Books: Black & White

BLACK GOD—D. Manners-Sutton— Longmans, Green ($2.50).

Story of the Congo, Black God is no travelog but an interpretation of the spiritual conflicts that follow the encroachment of white culture on black folk. Here “Civilization” and “Paganism” meet at the ford of a small tributary of the Congo River where an “outpost of progress” is in the making. Not a novel for best-seller lists, Black God should be enjoyed by discriminating readers for its humor, its delicate prose.

All through the story M’Kato waits on the river bank, concentrating on his plan of revenge in accordance with the instructions of the witch doctor. Years before his hands had been cut off for striking a white man who was ravishing his sister. Impersonal, implacable, patient, he waits the consummation of justice, knowing his thought will eventually bring his enemy within range of his assagai which he has learned to hurl with his feet. He has his revenge.

In the meantime great changes take place at the ford. Two Christian missions, two hospitals, a bank, a hotel, a market square are established. Many blacks are attracted by Baptist Minister Jones’s sensational revivals. More turn to the Catholic mission where Father Domenique cultivates his gentle philosophy and his rose garden. Sister Marte, annoyed with Sister Therese, runs away, makes good her escape by sending dour old Ferryman Lardi, asleep on his raft, to death in the rapids below, then takes refuge with the Joneses until Sister Mary Josephine fetches her back. Old Googli, the cannibal, fashions a pottery jar from the skull of lascivious Brother Francois who had made an insane attack on the sacred virgin of the medicine man. At Madame Boul-boul’s tavern, “Admiral” Delabouche and his crony play dominoes. Flore arrives and the town takes pride in its first courtesan who becomes the Administrator’s mistress. The fragments fit into each other to form a crazy-quilt pattern in black and white.

The Author.

If her writing strikes the reader as un-English in its flavor, that may be explained by the fact that Doris Manners-Sutton, born in Australia, is of Irish-Breton parentage. A scrawled statement of her own, reluctantly given, contains all her publishers have been able to discover about her. It runs: “Manners-Sutton, Doris. Biographical sketch. . . . Wandered about the world. Always interested in the occult. Has ‘the sight.’ Spent a year collecting . . . information for Black God. Nearly eaten by cannibals. Believes sincerely in magic and the power of created thought. Has written all her life. . . .”

Black God is the September choice of the Book-of-the-Month Club.