do what you can. Even in the camps and townships of the Youth Armies, which are at least regularly if insufficiently supplied, there is hardship. The suffering generally is offensive and severe. Is it that our Council now bows before the Emergent Nations? The Centre is dominated by the limbs? Is it that this is not weakness but policy? Do we no longer feel able even to express an opinion? Or we protest, but privately? Out here in the colonies of course it is hard to keep adequately informed. But I do what I can: for instance, an analysis of the innumerable meetings, conferences, councils, of the last twelve months through the southern hemisphere, reveals that there were over a hundred speeches on the theme of revenge, and not one (or one recorded) expression of moderation, or even of an intelligent intention to use and exploit human and other resources, rather than destroying them.

  My old friend, I find myself in a mental and emotional conflict that keeps me awake at night, and destroys my pleasure in my work for our great People. When you told me you would send me to oversee Pan-Europe, I told you I was not necessarily the best man for the job. Your reply was that a man conscious of reservations and emotional difficulties would be better than one who was not. I wonder! I work daily, hourly, with our officials, men and women of the highest calibre, and who seem to suffer no indecision in their work. And yet, to repeat, for the last few months this work has not been – I hope? – the results of decisions from us, the Centre.

  I loathe the white-skinned peoples. Physically they repel me. Their smell offends me. Their avidity and greed has never struck me as anything but disgusting. They are clumsy in movement, awkward in thought, unsubtle, overbearing. Their assumption of superiority is that of the country bumpkin, the big man of the little village, who comes to the city and does not know that the sophisticates find him ludicrous as he swaggers and boasts.

  Their savagery has never done less than appal me. The coldbloodedness of the intentions behind their imposition of opium, the wanton destruction of our cultural heritage, or its theft, their inferiority … but I need not go on, for we have discussed it often enough. I live among a race I dislike to the roots of my being. Even in their decline and their subjection, some of them, indeed, many of them, manage to behave as if they have been unjustly deprived of a sinecure, and a few even manage the airs of dispossessed royalty bravely suffering the rabble.

  Imagine my situation, then, forced to stand by while a policy is being implemented that my emotions applaud, my lowest instincts enjoy, that returns me to savagery. My old friend, I am writing under pressures you will surely understand, and you will make allowances. I believe that our cadres here are in fact as cheerful and enthusiastic in their work as they seem to be. They can be so cheerful only because (a) they applaud the policies of the Emergent Nations and approve what they see and have to do, or (b) they do not understand what it is they are seeing – do not understand what it means for us that these policies are being implemented, for surely they cannot be our policies, our Will? I watch them and wonder if it is possible that our Great People can so willingly agree to deliberate mass murder, or if perhaps they are able to persuade themselves that what is going on is something else.

  Do we really have no objection to being compared with Genghis Khan?

  I know that we all have forgone leave that is due to us in the interests of the general good, but I would like to talk to you. Is it true that you will be touring the southern hemisphere this autumn? If so I could perhaps apply for leave and meet you somewhere.

  CHEN LIU reports to the COUNCIL in PEKING

  Further to my Report a year ago. The decimation, if not destruction, of the peoples of Pan-Europe now being official policy on the part of the Emergent Nations, following the Conference in Kampala, I have no more to say on that topic, but merely report a consequent development.

  Until now the Youth Armies have been relatively free of division on lines of race. This has been official policy with them, racialism having been identified with the old genera-don, with the past. While immigrants have been coming into Europe from India, the drought areas of Africa, the West Indies, the Middle East, and settling anywhere there was land or housing available (usually because the inhabitants have died from famine or disease), the Youth Armies have on the whole been scrupulous in respecting local land rights, local land policies, the integrity of areas. If Youth Sectors have commandeered empty villages or untenanted land, it has always been done within the style they have perfected, that of working within these limits, or at least nominally. Sometimes, of course, with the effect, calculated or not, of impertinence. But the real strength of these Armies is being eroded, quite simply, by hardship. For instance, a Pan-European Conference scheduled to take place this month in Switzerland is scaled down to less than half its projected strength because of lack of transport, shortage of fuel, shortage of food. And it will take place next summer, because their clothes are inadequate for the cold, and in Greece for easier access.

  Generally, the work of the Youth is being diverted to their own maintenance. I am aware that it has been the policy to deplore the very existence of the Youth Armies, and I am not at this time arguing the point. But it seems to me that a great deal of our denigration of them has been – a perhaps necessary – rhetoric. For in many areas the Armies have been a useful, and indeed often the only, police force and control against every kind of anarchy.

  For the first time a note is being sounded among the Youth to the effect that European delegates should take second place to those from the old colonies, on the ground of their inferiority of race shown by past barbarities.

  I refer to previous Reports.

  CHEN LIU to his friend KU YUANG

  I have heard no word from you. Yet I can only believe that you have received my various private letters.

  Do we wish to see these millions of young people, some of whom are of course totally misguided in their political thought, but who have proved themselves re-educable, millions who have created throughout the world their own organizations, styles of work, protective agencies, methods of self-discipline – do we wish to see them turn on each other? I cannot believe that this is something you would wish, any more than you can approve the present policies in Europe.

  CHEN LIU reports to the COUNCIL in PEKING

  As a development to matters referred to in the last Report: there is to be a Mock Trial staged on the highest levels of the Combined Youth Armies of the World. The Defendant is to be the White Races. The Prosecutors, the Dark-skinned Races. This will take place in summer in Greece. This Mock Trial is a matter of the greatest importance to the Youth Armies everywhere. I cannot emphasize this too strongly.

  An individual, George Sherban, a man we have been observing closely since the start of our Beneficent Tutelage, and who before that was under the observation of the Pan-Europe Federation of SDCPD for P of P, is to take the part of Prosecutor. The man who will defend is John Brent-Oxford, an old member of the left wing of the Labour Party in Britain, with a record of work in various fields, mostly representing Britain in Europe for various Labour governments. He was imprisoned under the Pan-Europe Federation, and released on my recommendation to a low-level post in the Youth Supervisory Echelon, in Bristol, England. He is in bad health. He was a member of a well-known legal firm in Britain but his political activities took him away from the law. He is, however, well-enough equipped for a task which will need oratory more than any knowledge of current or previous legal requirements. The choice of both these men is astonishing. George Sherban is of British parentage, and his Indian allegiance amounts to a single grandparent. He is accepted however as an honorary Indian in the Youth Armies. John Brent-Oxford is over sixty. It is too easy to say that the choice
of a member of the despised older generation is only to add to the emotional bias against the defendant: I am informed he is very well liked among the Youth who have worked with him. So this choice may be described as cynical, or careless.

  George Sherban’s brother, one Benjamin, an altogether less charismatic character, is to be one of John Brent-Oxford’s ‘advisers’. That is, he will be on the opposite side to his brother. He has recently undergone Top-Level Re-education, with no noticeable results.

  This ‘Trial’ must not be underestimated. Already requests pour in from every country, demanding facilities for travel. It is essential in my view that adequate food is allocated, and that accommodation in the way of tents is permitted. The mood of the Youth Armies, as I have more than hinted, is very different from what it has been. It is explosive, volatile, cynical-dangerous. I have already made arrangements for troops to be easily available, and on a large scale.

  CHEN LIU to his friend KU YUANG

  I beg of you to intervene. My orders that two regiments of troops should be available for the Trial’ – countermanded. My orders for special allocations of food – countermanded. My orders that plenty of space should be allotted for tents, that standpipes should be erected, that the area be cordoned off from the locals-countermanded, countermanded. All this without explanation. I have not asked for one.

  In two months’ time several thousand representatives of the Youth Armies of the World will congregate in Greece. Has it been seriously considered by the Council what effect it may have worldwide if this affair gets out of hand?

  I write this in a state of mind that in the days of our old friendship I would not have to explain to you.

  CHEN LIU to his friend KU YUANG

  I got your message. I understand your situation. The agent who brings this is, as far as I can see, trustworthy. He will explain my situation. I was relieved more than I can say, to hear from you personally, even if the news is not very hopeful. I shall now describe the events of the ‘Trial’, as you request, separately from the Report which will be sent via the usual channels to the Council.

  First of all, George Sherban, the Chief Accuser, travelled to Zimbabwe, the slow way, by car, coach, lorry, train, and even in some places on foot, representing various Youth Armies, and being briefed by them. This journey was clearly critical on more than one occasion. The wars that decimate the area have dragged it down to the point where nothing happens as expected. The Youth Armies are anarchistic, badly organized, sometimes no more than organizations for looting and arson. The travelling party had to find their way through several war zones. George Sherban went with the full authorization of the Coordinating Council of the World Youth Armies. He needed it. He was nearly captured on two occasions, was arrested once, but he talked his way out of it. His brother Benjamin went with him. This man has now been subjected to several separate stints of Top-Level education. I must report failure. But of an interesting variety. At no point was there confrontation, loss of politeness, failure to attend the allocated courses. On the contrary we have seldom had a more cooperative and intelligent subject. On the face of it, his acceptance of our Benevolent Tutelage has been complete. But he went with his brother on this prolonged journey against our expressed wishes. Of course if he had been where we enjoy a full and overt command, he would have been punished, but his position in the Youth Armies is too high to provoke possible dissatisfaction. Even on reporting his intention to make this journey it was with a perfect willingness to concur with anything we might suggest -short of not going at all!

  In Zimbabwe a mass Conference was held in Bulawayo, on the site where Lobengula held court. The modern Lobengula was present, and released several thousand prisoners to indicate his joy at the occasion. It was there, in the heart of the erstwhile Dark Continent, that George Sherban allowed himself to be briefed to represent the Dark Races in the forthcoming Trial – which event was being spoken of by everyone as if it were to be a real Trial. They do not seem to be able to take in the concept, or perhaps the usefulness, of a Trial merely for propaganda effectiveness. Of course they may very well have found themselves confused at the situation, as were the – very many – representatives of the brown and other races (our own included) who had somehow made their way there. It was unprecedented, for its daring, its imagination, its success. This almost entirely white man was enthusiastically accepted by blacks as a representative, and moreover, as an Indian, the history of dislike of all things Indian up and down Africa apparently mattering not at all. My informants tell me that this was an occasion unprecedented also for its vigour, emotionalism, high spirits. I would have given a good deal to be there. Benjamin Sherban kept in the background, in a way which I would not have expected, if believing the many reports of an earlier ebullience and big-headedness. He was merely one of many assistants to George Sherban, the only one with a white skin. He has the advantage of representing the Junior Youth – eight-to-fourteen-year-olds, and this is a powerful emotional stimulus everywhere.

  This party stayed several weeks in Zimbabwe. They made an illicit trip over into the Transvaal, which I am informed combined daring and ingenuity quite remarkably. They then flew back to Greece, after being blessed (the word is used by Benjamin Sherban in a private letter reporting on the occasion) by the modern Lobengula.

  They had already been informed that there will be no military protection, no extra rations, no cooperation from the authorities.

  I am informed that their preparations are everything that we could wish.

  I was not able to be present myself in this amphitheatre for the Trial, for had I been there it would have underlined a concern on our part that I did not wish to be evident. But I had plentiful observers, both open – in our own delegation, who are of course keeping me informed – and concealed, who are distributed among the various delegations. It is from these many, and very varied reports, that I am compiling this account.

  The five thousand delegates were a sorry lot compared with what until now has been the norm. We have become accustomed to seeing such occasions as demonstrating the comparative well-being of the Youth Armies. These were ill-fed, shabby, some in obviously bad health. The mood of confidence in themselves as a viable future is gone. They are sombre, cynical.

  Getting there had been difficult for all of them, although I had given instructions – which I had no confidence would be observed – that they should not be obstructed. Many had walked long distances: this was true mostly of the Europeans.

  Pilfering and looting began from the moment the delegates arrived, but was checked at once, by an appeal to their sense of responsibility. But the damage had been done, and the local inhabitants, informed that they were being ‘honoured’ by the occasion, must be imagined as a silent, sullen, closely observing crowd, always present around the camp, sometimes numbering hundreds.

  The organizers had arranged guards, sentinels, everything needed for security, but this was precarious from the first and throughout, more from internal tensions than from external. It was arranged that the races should be distributed evenly through the camp, but almost at once the subject of the ‘Trial’ showed its strength in separating the white race into a minority, a camp within a camp, separately sentinelled and guarded. From the start there were jokes, on the whole friendly, that the Chief Prosecutor was in fact white. From the very first day a song was popular among all sections, black, brown, gold, jade, and white: ‘I have an Indian grandmother,’ which of course was plentifully adapted, ‘I have a white grandmother’ being the favourite. There were occasions when the entire encampment was singing ‘I have a – grandmother’ – white, black, brown, Irish, African, Eskimo, at the same time, at the top of their voices, and in the mood which was the style or stamp of the occasion: a mocking, sardonic nihilism, but which was not, in fact, devoid of good humour.

  Who writes these songs? Where do they come from? The strength of the People is indeed great!