The Color Curtain
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 First edition | |
| Author | Richard Wright |
|---|---|
| Publisher | World Publishing Co. |
Publication date | 1956 |
African-American author Richard Wright's book The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference (Cleveland and New York: World, 1956) is based on his impressions and analysis of the postcolonial Asian-African Conference, which was a gathering of representatives from 29 independent Asian and African countries, held in the city of Bandung, Indonesia, April 18–24, 1955. In addition to drawing on its author's experience as a reporter at the conference, The Color Curtain bases its analysis of the postcolonial world on Wright's interactions with several modern Indonesian writers and intellectuals. Since its publication in 1956, Wright's Indonesian travelogue has been a prominent first-hand account of the Bandung Conference.
While living as an expatriate in Paris, France, Wright learned in early January 1955 that the Bandung Conference would be held in April 1955 and immediately wanted to attend.[1] As he explains in The Color Curtain: "Idly, I picked up the evening's newspaper that lay folded near me on the table and began thumbing through it. Then I was staring at a news item that baffled me....Twenty-nine free and independent nations of Asia and Africa are meeting in Bandung, Indonesia, to discuss 'racialism and colonialism'...." Wright saw this as "a meeting of almost all of the human race living in the main geopolitical center of gravity of the earth."[2]
After making arrangements for the Congress for Cultural Freedom to cover his travel expenses,[3] Wright traveled to Indonesia, arriving on April 12 and departing more than three weeks later on May 5. During his time in Indonesia, Wright spent the week of April 18–24 reporting on the conference,[4] and then spent the remaining two weeks of his Indonesian travels interacting with various Indonesian writers and intellectuals, including Mochtar Lubis, Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, Asrul Sani, Ajip Rosidi, Achdiat Karta Mihardja, Beb Vuyk, and others. He also gave a handful of lectures: at an art event held at the home of Jakarta's mayor, for a meeting of Takdir Alisjahbana's study club, for a group of university students, and for PEN Club Indonesia.
On returning to Paris, Wright "worked day and night on [The Color Curtain] and finally sent it to his literary agent on 20 June."[5] Meanwhile, in accordance with the funding agreement Wright had made before traveling to Indonesia, the Congress for Cultural Freedom published several articles (which later became chapters in The Color Curtain) in its international magazines, including Encounter in English, Preuves in French, Der Monat in German, and Cuadernos in Spanish.[6] The Color Curtain was published in English in March 1956, a few months after it appeared in French translation, in December 1955, as Bandoeng, 1.500.000.000 d'hommes.[7]
Contents
Introduced by Gunnar Myrdal, The Color Curtain contains five chapters: "Bandung: Beyond Left and Right", "Race and Religion at Bandung", "Communism at Bandung", "Racial Shame at Bandung", and "The Western World at Bandung". In "Bandung: Beyond Left and Right", Wright narrates his pre-conference research into Asia and Indonesia, describing interviews conducted in Europe with several unnamed Asian, Indonesian, and Dutch informants. He also documents the reactions of the Western news media to the upcoming conference. Toward the end of this opening chapter, Wright arrives in Indonesia and, hosted by Mochtar Lubis, meets Indonesian cultural figures and interviews Indonesia's first prime minister, Sutan Sjahrir, as well as the country's fifth prime minister, Mohammed Natsir.
In "Race and Religion at Bandung", Wright travels from Jakarta to Bandung to attend the Asian-African Conference. He recounts the Indonesian President Sukarno’s opening speech: "Before [Sukarno] had uttered more than a hundred syllables, he declared: 'This is the first international conference of colored peoples in the history of mankind!'"[8] Later in the chapter, Wright recounts speeches by several other delegates, including by Prime Minister of Ceylon Sir John Kotelawala, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Kojo Botsio of the Gold Coast, Prince Wan of Thailand, and Carlos Romulo of the Philippines, among others. Wright states: "As I sat listening, I began to sense a deep and organic relation here in Bandung between race and religion, two of the most powerful and irrational forces in human nature."[9]
In "Communism at Bandung", Wright discusses Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai’s presence and speech at the conference, examining how Zhou Enlai worked to balance Communism’s atheism with Indonesia’s dedication to Islam as well as with the other participant nations’ religious traditions.
In "In Racial Shame at Bandung", Wright discusses the unofficial presence of the African-American US Congressman Adam Clayton Powell at the conference and situates US racism in relation to a Cold War political situation in which racism was becoming an international liability for the United States. Later in this section, Wright recounts the story of a fellow African-American reporter, Ethel Payne, who was also reporting on the Bandung Conference and was apparently looking for some Sterno to straighten her hair. Wright believes that racial shame prompts her to straighten her hair.[10] He also reports on "an intimate interview with one of the best-known Indonesian novelists", who is quoted as saying: "I feel inferior. I can’t help it. It is hard to be in contact with the white Western world and not feel like that."[11]
In "The Western World at Bandung", Wright notes that the West's influence permeates the conference, observing that English is the meeting's main language of communication. But he cautions that the West has only a limited window to appeal to and influence the postcolonial world. If the West does not use this window, "it faces an Asian-African attempt at pulling itself out of its own mire under the guidance of Mr. Chou En-lai and his drastic theories and practices of endless secular sacrifices."[12]