A Multimedia Approach to Teaching the Total Environment of International Business: "What's

It like, What's It Really like?"

Author(s): J. Frederick Truitt
Source: Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 107-120
Published by: Palgrave Macmillan Journals
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/154352
Accessed: 05/05/2010 08:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=pal.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Palgrave Macmillan Journals is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of
International Business Studies.

http://www.jstor.org
 A MULTIMEDIA APPROACH TO TEACHING THE
TOTAL ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS:
"WHAT'S IT LIKE, WHAT'S IT REALLY LIKE?"

J. FREDERICK TRUITT*

This article reviews motivations for going beyond traditional

business teaching materialinto the realmof films, memoirs,and
novels. Included are suggestions of specific examples of films,
memoirs, and novels which have a place in teaching the inter-
national business environment in less developed countries. An
extensive annotated bibliographyof films, memoirs, and novels
is provided.

The only true voyage of discoverywould not be to visit strangelands, but to

possess other eyes, to behold the universethroughthe eyes of another,of a
hundred others ....
Proust

Five years' teaching experience with novels, memoirs, and documen-

tary films have led to personal enthusiasm over the use of nonbusiness
materialsin courses in the internationalbusinessarea. Novels, memoirs,and
films can be an importantstep towardbroadeningthe intellectual horizons
of students in a most fundamentalway and also can make teaching the
environment of international business more exciting (and easier) for the
teacher.

The Need to SupplementStandardBusinessand Economic Sources

Standardsocial science materials can impart concepts, empiricalde-

scriptions,and possibly even coherent theories of the what, why, and how
of internationalbusiness. But even the best and the brightestbusiness,eco-
nomic, social-psychological,and anthropologicalnmaterial is deficient in de-
scribing the ambience or milieu, the totally rich, complex foreign environ-
ment in which internationalbusinesstakes place.
The vast number of texts on underdevelopmentgive excellent presen-
tations of capital output ratios, competing theories of growth (Marxist,
stages, balanced or unbalanced),social and technical factors, structuralbar-
riers to LDCexports and aid absorptivecapacity. The IBRD makes available

*J. Frederick Truitt is Associate Professor of International Business at the Grad-

uate School of Business Administration, University of Washington, Seattle.

107
the basic income and demographicdata of underdevelopmentin its Atlas:
Population, Per Capita Product and Growth Rates. And of course U.N.
yearbooks unveil the gnawing, tragic data on birth rates, infant mortality
rates, expectations of life at birth, literacy, and nutrition (or more precisely
the lack of it) in the LDCs. But do the students come away from this kind
of material with a convincing, indelible image and understandingof what
underdevelopmentis, let alone what the implicationsof an underdeveloped
environmentare for managinginternationalbusinessactivity?
This writer thinks not: texts and data are a necessary but not suffi-
cient condition of really understandingthe "foreign" (particularlya less
developed) environment for internationalbusiness. To round out the stan-
dardmaterial,the use of fiction, memoirs,and films is suggested:
(1) Fiction because it richly describesrelationshipsbetween people
(and their environment)in the context of a complete (and com-
pletely foreign) social, political, and culturalenvironment.
(2) Memoirs because they convey to us in distilled, carefully
wrought, critical languageor naive uncriticallanguage"what it
was (is) like."
(3) Films because through powerful visual and audio images they
not only explain a phenomenon but also try to convince us to
change our attitudes and behavior.

WhatContext, WhatAssumptions?
The task of selecting and schedulingthe appropriatenonbusinessma-
terial and provoking students into seeing the connection and relationships
with the main body of internationalbusinessknowledgerequireskeen sensi-
tivity to problems of context. In selecting the context, assumptionsregard-
ing the reasonsstudents study internationalbusinessin the first place should
be examined. It is temptingto assumethat someday in the near future many
of these students actually will be managingsubsidiariesabroad. Obviously
this is a delusion, and otherjustification is needed if the effort involvedin a
multimedia approach to teaching the total environment of international
businessis to be extended.
Multimedia efforts are justified for three reasons. First, and most
important, the use of this unique materialnot only broadensthe opportun-
ity for students to exercise their usually untaxed imaginations,but it also
deepens and broadens their understandingof the complex foreign environ-
ment by providing vivid, personal, and human experience in a foreign set-
ting. By understandinga foreign environmentstudents inevitablycome to a
better understandingof their own environment by way of implicit and
explicit comparison. Second, students are introduced to a stream of litera-
ture which will not do them any harnl and might actually expand their
horizons. Finally, if all else fails, the teacher may personallyenjoy fiction,

108
memoirs, and films, and their use may provide him with the excuse to
indulge himself in yet another novel, film, or memoir which he otherwise
might not justify to himself and his full schedule.
Some explicit examples will be offered. Since everyone is at least
vaguely familiarwith films as a teaching device, some possibilitieswith this
least unfamiliarmedium will be examined first.

FILMS
The challenge of selecting films to supplementmaterialin internation-
al business is basically how to pick the best and most appropriatefrom an
increasinglylarge choice of good films. The single best source of informa-
tion on new films in internationalbusinessis Jean MarieAckermann's"Me-
dia" section in InternationalDevelopmentReview, the quarterlypublication
of the Society for InternationalDevelopment.Most of the films listed in the
film bibliographygiven later were discoveredthroughMs. Ackermann'scol-
umn.
Films probablyhave their maximumimpact when used in conjunction
with cases. Again, selection of context and "positioning' of the film are
extremly important for the film to have maximumimpact. Listedbelow are
explicit combinations of cases and films which have worked well for this
writerin the past.
A. A rawmaterialsextractiveinvestment.
1. Case: "BougainvilleCopper,"ICCH9-372-146
2. Films: Men and Money in Action
Builder to an Age: The Bechtel Organization,
The BougainvilleCopperProject
On the Way
B. Foreigninvestmentas an agent of social change.
1. Case: "Aire Libre,S.A.," ICCH9-313-020
2. Films: Sugar in Today's World
Sugar and the Cane
Sugar Country
C. Internationalizationof social responsibility:Should MNFstoler-
ate apartheid?
1. Case: "A Questionof Color," ICCH9-370-123
2. Films: The Color Line
The Heart of Apartheid
White Africa
D. Politicalrisk in naturalresourceinvestments.
1. Case: "Expropriationof Alcan's Bauxite MiningSubsidi-
ary," Parts A, B, C, D, and E, ICCH9-375-661 through
9-375-665 and TeachingNote 8-375-666
A- Bauxite and the InternationalAluminum Industry

109
 B- Guyana:A BackgroundNote
C- Alcan Aluminum,Ltd.
D- Dembato Guybau
E- Contempt and Arrogance for Government and
GuyanesePeople
2. Films: Light, Strongand Beautiful
Guyana:Nationbuilding

MEMOIRS

Occasionallya memoir or recollection of social and economic condi-

tions is written which can give tremendousinsight and appreciationfor the
meaning and conditions of underdevelopmentand Third World vs First
World animosity. For example:

Blythe'sAkenfield:Portraitof an English Village

This book's unique portrayalof economic "development"in the first
chapter, "The Survivors,"generateslively discussion concerninghow slip-
pery, relative, and sometimes deceivingly ethnocentric the term "develop-
ment" can be.

Spunt'sA Place in Time

There probably is no better vehicle than George Spunt's recollection
of his youth in interwarShanghaito illustrate the meaningof both enclave
and nonindigenouscommercialclass interposedbetween colonized and colo-
nizer.

Guppy'sA YoungMan'sJourney
One sometimes is confronted with a strangelyvirulent form of Third
Worldanimosity-an animosity so bitter and strong that for all the world it
gives the odor of having fermented under pressurefor many years. See, for
example, the tone of Guyana's Prime Minister Forbes Burnham'sspeech
announcing the takeover of Alcan's bauxite mining subsidiary, Demerara
Bauxite Company (Part E of the case "Expropriationof Alcan's Bauxite
MiningSubsidiary,"referredto earlier). One very effective way to come to
understand the relations which undoubtedly played a role in shapingthe
animosity that bears such ugly fruit today is to read Nicholas Guppy'sA
YoungMan'sJourney, a recollection of a naive twenty-threeyear old bota-
nist's four-yeartour as AssistantConservatorof Forestsin what was British
Guiana. Guppy observeseverythingfrom the insufferablealcoholic incom-
petence and arroganceof high (Georgetown) society to crass racism and
even more crassexploitation of the colony's naturalresources.
Then an unworthy thought entered my brain: were we British really so
incompetent? Or was this a plot-taking everything and putting nothing
back; spending not a penny, leaving the colony sucked dry, and then

110
 abandoning it. ... We ... were either being wicked or crassly stupid, if
well-intentioned.1

FICTION

One is familiar with films; and memoirs and recollections-selective,

filtered, and subjective as they may be-at least are rooted in fact. But the
use of fiction probably requires a few extra words of explanation. Actually
the explanation is quite simple. The use of fiction is based on the assump-
tion that the novelist selected is acutely aware of the total environment in
which his characters live and work; thus, a student reading a novel can see
its characters relating to one another in the context of a rich complex of
social, political and cultural environments.
Obviously, novels must be carefully selected for use in international
business; the list presented later represents several years' searching for
appropriate novels. From this list the writer has come to favor Achebe's A
Man of the People because of its length, availability in paperback, style,
and abundance of discussable incidents.
A series of examples will demonstrate how novels can illustrate vividly
and drive home to students concepts which might have been "lectured" to
them in vain.

Tribalism

How better to illustrate the tensions and problems of tribalism and

conflict of religions so prevalent in new "nation-states" whose arbitrary
borders reflect limits of colonial energy, not nations of like people, than
with these incidents in Achebe and Forester:
The Minister's speech sounded spontaneous and was most effective.
There was no election at hand, he said amid laughter. He had not come to
beg for their votes; it was just "a family reunion-pure and simple." He
would have preferred not to speak to his own kinsmen in English which
was after all a foreign language, but he had learned from experience that
speeches made in vernacular were liable to be distorted and misquoted in
the press. Also there were some strangers in that audience who did not
speak our own tongue and he did not wish to exclude them. They were
all citizens of our great country whether they came from the highlands or
the lowlands, etc., etc.2
They shook hands, in a half-embrace that typified the entente. Between
people of distant climes there is always the possibility of romance, but
the various branches of Indians know too much about each other to
surmount the unknowable easily. The approach is prosaic. "Excellent,"
said Aziz, patting a stout shoulder and thinking, "I wish they did not
remind me of cow-dung"; Das thought, "Some Moslems are very vio-
lent."3

111
 Corruption
Corruption is a major theme (but in this post-Watergate era one must
be slightly less smug and indignant in his reactions to Afro-Asian corrup-
tion) in both Achebe's A Man of the People and Armah's The Beautiful
Ones Are Not Yet Born.
I am not a child, my friend. If you work in the same office you can eat
from the same bowl.4
A man who has just come in from the rain and dried his body and put on
dry clothes is more reluctant to go out again than another who has been
indoors all the time. The trouble with our new nation-as I saw it then
lying on that bed-was that none of us had been indoors long enough to
be able to say "To hell with it." We had all been in the rain together until
yesterday. Then a handful of us-the smart and the lucky and hardly ever
the best-had scrambled for the one shelter our former rulers left, and
taken it over and barricaded themselves in.5

Cultural Differences and Oppportunities for Misunderstanding

One of our leading artists had just made an enormous wooden figure of a
god for a public square in Bori. I had not seen it yet but had read a lot
about it. In fact it had attracted so much attention that it soon became
fashionable to say it was bad or un-African. The Englishman was now
saying that it lacked something or other.
"I was pleased the other day," he said, "as I drove past it to see
one very old woman in uncontrollable rage shaking her fists at the sculp-
ture...."
"Now that's very interesting," said someone.
"Well, it's more than that," said the other. "You see this old wo-
man, quite illiterate pagan, who most probably worshipped this very god
herself; unlike our friend trained in European art schools; this old lady is
in a position to know ..."
"Quite."
It was then I had my flash of insight.
"Did you say she was shaking her fist?" I asked. "In that case you
got her meaning all wrong. Shaking the fist in our society is a sign of
great honour and respect; it means that you attribute power to the per-
son or object." Which of course is quite true.6

SUMMARY

Carefully selected films, memoirs, and fiction can be used effectively

in international business courses to bring to life the most essential features
of a foreign, less-developed environment. Fiction especially offers a way of
discovering, illustrating, and understanding concepts and features in the
environment which would be difficult if not downright dull to lecture
about. Films, memoirs, and fiction will make the courses more interesting
and meaningful, bring concepts to life on a human scale, and truly broaden
the horizon of teacher and student alike. The following bibliographies are
recommended.

112
 SUGGESTEDBIBLIOGRAPHY
Films

Documentary Films
American Samoa: Paradise Lost? (55 min. color, 1969) Produced and di-
rected by Dan Klugherz for NET. The cruel conflict of modernization
and retention of an old but beautifully complete and simple culture is
explored in a kind of paradise.Availablefrom: NET, IndianaUniversity,
Bloomington,Indiana,47401.
Borom Sarret. (20 min., black and white) Producedby OusmaneSembene.
Young man in DakarSenegal squeezed between modern and traditional
economies. Availablefrom: New YorkerFilms, 43 West61st Street, New
York, 10023.
The Bougainville Copper Project. (28 min., color, 1972) Establishing a cop-
per mine in the Solomon Islands.Availablefrom: Bechtel Film Library,
Box 3965, San Francisco,California,94119.
Builder to an Age: The Bechtel Organization. (30 min., color, 1971) The
activities of a huge firm of engineer/contractors. Available from: Bechtel
Film Library, Box 3965, San Francisco, California, 94119.
The Color Line. (40 min., black and white) About apartheid in South Afri-
ca. Available from: Time-Life Films. 43 West 16th Street, New York,
10011.
Gandhi's India. (58 min., black and white, 1970) Produced by BBC for
Intertel. A retrospective view of Gandhi and the possible implications of
his philosophy, especially economic philosophy, for development. Availa-
ble from: AV Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 47401.
Guyana: Nation Building. (20 min., color, 1971) NET "Black Journal" film
presents development and decolonization efforts of Forbes Burnham's
Guyana. Struggle with Alcan and Cooperative movement is stressed.
Available from: NET, AV Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indi-
ana, 47401.
The Healers of Aro. (28 min., black and white, 1966) A UN International
Zone film, directed by Ronald Fleher and produced by Diana Boernstein.
A story of unique, integrated psychiatric treatment for the mental "casu-
alties of development," originated and described by Dr. Lambo, a Nigeri-
an psychiatrist in Ibadan. Available from: Contemporary Films/McGraw
Hill, 330 West 42, New York, 10036.
The Heart of Apartheid. (39 min., black and white) About apartheid in
South Africa. Availablefrom: Time-LifeFilms, 43 West 16th Street, New
York, 10011.

113
The Japanese. (58 min., black and white, 1968) Produced for CBS News,
narrated by Edwin O. Reischauer. Of special interest to international
businessclasses because of focus on how a Japanesebusinessmanworks,
Japaneseethos, industry and daily (nightly) comings and goings. Availa-
ble from: CBSNews, 51 West52 Street, New York, 10019.
Juggernaut.(28 min., color, 1968) Directed by EugeneBoyko for National
Film Board of Canada.Contrastsmodern and traditionalsociety in con-
temporary India by tracing atomic reactor movement to location at
RajasthanAtomic Reactor Project. Availablefrom: National Film Board
of Canada,Box 6100, Montreal3, Canada,or LearningCorp. of America,
711 Fifth Avenue, New York, 10022.
Light, Strong and Beautiful. (30 min., color, 1973) Produced and directed
by Neil Tardio. About the international aluminumindustry, filmed on
four continents. Emphasison product applicationsof aluminum.Availa-
ble from: Kaiser Aluminumand ChemicalCorp., Film DistributionSer-
vices, 778 KaiserBuilding,Oakland,California,94604.
Men and Money in Action. (45 min., color, 1970) Story and clamor of
international banking. Available from: Public Relations Department,
Bank of America, Bank of America Building, San Francisco,California,
94119.
North Indian Village. (33 min., color, 1959) Directed and produced by
Patricia J. Hitchcock. Traditionalanthropologicalpicture of society in
Khalapur, a North Indian Village. Available from: InternationalFilm
Bureau,Inc., 332 South MichiganAvenue,Chicago,Illinois, 60604.
On the Way. (31 min., color, 1972) Directed by Kai Reinhardt. Global
scope and complex orchestrationof many factors over time in massive
construction projects. Available from: Ingolf Boisen; 4, Melchiorsvej,
DK-2920, Charlottenlund,Denmark.
Sugarand the Cane. (9 min., color, 1969) Availablefrom: Centron Educa-
tional Films, Suite 652, 1255 Port Street, San Francisco, California,
94109.
Sugar Country. (28 min., color) Descriptionof sugarcane industryin Flori-
da. Availablefrom: Mr. Bill Hunter,SugarCane League,Clewiston, Flor-
ida.
Sugar in Today's World.(14 min., color, 1968) Available from: Coronet
Films, 65 East South WaterStreet, Chicago,Illinois, 60601.
Tauw. (26/2 min., color, 1971)Produced by OusmaneSembenewith largely
nonprofessionalcast. In Wolof with English subtitles. A young man in
contemporarySenegal is caught in unemployment between modern and
traditionalsocieties. Availablefrom: Broadcastingand Film Commission,
National Councilof Churches,475 RiversideDrive,New York, 10027, or
New Yorker Films, 43 West61st Street, New York, 10023.

114
Whena Man Hungers.(28 min., color, 1968) Directed by ErskineChilders
for Development Support Communication Service, UNICEF. Develop-
ment implications of 1967 Biharfamine. Gentle by today's standardsof
starvation.Availablefrom: UNICEFnational committees and UN Inter-
national Zone distributionagencies.
WhiteAfrica. (40 min., black and white) About apartheidin South Africa.
Availablefrom: Time-LifeFilms,43 West 16th Street, New York, 10011.
FeatureFilms
Bed and Board. (100 min., color, 1970) Directed by Francois Truffaut.
Portrays cross-culturalproblems of romance,cuisine, and conversation.
Availablefrom: ColumbiaCinematheque,711 Fifth Avenue,New York,
10022.
Bwana Toshi. (115 min., color, 1965) Directed by Susumi Hani. Clash of
Japenese and African culture precipitated by disagreementabout the
value of work. Toshi, a Japaneseengineer, supervisesAfricanconstruc-
tion crew in erection of prefabricatedhouse. Available from: Audio/
Brandon Films, Inc., 34 MacQuestenParkway South, Mount Vernon,
New York, 10550.
Plantation Boy. (85 min., black and white, 1965) Based on Jose Lins do
Rego's novel about beginningsof industrializationin Brazil'sNortheast.
Available from: New Yorker Films, 43 West 61st Street, New York,
10023.
Sambizanga.(102 min., color, 1972) A black Africanversion of "Z." Ter-
ror, immorality, and strugglein one of the last formalcolonies. Available
from: New Yorker Films,43 West 61st Street, New York, 10023.
Walkabout.(95 min., color, 1971) Directed by Nicolas Roeg. Aboriginal
teenagersaves lives of white teenage girl and her younger brother against
a strong current of interculturalimpasse. Availablefrom: Films Incorpo-
rated,98 W. JacksonStreet, Hayward,California,94544.
Film Bibliography
Films in a ChangingWorld.Commentariesby Jean MarieAckermann.Avail-
able from: Society for International Development, 1346 Connecticut
Avenue,N.W., Washington,District of Columbia,20036.
Third WorldFilm List. A selective, briefly annotatedlisting of ThirdWorld
Films. Available from: Third World First (3W1), Britwell Salome, Wat-
lington, Oxon, England.
Memoirs
Blythe, Ronald. Akenfield: Portraitof an English Village.New York: Pan-
theon Books, 1969. Beautifuldescriptionof an agriculturalvillage,begin-
ning with a chapterof recollectionsof villagelife 50 years ago.

115
Guppy, Nicholas. A Young Man's Journey. London: John Murray,1973.
Sensitiveyoung botanist does a forest survey of British Guianain 1950.
Acute observationsof flora and faunaand social implicationsof colonial-
ism.
Laurence,Margaret.New Windin a Dry Land. New York: Knopf, 1963.
Wifeof a civil engineerpresentsaccount of stay in Somalia.
Naipal, VidiadharSurajprasad.MiddlePassage.New York: Macmillan,1973.
Poses interesting questions about confluence of cultures and history in
WestIndies, Surinam,and Guyana.
Rego, Jose Lins do. Plantation Boy (Translatedfrom the Portuguese by
Emmi Baum). New York: Knopf, 1966. Recollections of boyhood spent
on plantationin the Northeastof Brazil.
Spunt, Georges.A Place in Time. London: MichaelJoseph, 1969. Eyewit-
ness account of interwarChinavia biography of Spunt family in Shang-
hai.

Fiction

Achebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. London: Heinemann, 1964. Conflict be-

tween old ways and new white man's ways is explored in the Ibo villages
in EasternNigeria. A Chief Priest's son, instructed in Christianity,over-
zealously destroys a sacred religioussymbol of the village, thus further
widening the gap between the Chief and white authority. (Paperbound
by Doubleday.)
Achebe, Chinua.Man of the People. New York: John Day, 1966. A compli-
cated novel which satirizes the ambiguities,corruption, and greedinher-
ent in the political development of a West African state. The narrator,a
school teacher, is introducedto the misuse of power by Chief Nanga,the
Ministerof Culture. Eventually the protagonistchallengesNanga in the
elections to Parliament, an election marred by odious corruption.
(Paperboundby Doubleday.)
Achebe, Chinua. No Longer at Ease. London: Heinemann, 1960. Native
born but educated in England,the hero is trappedby his ambitionsfor a
refined life in the higher Nigerian social structure. Obi Okonkwo finds
personal tragedy when bribes begin to supplementhis income and out-
ward appearanceoutweighs the man within. (Paperboundby Fawcett.)
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: McDowell, Obolensky,
1959. Rather than a novel of strong plot, this is an evocation of a mode
of life, drawn from Nigerian traditions and folklore. The orderly and
rhythmic existence of Okonkwo is fatally toppled when one of his cher-
ished sons becomes a Christianand harkens the end to the old order.
(Paperboundby Fawcett.)

116
Armah, Ayi Kwei. The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Boston: Hough-
ton Mifflin, 1968. One honest voice in a sea of filth and political corrup-
tion is the theme worked out in newly independentGhana.The "man"is
derided by his wife for not possessinglife's luxuries-so easily obtainable.
by theft or bribes. The personal integrity of the protagonist,however, is
a vivid contrast to the disintegrationof society and the fall of Nkrumah.
(Paperboundby Macmillan.)
Armah, Ayi Kwei. Fragments. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. A native
Ghanaian,a "been-to" named Baako, returnsto his country only to find
the white bureaucracyand corruptionhas been replacedby black dissem-
blance. Baako's disintegrationis swift and symbolic. Unable to success-
fully balance the old traditions and new. ambition, Baako'send is tragic.
(Paperboundby Macmillan.)
Asturias, Miguel Angel. The Green Pope (translated from the Spanish by
Gregory Rabassa).New York: DelacortePress, 1970. A central character,
GeorgeMakerThompson, dominates this volatile novel of empirebuild-
ing in a CentralAmericanrepublic.Vast bananaplantationsare wrenched
and won by Thompson over the years, who then aspires to install
himself as governor.
Asturias,Miguel Angel. Strong Wind(Translatedfrom the Spanishby Greg-
ory Rabassa).New York: DelacortePress, 1968. Set in the lush tropic of
a Central American country, this novel condemns the exploitation of
man and the abuse of nature. Banana grower Lester Meade's passion,
shared by his wife, is the development of harmony between the U.S.
company and the native growers-a utopian plan never obtained and in
the end annihilated.
Brook, Ian. Jimmy Riddle. New York: Putman, 1961. Writtenby a former
British colonial official, the novel irreverentlyexamines the pitfalls of
colonial rule as well as the mixed blessings that independencebrings to
an Africannation.
Caute, David.Decline of the West.New York: Macmillan,1966. Wealthyin
natural resources,a young African state named Coppernica(the Congo)
faces the overthrowof its inexperiencedgovernmentby a powerful group
of French and Americanentrepreneurs.
Charhadi,Driss ben Hamed.A Life Full of Holes (A novel tape-recordedin
Moghrebiand translatedinto Englishby Paul Bowles). New York: Grove
Press, 1964. Unique translation of tapes which tells of a young Moroc-
can's daily struggle with life. Ahmed is rejected by his stepfather when
his mother remarries,and from that time on his stringof menial occupa-
tions barely wards off starvation.His job as housekeeper to a European
homosexual further develops the atmosphere of degradation. (Paper-
bound by Grove.)

117
Edqvist, D. Black Sister (Translated by Joan Tate). Garden City, New
York: Doubleday, 1963. Under the effective guise of a murdermystery,
this novel probes the many facets of white-blackrelationshipsin Tangan-
yka (Tanzania).After an Englishwomanis murdered,a naturalsuspect is
Black Sister,an Africanschoolmistress.
Ekwensi, Cyprian.Beautiful Feathers. London: Hutchinson, 1963. Set in
Lagos, Nigeria, the sharp conflict between the protagonist'spersonaland
public life is explored. London educated pharmacistWilsonrises rapidly
in Nigerian politics with the founding of his own party, the Nigerian
Movement for African and MalagasySolidarity, only to be despisedand
eventuallyabandonedby his wife.
Estival, G. Gap in the Wall. New York: Knopf, 1963. French and Islamic
cultures clash as a young Arab-Algeriangirl returnshome from a French
lycee after completing the ninth grade.Condemnedto days spent behind
the courtyard wall, the girl seeks to escape only to be engulfed by mis-
understandingand tragedy.
Forster, E. M. Passage to India. New York: Grosset, 1924. Account of
confrontation of cultures in pre-IndependenceIndia. A literary classic.
(Paperboundby HarcourtBraceJovanovich.)
Fuentes, Carlos. Wherethe Air Is Clear (Translatedby Sam Hileman).New
York: I. Obolensky, 1960. This novel pieces together a vibrantmosaic of
modern Mexico. Essentially by using flashbackinsight into the motiva-
tions of the characters,the book comments on the apparentinertia of
Mexico's middle class in furthering the country's revolution. (Paper-
bound by Farrar,Straussand Giroux.)
Garcia-Marquez, Gabriel.No One Writesto the Colonel. New York: Harper
and Row, 1968. A collection of short stories which essentially depict the
poverty-riddenexistence of people in the town of Macondoin Columbia.
Ghose, Zulfikar.TheMurderof Aziz Khan. New York: John Day Company,
1967. An involved plot of socioeconomic intrigue and murder set in
Pakistan.The Shah brothers plot to gain possession of Aziz Khan'scot-
ton farmin orderto expand their own empire.Mill town life and ways of
the newly rich in Pakistanare described.
Hersey, John. Single Pebble. New York: Knopf, 1956. Americanengineer
encounters an inscrutable culture in his survey of the Yangtze River.
(Paperboundby Bantam.)
Icaza, J. Huasipungo: The Villagers(Translationby BernardM. Dulsey).
Carbondale:SouthernIllinois UniversityPress, 1964. The exploitation of
the EcuadorianIndianin the face of capitalistictreacheryis the theme. A
contrast is drawn between the avariciouslandownerPereiraand the suf-
fering degradationof one strong-willedhuasipunguero.(Paperboundby
Southern Illinois UniversityPress.)

118
Laurence,Margaret.This Side Jordan. New York: St. Martin'sPress, 1960.
A Ghanaianteacher belonging to two worlds is caught in a programof
Africanization directed from abroad just before the Gold Coast is to
become Ghana.Native traditionswar with growingcommercialismwithin
the protagonistand within the country as a whole.

Markandaya,Kamala (Mrs. KamalaTaylor). The Coffer Dams. New York:

John Day, 1969. The sweep of technological change in India is brought
into focus through the building of a dam, a job not without great hin-
drancesand tragic mishaps. The Britishcontractor'swife growsin appre-
ciation of the traditions of the villagersand provides a touchstone to
India'sancient customs. (Paperboundby Fawcett.)
Naipal, VidiadharSurajprasad.Miguel Street. New York: VanguardPress,
1959. Sketches of street life in Port of Spain, Trinidad,emphasize that
eccentric and roguishelements of characterare commonplace.
Naipal, Vidiadhar Surajprasad.Mimic Men. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
Within the stream of "commonwealth literature" this book is in the
format of memoirs of an exiled politician who has toppled from wealth
and power in a BritishCaribbeanprotectorate.

Naipal, Vidiadhar Surajprasad."One Out of Many," In a Free State. New

York: Knopf, 1971, pp. 25-61. Washington,D. C. viewed througheyes of
"primitive"Indianservantposted to the U.S. with his master.

Narayan,R. K. The Vendorof Sweets. New York: Viking Press, 1967. The
generationgap provides the viable theme for facing change in India. For
Jagan, a sweetshop owner in south India, the challengeof changecomes
when his son arrives back from the U.S. and attempts to involve his
fatherin a capitalisticscheme.

Ousmane, S. God's Bits of Wood. New York: Doubleday, 1962. Based on

fact and written from experience, the novel pivots around a railroad
strike in French West Africa in 1947. Recurrentis the theme of aliena-
tion and stresswhich technologicaladvancesbring.

Slimming, John. The Pepper Garden. Philadelphia:Lippincott, 1968. The

Britishmanagerof a rubberestate faces severalguerillainsurgencies,both
in Malaya and Sarawak. In the first uprising, his Eurasianmistress is
murdered,and in the second his Chineseboy-servantjoins the revolution-
aries,with tragicconsequences.
Theroux, Paul. Girlsat Play. Boston: HoughtonMifflin, 1969. Five ethnical-
ly varied female schoolteachersthrowninto an isolated environmentpro-
vides materialenough for a volatile story. Add to this the dilapidationof
the Kenya bush country which permeatesall aspects of mind and spirit,
and tragicconsequencesare inevitable.

119
Tutuola, Amos. Ajaiyi and His InheritedPoverty. London: Faber, 1967. An
African folklore fantasy which comes full circle, beginningat impenetra-
ble poverty and endingin a state of ideal Christiancommunism.
Vaid, KrishnaBaldev.Steps in Darkness.New York: OrionPress, 1962. The
subjectmatter is familiar:a poor Indianfamily strugglesfor survivalin an
even more wretched town. The perspective,however, is through the be-
wildered and maturing eyes of a small child. (Paperboundby InterCul-
ture.)
Vargas-Llosa,Mario. The Green House (Translated from the Spanish by
Gregory Rabassa.)New York: Harper and Row, 1968. The characters
and events reflect a broad scope of Peruviansociety. Emphasizedis the
alliance between soldiers and churchmen to subjugate the Indians and
the exploitation of human beings in the next lower social scale. (Paper-
bound by Avon.)
Yanez, Agustin. The Edge of the Storm (Translated by Ethel Brinton).
Austin Texas: University of Texas Press, 1963. The storm of Mexico's
Revolution (1910) finds stubborn resistancein a small, tradition-bound
village in the state of Jalisco. The old social order of priest-landowner-
politician begins to disintegrate,however, in the face of painful human
liberation. (Paperboundby Universityof Texas Press.)

Footnotes

1. NicholasGuppy,A YoungMan'sJourney (London:John Murray,1973), p. 66.

2. ChinuaAchebe,A Manof the People (New York:John Day, 1969), p. 13.
3. E.M.Forster,A Passageto India (New York:Grosset,1924), pp. 266-267.
4. Aki Kwei Armah, The Beautiful OnesAre Not Yet Born (Boston: I-oughton Mif-
flin, 1968), p. 29.
5. Achebe,A Manof the People, p. 34.
6. Ibid.,pp. 4748.

120