Discussion Topic
Main issues in Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist
Summary:
Main issues in The Conservationist include the themes of land ownership, racial tensions, and the clash between traditional African values and European colonial influences. The novel explores the protagonist's complex relationship with the land he owns and the people who live on it, highlighting the broader socio-political conflicts in South Africa.
What postcolonial issues are present in The Conservationist?
In Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist, we're introduced to the somewhat absurd character of Mehring, a rich white South African who buys a 400-acre farm on a whim despite the fact that he has no experience of farming whatsoever. It's clear that like many urban dwellers, Mehring entertains romantic fantasies about the countryside, which he tends to see through rose-tinted glasses.
After Mehring acquires his plot of land, it also becomes clear that he is not the one in charge of the farm. He may own the property, but it's his Black workers who really run the show. This situation can be seen through a postcolonial lens, in that the way the working arrangements on the farm hint at what kind of society would exist in a future postcolonial South Africa, a nation free from white minority rule.
On a postcolonial reading, Mehring's separation from the day-to-day running of...
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the farm is a clear indication that Black Africans don't need white people to run their affairs for them; like the workers on Mehring's farm, they're more than capable of doing it themselves. Mehring may own the land, but it is not really his. He is an intruder, an interloper, someone who doesn't have any kind of deep connection with the soil.
Gordimer's story can therefore be interpreted, in general terms, as a critique of white colonialism in Africa, with its appropriation of land owned and worked for generations by Indigenous people.