#93, December 23, 2004

Interrogare, Act 2

Interrogare continues. Casement is in jail, but he has flashbacks to periods before the war. This is a flashback to the 1911 Universal Races Congress at London University. All the characters are real except Princess Kautilya, who is the character from Du Bois’ novel, Dark Princess. This character was based upon an Indian woman that Du Bois met at the conference, and since I haven’t done the research to find out who she is, I will just use Du Bois’ name for her. For Act One of this play, see Interrogare.

Act Two:

The year is 1911. The setting is the Universal Races Congress at London University. It is a very hot and sultry June day, so the actors show considerable irritation throughout the scene about the heat. Enter W.E.B. Du Bois, Basil Thomson, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Princess Kautilya, Von Ranke. They carry cups of tea, with teacakes on their saucers, which they consume during the scene. Other groups of people are present in the room discussing topics amongst themselves – occasionally looking over when discussion gets heated. Waitresses wander around the room offering more finger food, which is frequently accepted and also consumed. To the side, in a darkened cell, Roger Casement is seated on his bed. The light pans over to him, and he gets up and moves over to the lightened conference room. This, then, is another of his dreams, or one of his memories. As he walks over, Casement begins talking and joins the main group of participants.

Roger Casement: But, Dr. Du Bois, I believe that you will come to see that we are all connected in a way that you haven’t yet imagined. I quite see the struggle that you have been facing with Mr. Moton over there (pointing), and his boss Mr. Washington, but is not the struggle a larger one still. You can get your liberal education for the Negro in America; you yourself can come to embody all the achievements and manhood of your race; but so long as there is oppression in the world you will either be on the side of the oppressors, or continuing to fight for that larger freedom.

[The other members of the group look concernedly at Du Bois, seeing that he does not react well to this comment]

Du Bois [clearly taken aback]: Mr. Casement, I am indeed grateful to you, as must the world be, for all that you have revealed in the Congo. But I don’t think you should be lecturing me on oppression. I have lived in Atlanta, seen all the lynching and race riots. You may have seen what humanity is capable of doing to others, but I have seen what it is capable of doing to me.

Casement: Most assuredly! I certainly do not mean to lecture you. I merely want, amidst all this self-satisfied pomp and circumstance, to mention that there are larger forces at work than those prejudices that seem to explain why one race will victimize another. If we learn one thing from the slave trade, and from its bastard child, the Scramble for Africa, it is that there are economic forces at work that will decide the fortunes for much of the world. Now that we have the steamboat and the steam engine and have modern armaments and the whole scheme of modern government aiding the imperialist enterprise, the lives of natives worldwide have become forfeit to stock gambling and share markets, which are the pillars of the global scheme.

Du Bois: Well, this is certainly rich, coming from a British Colonial official.

Von Ranke: Ja! Indeed.

Casement: Nevertheless, it is true. Take my revelations of the conditions of workers in Putamayo. The whole ghastly business was a result of American and British capitalists wanting to profit from the work of the natives. Where is the difference in that from what was going on in the Congo? There was none, but this was an American and British operation, we couldn’t blame it on a predatory Belgian king, or the uncivilized way in which Germans run their empires.

Von Ranke: I should hope not. That is rather a rich canard, the idea that we Germans aren’t concerned about our natives like you cricket-playing Britishers. (joking) We have given them our gymnastics, have we not!

[Princess Kautilya]: And, we Hindus have become rather interested in your gymnastics, Herr Ranke, though many of our men seem to be catching this cricketing bug.

Du Bois: I must say, after my sojourn at the University of Berlin, I am rather more partial to the way the Germans manage their affairs; rather less duplicity…

Thomson (hearing this and interjecting): Well, all I can say is that in the Pacific we have brought a great deal more to our islanders than the regimented Germans have to theirs. And was it not we who ended the slave trade?

Du Bois: [belligerent] Was it not you, who began it, or at least perfected it?

Von Ranke: Well, it does seem that Oscar Wilde was correct about one thing, that the Americans and the English are divided by their common language!

Casement: [without self-deprecation] Well, are we surprised that an Irish man would seem to make sense! Regardless, the point that I am trying to make, is that after my return from the Congo I would have argued, along with Basil here, that we British imperialists were more civilized and that our project was one of uplifting natives, and that we could protect them from the depredations of our fellow imperialists. But no more. I took my Putamayo report to the British Foreign Office; I took it to President Taft just recently. They both gave me a nice reception: the British gave me tea about as good as this, and the Americans treated me to some tasty imported coffee – all produced by their factors around the world. And would they do anything about my report? Of course not! That would endanger their capitalists’ foothold in a rapidly expanding section of the world. And, if not their capitalists, whose….

Thomson: Good lord, Casement! What you are saying under some conditions would be considered treasonous. And, given where we are, at the Universal Races Congress, they do seem rather out of place. Here we are, all of us scholars of race, in one way or another, working towards an understanding of racial difference – working towards a common humanity. Empire can facilitate that, can it not? It is bringing us together as we speak, binding us together through free markets and free trade.

Du Bois: Yes, I agree with Thomson, Oscar Wilde notwithstanding. A conference like this can promote considerable harmony among the races, and bring about change. I have met representatives here from India, Japan, Brazil, and parts of Africa. We have brought to the attention of the greatest scholars of the world the plight of many who otherwise would be the forgotten masses.

Casement: That may be true; and it may be true that something good will come out of this. But it will not be because of a few ideas propagated from the podium. It will be because you now know people who will want to fight for their freedom in India, in Ireland, and in Africa. And the bug will catch, let me assure you. If capital and its chains become global the freedom struggle will become so also. Trade and markets are not free – whatever Thomson thinks. From now onwards, the people must fight for their lives and for freedom always, just like John Brown, about whom you have written so eloquently, Dr. Du Bois. You witnessed this in the Transvaal, and you will see this in Ireland, unless the government comes across with Home Rule. Will we witness this from you in your capacity as editor of, what is it, The Crisis? – good title, by the way, for what is this world predicament but “The Crisis”? Remember, the cause of human freedom is as wide as the world.

Gokhale: We have brought indentured labor migration to an end, Mr. Casement. My associate, Mohandas Gandhi, has brought about considerable reform for Indians at the Cape. I don’t see why we can’t get freedom within the imperial system.

Casement: Well, I admire the Honorable Gentleman from India for his optimism. But did Gandhi win these reforms for the Africans too?

Gokhale: Is that not a bit too much to ask? Reform comes in stages. Yesterday, it was the white laborer gaining the vote, then it is the Indian laborer improving his condition, after that, with the support of the Indians, comes the African’s day. Then, perhaps, we’ll be pushing for women’s suffrage after that.

[Princess Kautilya]: [at Du Bois’ side] I wondered whether there might some room for us – in the conversation, and in freedom’s hallways!

Du Bois: Well, much as I admire Mr. Gohkale’s work and the members of his entourage [looking at Princess Kautilya], and all that they have told me about Gandhi in South Africa, I have to say that advances for the immigrants in my country have hardly brought with them an improvement for the Negro. Quite the contrary.

[Princess Kautilya]: And I am not sure that freedom for the colonized will bring about freedom for women. Does not Gandhi want women to be bound by traditional Hindu practices?

Thomson: But, as Dr. Du Bois has suggested in his writings; it is all a question of ignorance; once we have educated the laborers to understand what the Negro can achieve, prejudice will disappear. And as for the women, did we not do more for Indian women in our efforts to eradicate Sati – wife burning [explaining to Du Bois who looked quizzical] – than the Brahmins had done for centuries.

Du Bois: I fear my friends Gokhale and Thomson may be trying to push me into the arms of Casement with my own words! Education didn’t stop the lynchings. As we become more enlightened in the United States, segregation and racism spread. Maybe there is something to that quest of the golden fleece! But, we can only hope that conversations like these will break down the barriers.

[Princess Kautilya]: And, then perhaps we can turn to dealing with the damnation of women! And let me remind you, Mr. Thomson, that it was Rammohan Roy who provided the justification for ending Sati. Without that the British would have been perfectly happy to let it continue.

Thomson: [Taken aback to be addressed this way by a woman] Well, really…

Von Ranke: [Interrupting, fearing a scene] A very stirring discussion ladies and gentlemen, but I hear the sound of spoons on tea cups. I believe we are being called back to the lecture hall to hear more words of wisdom. Who’s next up?

Scene 2:

[They exit leaving Casement returning to his cell. The podium now changes into a judge’s bench and the room is converted into a courtroom, with people filing in to take their seats including Thomson, who takes up a prominent position in the courtroom. While this happens, two guards come to take Casement from his cell over to the courtroom, where he is seated at a desk next to his lawyers.]...