Open access
W
il
son Harris
Wi
l
son
Harri
s is
one
of
the
most
challenging and rewarding novelists
writing
in
the
Commonwealth
today.
If
r
eady
-
~ade
concepts_
we
re
not
so alien
to
hi
s a
rt,
we
might
say
that
he
ha
s
mtroduced
a kmd
of
'permanent
revolution'
in
Caribbean
writing.
C
on
tr~ry
to what is
often
said
of
him,
he
is
not
a
pure
aes
thete
bu
t an
mten
sely
co~
mitted
writer
who
compels
the
reader
to reject, as
he
d
oe~,.
pre}u-
dic
e
and
preconceived ideas,
and
demands
his active
paruc1pat~on
in
th
e discovery
of
man.
"Kanai
m
a"
illustrates
th
e
ou
tst
andmg
quali
ties
of
Harris's
work:
th
e freedom of
the
imagination, the power.
to
epitomize
and
control
his ma
teria
l, and his coherent use of
sym
-
bols.
In
The
Marches
of
El Dorado
Michael
Swan
writes
that
Kanaima
'is
perhaps
the
most
potent
fo
r
~e
in all
Indian
lite
...
it
is still
v~:~
much
a
li
ve
amo
ng
the
Indi
ans as
th
e source
of
death and evil .·
\Vhile
remain
i
ng
faithful to
the
traditional character of the evil
spi
rit,
Wilson
Harri
s has discovered a
n
~w
significa
n
~e
in his rol
e.
"Kanaima"
describes a s
trug
gle between life
and
death
111
the
Guyan
-
ese l
andscape
which
is gr
adu
ally
tran
smuted
into a struggle be-
tw
ee
n life
and
death
of a spiritual
and
universal significance.
The
setting
is
the
dyi
ng
village of
Turnatuma
ri.
Though
it is described
as a 'sta
nding
dea
th
' it contains potentialities of life, concrete
111
the
waterfall
with
its
'v
iole
nt
inner conc
en
tration
and
energy'. How-
ever,
thi
s
symbol
of
'something
alive
and
vibrant and whole-
h
eart
ed'
is
an
untamed
,
and
therefore
wasted, life force. ·
The
Indi
ans
·who
came
to
the
emp
ty
and
lifeless village in search
of
'a
new
enca
m
pme
nt',
i.e.,
of
a new life, are
thems
elves flying
from
death,
wh
i
ch
for
some
time
ha
s
pur
sued
th
em
in several form
s;
the
la
st
of
th
ese, a de
st
ructive fire, is
int
erpreted by
th
em as a
spiritual
warning.
Yet
,
whe
re\'er
they
go, they see death as som
eth
ing
out
side
th
emseh
·es.
The
'barren
', African pork-knocker
(a
gold-
or
diamond-miner)
who
meets t
he
m personifies the death which results
from
the
gold-miner
s'
exclusive conce
rn
for
m
a
ter~
a
l
riches, from
th
eir
'exp
endi
ng
nearly every
drop
of
hea
r
t's
blood. m
th
e fever and
l
ust
of
th
e
diam
ond
bush'.
Because J
ordan
and
his
compa111on
are
106
inhospitable and
sel~s
h
,
we have
the
impression at first
that
the
y
merely
wa.n
t to get
nd
of
the
Indians,
until
we realize
that
Jordan
too is afraid
of
death
and
aware
of
its hold over his
ow
n life.
Both
~he
!
ndi_a_ns
and the Africans s
ubmit
to
what
th
ey
interpret
as
the
mev1~ab1h:y
of fate
and
through
their
passivity
and
resignation
acquiesce
111
the
power of
deat
h.
The
way to
death
is desc
ribed
in
the
imag
ery
of
a
sna
ke
coiling
thr
ou_
gh
:h
e story like the trail
thro
ugh
the
forest,
and
rep
eate
dly
sho:"ring
i_t
s ugly head.
It
is a manifestation
of
primeval undiffer-
entiated. life
as
well as a life-giving principle.
The
snake of
Tuma
-
tu~
an_
1s dead. since
~t
is
with
it
s skin
that
the trail is
compa
red,
while
_it
s entrails, which used to contain its
fe
rtilizing power, are
'dangling and r
ott
in
g' like
'hus
ks of vine' in
the
forest.
But
the
snake is
~!so
a symbol of
the
inf
erior psyche,
of
the
unconsc
ious,
and
as.
suc
h
1s
associated
with
the
fire
th
at destroys
the
Ind
i
ans'
village,
with the
garment
of
~
(anaima
and
with
the
'tra
il
ing
darkn
es
s'
that
envelops T u
matuma
n
when
Kanaima is
among
them
. As a
sym
bol,
the snake shows
affi
nity
with
the
shadow, itse
lf
an
expressi
on
of
man'
s
per
so_na
l
un
co~sc~ous
and
of
th
e negative, dark
side
of
his
per
-
sonality. Now i t
1s
as a s
hadow
that
Kanaim
a appears,
shape
d by
the two shadows of .
the
pork
-kn
ockers and making one
with
the
shadows
of
the fores
t,
which
participates
in
their
death
in
life. T he
shadow
~f
Kanaima is inseparable from
th
e earth,
the
primeval
mother;
its
_cloa
k sweeps 'into a black hole in
the
ground
',
and
though moving freely
in
death, is incapable of
an
u
pwar
d
mo
ve
ment.
As soon
as
Kanaima
mate
ri
alizes
on
the scene, it is
shown
literally
feedrng on the meat
of
li
fe.
The
signs of possible
rebirth
are
sti
ll
pre
se
nt:
the
fi
re lifts a tongue
up
to heaven, and
the
sound
of
the
falls with their potential fertility is heard by
the
Indian
headman.
But
he rema!ns aware
of
death
on
ly. Arriving at
Tu
matumari
,
he
and
his
c
om
panwns had felt
th
at '
th
e world they knew was dying
everywhere
and no one could dream w
hat
would take its place'.
Now
he
sees
that
'a
ll
the trails were
v_a
nish
ing
into a
running
hole
in
the
grou
nd
',·
i.
e., were all leading to
death
inste
ad
of ascending
to
life.
But
unex-
pectedl
y,
t
he
st
ruggle
betwee
n life and d
ea
th
is
brought
to a clim
ax
in the person of his wife,
who
has mis
judged
the
trail (
the
snake, the
shadow: death
).
The
h
eadman
perceives
then
't
he
cloud
of
un-
knowing darkness' (
th
eir own ignorance
or
want
of
s
piritual
light
).
Recognizing Kanaima in the watchman, in
natur
e,
in
everything
that
surro
unds
them,
the
Ind
ians are struck by
'what
th
ey knew all
along'.
At
last they acknowledge
the
presence of
the
Lord of Death
among
themselves.
If
th
ey have b
ee
n unable to escape his t
hr
eaten-
ing shadow,
if
de
a
th
w
as
at
each place
th
ey were coming to,
it
wa
s
because they were carrying it within themselves. Now
th
eir fate
is
being played
out
in
one of their own, who acts
as
a 'vessel of experi-
ence',
as
Harris
wo
uld
say,
'the
groping
muse of all
their
humanity'.
Pas
sing
through
th
e jaws of a monster
is
one way of
ga
ining acce
ss
to heaven
or
to real life. As
th
e woman climbs
upon
the 'staircased-
tee
th'
(the ladder leading to lif
e),
the
roaring jaws of the waterfall,
now a potential in
strument
of death, are
the
gateway to salvat
io
n for
herself
and
her
companions.
If
Kanaima alone knows whether she
will reach
the
cliff top, it is because their unconscious, or the deathly
pa
rt
in
them, is still all-powerful and still takes precedence over their
conscious self.
Though
apparently pessimistic,
th
e story implies that the charac-
ters can free themselves from
the
all-pervasive influence of death.
Life and death are inseparable b
ut
the Guyanese or,
fo
r that matter,
universal man, can either choose between looking up to 'the
go
ld
en
moun
ta
in
s
of
heaven' or allowing themselves to be dragged into
'the
hole in
the
ground'.
Tumatumari
means 'sleeping rocks' and
rocks are said to be
the
source of life. Whatever
is
asleep can always
be
awakened. H.
M.-J
.
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