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| Bend in the River |
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| Central Africa (Political map) |
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| Kisangani, and the Congo river basin (Physical map) |
-Brian Mendonca
A Bend in the River (1979) is a novel by V. S. Naipaul (1932-2018). It describes the events in the life of Salim who moves from the East Coast of Africa to Central Africa for a better life. The actual place appears to be Kisangani, at the bend of the Congo river basin in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is set in the post-colonial period after Zaire became independent from Belgium in 1960.
Naipaul was in Congo - formerly Zaire - in 1975. After spending two weeks in the capital Kinhasa he travelled upcountry. (Preface) He is witness to the spirit of independence of the Africans seen in the lyrics of the National anthem of Zaire. (1971-1997)
The novel is set against the political turmoil in Zaire and is divided into four parts:
Part I: The Second Rebellion (Chps. 1-5)
Part II: The New Domain (Chps. 6-11)
Part III: The Big Man (Chps.12-15)
Part IV: The Battle (Chps.16-17)
PART ONE
Chapter I Travelling to a bend in the Congo river; meeting people there
The opening line sets the tone of the novel, 'The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.' (I. 3)
In Chapter 1 we meet Salim who travels in his Peugeot car from East to Central Africa. There he is assisted by Metty who helps in his shop. Metty is 'the half-African boy' who had grown up in Salim's family on the coast and had come to join him. (I.10) The shop has been given to Salim by Nazruddin to manage. (II.22) They meet Zabeth, an African woman from a fishing community (I.5) and her son Ferdinand. Zabeth smells of fish. (I.10) This protects her as people keep away from her. She is also seen as a magician. (I.11)
The river is described with all its 'secret channels.' (I.7) Zabeth and her women used to row their boats (dugouts) on them to the river. There they waited for the steamer (with a barge behind it) to pass by to sell their fish. It could also be a smoked snake or a small smoked crocodile. (I.7) As the steamer passed they used to throw their ropes which were tied to the barge. The boats kept trailing the steamer over part of the river route of a thousand miles. (I. 8)
Salim considers himself a foreigner to Zabeth, 'someone from the far-off coast, and an English-speaker.' (I.6), He is not comfortable in the river. 'I never liked it. I never felt in control . . . The river and the forest were like presences, and much more powerful than you. You felt unprotected, an intruder. (I.9)
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Chapter II Description of the East Coast; Metty
Salim talks about slavery in the east coast of Africa where his family came from. (II. 14)
He meets Shobha and Mahesh, a couple from India. 'Like me, they were migrants from the east and refugees from their own community.' (II. 32) They are also called 'expatriates.' Salim visits them often to cope with being lonely. (II. 31)
An uprising on the coast is mentioned where the Arabs are defeated. Metty comes into Salim's life at this time. He has seen people being killed and is shaken. (II. 35) He becomes a customs clerk at Salim's shop. (II. 38)
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Chapter III The lycee; Ferdinand; the Belgian lady; 'they'
Zabeth brings her son Ferdinand to see Salim. 'He was about fifteen or sixteen . . . His skin was perfectly black, with nothing of his mother's copper colour.' (III. 39)
Naipaul speaks of 'the miraculous peace of colonial time, when men could, if they wished, pay little attention to tribal boundaries.' (III. 39)
The lycee is described. (III. 40) Zabeth wants to send Ferdinand there as a boarder to study. 'Squatters had taken over the downstairs part, cooking on fire stones in the verandah and throwing out their rubbish on the courtyards and grounds.' (III. 40) On the walls of the lycee is its motto 'Semper Aliquid Novi' meaning 'always something new.' (III. 40) Zabeth wants her son to have a better life. 'The better life lay outside the timeless ways of village and river.' (III. 41)
Ferdinand had lived in 'a mining town in the south.' (III. 41) This is likely to be the Katanga province which was the centre of Zaire's copper and cobalt mining industries. (Wiki) Zabeth brings him to Salim to teach him manners. 'You beat him whenever you want.' she says. (III. 41) 'In his face I could see the starting point of certain kinds of African mask.' (III. 42) Ferdinand tries to show respect by going down on one knee to Salim. 'I was a custom of the bush. . . . It couldn't transfer to the town.' (III. 42)
Salim feels diminished in the presence of Ferdinand. 'He was a boy from the bush. . . But at the lycee he was learning things I knew nothing about . . . And there was his face. I thought there was a lot going on behind that face that I couldn't know about. (III. 43) Ferdinand gets along with Metty. (III. 43) 'After his stiff conversation in English or French with me, Ferdinand would, with Metty, switch to the local patois.' (III. 44) Patois is a mixed regional African dialect which Metty and Ferdinand use to assert their identity and difference from Salim who is an Indian.
Salim's place is described. 'The unmarried Belgian lady who had lived there was something of an artist.' (III. 46) 'It was as if the lady had lost faith in her own junk, and when the independence crisis had come, had been glad to go.' (III. 47) 'The Belgian lady had attempted to introduce a touch of Europe and home and art, another kind of life, to this land of rain and heat and big-leaved trees - always visible, if blurred, through the white-painted window panes.' (III. 47) Reflecting on the bed in the room Salim says, 'How many African women were hustled away at difficult hours -- before Metty came in, or before Metty woke up!' (III. 47)
Salim and Ferdinand have a conversation about who takes the credit for inventing things, or discovering them. Ferdinand asks defiantly, ' Who are the "they" who are working on the new telephone?' (III. 50) Salim wants to answer 'The white men.' but instead he says, 'The scientists.' (III.50) 'When we wanted to speak politically, when we wanted to abuse or praise politically we said 'the Americans,' the 'Europeans,' 'the white people,' 'the Belgians.' When we wanted to speak of the doers and the makers and the inventors, we all -- whatever or race - said "they."' (III. 50)
'In his lycee blazer, Ferdinand saw himself as evolved and important, as in the colonial days. At the same time he saw himself as the new man of Africa.' (III. 54) He asks Salim to send him to America to study. (III. 55) Mahesh informs Salim of a visit from Metty and Ferdinand. He describes Metty as 'malin,' a French word meaning 'sly.' (III. 57) Mahesh deals in selling cameras. (III. 58)
The lycee is visited by 'some boys from the warrior tribes to the east.' (III. 60) Metty wants to be where the white people are. 'They tell me that in Bujumbura it is like a little Paris.' (III. 61) Ferdinand visits Salim with a book from the lycee. Salim tells him that he will return it to Fr. Huismans. (III. 66)
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Chapter IV Father Huismans
The young Belgian teacher at the lycee says that Fr. Huismans liked to go away into the bush for a few days frequently. (IV. 67) The Belgian cannot stand the food and sails away on the steamer. Fr. Huismans brings back a mask and a wood carving from one of his trips on the river, (IV. 68) He explains the second motto of the town: 'He approves of the mingling of the peoples and their bonds of union,' (IV. 70) 'They were words that helped him to see himself in Africa. He didn't simply see himself in a place in the bush; he saw himself as a part of an immense flow of history. He was of Europe; he took the Latin words to refer to himself.' (IV. 71) Father Huismans collects 'pieces of old steamers and bits of disused machinery from the late 1890's and laid them - like relics of an early civilization - in the inner courtyard of the lycee. He was specially pleased with a piece that carried, on an oval steel plate, the name of the makers in the town of Seraing in Belgium . . . To Father Huismans colonial relics were as precious as the things of Africa.' (IV. 72) Father Huismans shows Salim his collection of African masks. (IV. 71)
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Chapter V Rumours of war; the van der Weyden hotel; Father Huisman's death
There is talk of war. (V. 75) But Mahesh says, 'What do you do? You live here, and you ask that? You do what we all do. You carry on.' (V. 76) The army is seen in the town. They maintain a low profile as 'in post-colonial Africa everybody could get guns: every tribe could be a warrior tribe.' (V. 77) The army is on the retreat. The rebels have the upper hand. Salim puts all his precious possessions like his birht certificate, his British passport, and the camera in a wooden crate and buries it. 'I got Metty to put in his passport and money as well.' (V. 78)
Salim goes for lunch with the old Asian couple. They are untouched by the events around them content with the awareness 'that they had lived good and complete lives. (V. 80) Ferdinand is disturbed with the events around him and says, 'I didn't want to come here.' (V. 81)
Shoba too regrets coming to Africa. (V. 82) When Salim goes over for lunch she speaks about how Mahesh's family opposed their marriage and beat him up. (V. 82) She lives in fear dreading that her brothers will come hunting for them. Or they would send someone else. (V. 83)
Mahesh urges Salim to go to the van der Weyden, a local hotel. It is named after a European painter hearkening back to the town's colonial past. (V. 83) Salim visits the hotel. He describes it and the guests and waiters there. (V. 84-85) Colonel Yenyi and Sargeant Iyanda are assassinated on the instructions of the President. (V. 86) They hear the sound of guns far away. A fighter plane is seen. It drops bombs in the bush. (V. 89-90) The African rebels attack the hydro-electric station. (V. 91)
Father Huismans is killed on one of his trips. (V. 92) 'His death made his life seem such a waste. So much of his knowledge was buried with him, and what to me was more than knowledge - his attitudes, his relish for Africa, his feeling for the beliefs of the forest.' (V. 92) 'While he lived, Father Huisman's, collecting the things of Africa, had been thought a friend of Africa. But now that changed. It was felt that the collection was an affront to African religion.' (V. 94) The collection 'began to be pillaged' (destroyed) (V. 95)
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Page references to A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul. London: Picador, 2011. Updated 20/9/26.
Notes
The "Big Man" mirrors Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire from 1971-1997.
Secondary Sources
-Cheruthuruthil, Tony Xavier. 'Doppelganger.' The Bombay Literary Magazine. Issue 61. August 2025. Online
https://bombaylitmag.com/contribution/tony-xavier-issue-61/#:~:text=V.S.Naipaul%20died%20on%2011%20August,his%20death%20had%20settled%20down
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