Looking For Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence -Novel & Poetry of M. Nourbese Philip

POETRY/NOVELS of M. NourbeSe Philip

LOOKING FOR LIVINGSTONE -an Odyssey of Silence

A woman, travelling alone through time, Africa, and unnamed lands, searches for Dr. David Livingstone, celebrated by the West as a "discoverer" of Africa. Throughout her quest, for knowledge and for Livingstone, the traveller visits many peoples, listens to their stories and their silences, and learns about their Silence. Suspense, parables, and dreams play major parts of the story twists and turns toward the traveller's confrontation with Livingstone-I presume.

Looking for Livingstone explodes Western assumptions about the "silence" of indigenous peoples; this is on elegant and compelling novel which beautifully gives voice to the ancestors to whom it is dedicated.

"A powerful aid provocative narrative in poetry and prose, Looking for Livingstone provides the next step in feminist theorizings of language and silence. Moving beyond the experiments of Irigaray and Wittig, Philip uses history, geography and race as well as gender to explore the multiple expressions of silence in its ongoing intercourse with the word."
- Cristanne Miller

"Throughout there are dream sequences, journal entries, and prose pieces, all thoughtful ways of making readers aware of how history is created. And how it is denied."— Canadian Materials

When Haitian born author Danielle Legros Georges was asked which books had had the greatest influence on her. "She Tries her Tongue" and "Looking for Livingstone" were the first two books she named.

THE FIRST AND LAST DAY OF THE MONTH OF NEW MOONS
(OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE LAST AND FIRST MONTH)
IN THE FIRST YEAR OF OUR WORD

0300 HOURS

-----My own map was a primitive one, scratched on animal
skin. Along the way, some people had given me some of theirs
-- no less primitive -- little pieces of bark with crude pictures
of where they thought I would find what I was searching for.
I also had some bones and various pieces of wood with
directions incised on them. And a mirror. Where was I going!
I had forgotten where I had come from - knew I had to go
on. "I will open a way to the interior or perish." Livingstone's
own words - I took them now as my own -- my motto. David
Livingstone, Dr. David Livingstone, 1813-13 - Scottish, not
English, and one of the first Europeans to cross the Kalahari
- with the help of Bushmen; was shown the Zambezi by the
indigenous African and "discovered" it; was shown the falls
of Mosioatunya - the smoke that thunders - by the indigenous
African, "discovered" it and renamed it. Victoria Falls.
Then he set out to "discover" the source of the Nile and was
himself "discovered" by Stanley - "Dr. Livingstone, I pre-
sume!" And History. Stanley and Livingstone - white fathers
of the continent. Of silence.
...

(p.7) ©Marlene Nourbese Philip 1991

The traveller seeks
---------------------contentment
in silence
---------------------containment
of press of circle upon circle
that cleanses
---------------------the pollute
---------------------the profane in word
to confine within small
--------------------------large
- a universe of silence
--------------------------within
body
cell
atom
--------------------------within
word
adding search to reach
wind to spool
----------------to twist
of thread along the black
stretch of ever
----------------into Silence
that mocks the again in know
the word discovers
--------------------- Word
mirrored
----------in Silence
...
(p.39) ©Marlene Nourbese Philip 1991

THE SIXTH DAY OF THE HUNDREDTH MONTH
IN THE SIX BILLIONTH YEAR OF OUR WORD

5001 HOURS

----I had been on the road for some five million years when
I got to the land of the CLEENIS; I was tired - very tired -
and Livingstone still seemed a long way away. I had seen no
one, spoken to no one during the last two thousand years,
though I did have communication with things around me -
I had learnt my lessons well from the CESLIENS - but I had
been lonely, savagely lonely at times, and was happy to see a
human face - to meet people.
----The CLEENIS welcomed me, and were friendly enough.
I had been there barely a hundred years when one of the
CLEENIS leaders, Marphan, a magnificent woman some six
feet tall with massive breasts and hips, and of a rich dark-
brown complexion, came and told me that my time in the
sweat-lodge approached.
----"My time in the sweat-lodge?" She smiled and nodded.
----"I don't want to go to the sweat-lodge," I said. "I'm tired,
and just want to rest -- I've been travelling for a long time- "
----She smiled again, all six feet- two hundred pounds of her,
and quietly but firmly said, "All visitors to our society must
go - the day after tomorrow your time in the lodge begins.
You should spend the time before then thinking of three
words you wish to take into the sweat-lodge with you,"
----"Three words!" I sounded like a fool repeating everything
she said - "what do you mean?"
----"In the lodge all words leave you... " she paused, "except
the ones you choose." She explained all this very patiently, as
if I were a child, or a simpleton. "Before you go into the lodge,
you must tell me your words - these are the words that will
see you through"

(p.41) ©Marlene Nourbese Philip 1991

This narrative in poetry and prose was published in 1991 by The Mercury Press

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