Churchill and Roosevelt in Africa: Performing and Writing Landscapes of Race, Empire, and Nation

Abstract

During the months from October 1907 through March 1910, first Winston Churchill and then Theodore Roosevelt traveled through British East Africa on nearly identical routes. Both published a series of magazine articles and widely read books from their travels. At that time both were not only politicians but also popular authors who wrote and spoke on race, nation, and empire, and their travel accounts reflect these interests. This article analyzes the materials (visual, textual, published, and archival) produced from these travels to achieve two overarching objectives. One goal is to use these materials to understand how embodied encounters with and representations of imperial landscapes interact in mediating the performance of national and racial subjectivities. A second, more explicitly theoretical, purpose is to engage with the current “landscape debate” regarding representational and nonrepresentational approaches. Landscape's dual meaning as domain and scenery creates tension that can be productively explored through engagement with both representational and nonrepresentational approaches. I investigate how the tension between dwelling and scenery manifests in specific ways among different subjects in different contexts and reflect on what this might mean for integrating representational and nonrepresentational approaches to landscape.

1907 年十月至 1910 年三月之间, 温斯顿. 丘吉尔以及西奥多. 罗斯福先后在英属东非进行了路线近乎完全一致的旅程。两人亦皆发表了有关该旅程的一系列杂志文章与畅销书籍。在当时, 丘吉尔和罗斯福不仅是政治家, 亦是书写并谈论种族、国家、帝国议题, 而其旅行记述亦反应上述议题的流行作家。本文分析这些旅行所生产的素材 (影像、文本、出版品以及档案资料) 以达成两项主要目标。第一项目标便是运用这些素材, 理解与帝国地景的身体化接触和帝国地景的再现, 如何在中介国族与种族主体的展演中互动。第二项目标则具有更确切的理论性, 意即涉入当前有关再现和非再现方法的 “地景辩论”。地景做为领域和景观双重意涵所创造的张力, 可以生产性地透过同时涉入再现与非再现方法探索之。我将探讨介乎居住和风景的张力, 如何在不同的主体与相异的脉络中, 以特定的方式展现, 并反思整合性的地景再现与非再现方法所谓何意。

Uno tras otro, Winston Churchill y Teodoro Roosevelt, viajaron a través del África Oriental británica por casi idénticas rutas, entre octubre de 1907 y marzo de 1910. Ambos publicaron una muy leída serie de artículos de revista y libros sobre sus viajes. En esa época los dos no solo eran políticos sino autores muy populares que escribían y hablaban de raza, nación e imperio, y los recuentos que hacían de sus viajes reflejaban estos intereses. Este artículo analiza los materiales producidos en estos viajes (visuales, textuales, publicados y archivados), en procura de dos objetivos sobresalientes. Uno es utilizar esos materiales para entender cómo interactúan los encuentros con los paisajes imperiales y sus representaciones, para mediar la realización de las subjetividades nacional y racial. El otro objetivo, más explícitamente teórico, es el de involucrarse en el actual “debate del paisaje” en términos de los enfoques representacionales y no representacionales. El significado dual del paisaje, como dominio y como elemento escénico, crea una tensión que puede ser explorada productivamente mediante el compromiso con enfoques representacionales y no representacionales. Yo investigo cómo se manifiesta la tensión entre vivienda y escenario de maneras específicas, entre diferentes sujetos en diferentes contextos, y reflexiono sobre lo que esto podría significar para integrar los enfoques representacionales y no representacionales del paisaje.

Key Words:

• imperialism
• landscape representation
• national identity
• nonrepresentational theory
• race theory
• travel writing

关键词:

• 帝国主义
• 景观再现
• 国族认同
• 非再现理论
• 种族理论
• 旅行书写

Palabras clave:

• imperialismo
• representación del paisaje
• identidad nacional
• teoría no representacional
• teoría racial
• escritos sobre viajes

Acknowledgments

I was fortunate to present this material in several colloquia where I benefited from participants’ comments, including the University of Florida African Studies Center Baraza, Florida International University African and African Diaspora Studies Works in Progress Workshop, and Dartmouth College Dickey Center for International Understanding Speaker Series. In particular, I am indebted to Caroline Faria, Rebecca Garvoille, Andrea Queeley, Jean Rahier, Katrina Schwartz, and, especially, Mona Domosh. Richard Grove directed me to the Selous correspondence in Harare. I am grateful for the assistance from curators at the Zimbabwe National Archives and Winston Churchill Collection and especially from Wallace Dailey at the Theodore Roosevelt Collection. The comments of editor Richard Wright and five anonymous reviewers led to significant improvements in the article. Finally, this article would not be possible without the contributions of Gail Hollander, who brought Churchill's and Roosevelt's books to my attention and commented extensively on multiple drafts.

Notes

1. Winston Churchill (In Camp near Mruli, Victoria Nile) to Your Majesty [King Edward VII] 27 November 1907. CHAR 10/27/68, Winston Churchill Collection (WCC).

2. Churchill to King Edward VII.

3. These are the WCC, Churchill College, Cambridge, England; the Theodore Roosevelt Collection (TRC), Harvard College Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Zimbabwe National Archives (ZNA) in Harare.

4. Recalling a horseback ride to a remote district office at Embu, he wrote to his mother that his next move would be to “establish a new station & post at Meru—fifty miles beyond Embu. This will bring 150,000 more natives under our direct control & add several English counties to our administrative area.” He bracketed this passage as “secret” and on the margin wrote, “we do not propose to consult the Colonies Office till it is an accomplished fact!” Winston Churchill (Camp Thika, British East Africa) to his mother, 6 November 1907. Series 8: Acquired Papers and Miscellaneous, Class CHAR 27/72–81, WCC.

5. Winston Churchill (Camp Thika, British East Africa) to his mother, 6 November 1907. Series 8: Acquired Papers and Miscellaneous, Class CHAR 27/72–81, WCC.

6. In planning the trip, Roosevelt wrote to Selous, “In short, I want to take a trip back to the Pleistocene! Africa seems to be the only place where I can do it.” Theodore Roosevelt to Frederick Selous, 29 April 1908. SE 1/1/3, ZNA.

7. Theodore Roosevelt to Frederick Selous, 12 September 1908, ZNA, and Theodore Roosevelt to Frederick Selous, 19 August 1908, ZNA.

8. Theodore Roosevelt (Mount Kenya) to Charles Doolittle Walcott (Smithsonian Institute), 10 September 1909. TR Correspondence Photostats, Box 37, TRC.

9. Churchill to King Edward VII.

10. Winston Churhill (Fort Ternan, BEA) to Your Excellency [Secretary of State for the Colonies, Victor Alexander Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin], 16 November 1907. CHAR 10/49/73, WCC.

11. Churchill to King Edward VII.

12. Churchill to King Edward VII.

13. Unlike Roosevelt, he downplayed the drama and acknowledged the supporting presence of others, telling his mother he “had some of the best shots in the country with me & I don't think there was much danger.” Churchill to his mother.