HomeOld_PostsAn Africa-centred critique of Shakespeare’s King Lear

An Africa-centred critique of Shakespeare’s King Lear

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WHEN William Shakespeare wrote his plays, he was commenting on the England of his time.
His observations, like those of any literature, can be universalised but they first and foremost give us an insight into his immediate surroundings.
When he deciphers evil, it is because it is abound in his environment.
When he deciphers good it is because it is equally abound.
For this reason, let us not be deceived in our reading of Shakespeare’s King Lear, that the decrepit condition we find in some of the characters is universal for that approach evades the pathological condition of the white man of England.
King Lear is a brutal play, filled with human cruelty.
It betrays the cold-bloodedness of this species of humanity, a characteristic which is not akin to African Unhu/Ubuntu.
The very relationship between Lear and his daughters is uncharacteristic of Unhu/Ubuntu.
Let me make my point clear here.
I am not suggesting that betrayal is unfound in African relations; but the kind of betrayal in King Lear is surely uncharacteristic of types of betrayals you find in the lives of Africans.
Betrayals play a critical role in the play and show the workings of wickedness in realms of family and politics in an unusual way.
In the play, Goneril and Regan’s betrayal of Lear raises them to power in Britain, where Edmund, who has betrayed both Edgar and Gloucester, joins them.
These betrayals show the dark side of the British species.
They stop at nothing in their unquenchable quest for personal power and influence. That is why the betrayers inevitably turn on one another as Goneril and Regan fall out when they both become attracted to Edmund.
Their jealousies of one another ultimately lead to mutual destruction.
Remember that the play is projected as set in motion by Lear’s blind, foolish betrayal of Cordelia’s love for him.
The very idea that a father prefers one daughter to another is inimical to African culture hence this reinforces a skewed set of values of our erstwhile colonisers. Even the idea that God (Musikavanhu) enjoys killing human beings for His fun is equally untenable and yet the play advances this as reasonable philosophical speculation.
Gloucester is depicted as saying: “like flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.”
Africans do not see Musikavanhu as this reckless and sadistic.
We know Musikavanhu to be eternally kind, merciful and forgiving.
But this kind of thinking depicts God as a predator and a sadist, deriving pleasure from abusing and sacrificing the lives of his people for fun; a tendency which would not make him different from his antagonist.
Such thinking can only come from a species of people who are cold and cold-blooded.
No wonder such a people are responsible for the worst atrocities in history.
Racism.
Slavery.
Colonialism.
Capitalism.
Global terrorism.
GREED.
Edgar’s mentality is equally warped by African moral and philosophical standards. He insists that, “the gods are just,” suggesting that individuals suffer because they deserve it.
Deserve what?
Such thinking avoids the reality that suffering is a result of structural weaknesses of society.
In the play, the wicked die and the good die along with them, culminating in the awful image of Lear cradling Cordelia’s body in his arms.
There is goodness in the world of the play, but there is also madness and death, and it is difficult to tell which triumphs in the end; thus creating the wrong impression that both good and evil are natural and that because they are so their coexistence cannot be altered.
Ubuntu/Unhu separates the two and is categorical about the ultimate triumph of good.
King Lear is about political authority as much as it is about family dynamics.
Lear is not only a father, but also a king, and when he gives away his authority to the unworthy and evil Goneril and Regan, he delivers not only himself and his family, but all of Britain into chaos and cruelty.
You may want to appreciate that from an African point of view, Lear’s decision to abdicate authority is grossly irresponsible.
To us authority is vested in a leader for a good reason – to exercise it for the good of his people.
Even age does not absolve one of this responsibility.
Even anything like wine wisdom grows with age.
Hence authority remains in the anointed although it can be delegated where convenience demands.
After all, power and authority have always been collectively shared.
In King Lear, however, power and authority are perceived as personal assets, a mentality Africans refrain from for individuality is seen the source of all selfish pursuits.
The behaviours of the deceitful daughters of Lear demonstrate this.
When the two wicked sisters indulge their appetite for power and Edmund begins his own ascension, the kingdom descends into civil strife, and we realise that Lear has destroyed not only his own authority, but ‘all’ authority in Britain.
The stable, hierarchal order that Lear initially represents falls apart and disorder engulfs the realm.
The failure of authority in the face of chaos recurs in Lear’s wanderings on the heath during the storm.
Witnessing the powerful forces of the natural world, Lear comes to understand that he, like the rest of humankind, is insignificant in the world.
This realisation proves much more important than the realisation of his loss of political control, as it compels him to re-prioritise his values and become humble and caring.
With this new-found understanding of himself, Lear’s humanity returns, but the conditioned authorial psyche does not permit us to witness complete redemption from the clutches of evil.
Of course, the reunion gives us some relief, but underlying this feeling we still wonder why Shakespeare conjured such a story where a father loves his own children with unequal love in the first place; where daughters punish their father for being kind to them and where daughters kill each other for the love of their father?
Such senses and sensibilities would raise eyebrows in the eyes of Africans.
And the million dollar question that remains is: what kind of humanity is this that seems to valorise and celebrate evil, hate, brutality, murder and chaos?
“Does it enhance our understanding of the psyche of the Whiteman?

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