Du Bois, Dark Princess, and the Afro-Asian International

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Du Bois, Dark Princess, and the Afro-Asian International
Mullen, Bill, 1959-
positions: east asia cultures critique, Volume 11, Number 1, Spring
2003, pp. 217-239 (Article)
Published by Duke University Press
For additional information about this article
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pos/summary/v011/11.1mullen.html
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Du Bois, Dark Princess, and the Afro-Asian International
BillV.Mullen
AtlastIndiaisrisingagaintothatgreatandfatefulmoralleadershipoftheworld
whichsheexhibitedsoofteninthepastinthelivesofBuddha,MohammedandJesus
Christ,andnowagaininthelifeofGandhi....Thismightyexperiment,together
withtheeffortofRussiatoorganizeworkanddistributeincomeaccordingtosome
ruleofreason,arethegreateventsofthemodernworld.TheblackfolkofAmerica
shouldlookuponthepresentbirth-painsoftheIndiannationwithreverence,hope
andapplause.
—W.E.B.DuBois,Crisis,1930
Hail,darkbrethrenofmine,
Hailandfarewell!Idie,
Asyouarebornagain,burstingwithnewlife.
—W.E.B.DuBois,“ISingtoChina,”1959
positions11:1©2003byDukeUniversityPress
positions11:1 Spring2003 218
W.E.B.DuBois’slifelongadvocacyfortheliberationandindependenceof
Asiancountriesisboththeleastappreciatedaspectofhispoliticalcareerand
theoneperhapsmostcentraltoitsleftisttrajectory.Betweenhissupportfor
Japan in its 1904 war with Russia and his second and final trip to Maoist
China in 1959, Asia was for Du Bois a literal and figurative site of his
intellectualevolutionfrom“fabiansocialist”(AdolphReed)torevolutionary
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Marxist. AsiawasthetwinpoleofDuBois’sblackintellectualworld:after
1900,heimaginedtheU.S.“colorline”asthe“worldcolorline,”extending
intoChina,Japan,andIndia,andheconsideredPan-AfricanismandPan-
Asianism as mutually constituting global struggles. Du Bois’s attention to
and support for radical Indian political movements near the turn of the
centurywaslikewisehisfirstseriousintellectualidentificationwithMarxian
politics.ThusitisnotsurprisingthatduringandafterWorldWarI,DuBois
foundhimselfinthemidstofanational,andinternational,debateoverthe
relationshipofAsiaandAsiannationalmovementstotheWest,including
Africa. Indeed by 1921 Du Bois had become the target of and impetus
for arguments within the United States over two vitally linked discourses
envelopingthisdebate:orientalismandEurocentricracetheory,ononehand,
andbolshevismandanticommunismontheother.
ThisessaywillexploreDuBois’swritingsduringthisperiodasameans
ofmeasuringhisroleinandcontributiontothesedebates.Inparticular,it
willexamineDuBois’s1928novelDarkPrincessasasymbolicconfiguration
ofDuBois’spoliticalengagementwiththreecentralmovementsandevents
of the interwar era: the Indian home rule and national movements, the
emergence of black radicalism in the United States, and the role of black
and Asian radicals in revising Soviet policy on both “Negro” and Asian
liberationduringtheformationofthethirdInternationalafter1919andthe
crucial 1922 and 1928 Cominterns in Moscow. Dark Princess, I will argue,
isDuBois’sattempttosynthesizetheseeventsastheyunfoldedinMoscow,
Berlin, China, India, and the United States, the sites most prominent on
DarkPrincess’sgeopoliticalmap.Inaddition,thenoveldemonstratesDuBois
transforminghisfamousmetaphorof“doubleconsciousness”intoatropefor
themosthotlydebatedpoliticalquestionsofhistimeforradicals:proletarian
internationalismandtheroleandfunctionofthenation.Finally,itreveals
how Du Bois’s conception of orientalism was wedded to a patriarchal or
Mullen DuBois,DarkPrincess,andtheAfro-AsianInternational 219
paternalideologyinflectedbycontemporarydebatesaboutfemalesubalterns
intheUnitedStatesandIndiainparticular,andbyDuBois’sownromantic
conceptionsoftheAsiatic.
The significance of Du Bois’s political project in Dark Princess is thus
several-fold.First,itmarksacontinuationanddepartureinthehistoryof
AfricanAmericanintellectualengagementwiththediscourseoforientalism,
an engagement crucial for later generations of African American radicals
and intellectuals. Second, it demonstrates the scope and depth of African
Americanparticipationininternationalistpoliticaldebatesduringandafter
WorldWarI,ahistoryrecentlybeginningtobere-revealed.Third,itpre-
dictsaseriesofpoliticaldecisionsandmaneuversbyblackandAsianradicals
away from the trajectory of an “American century” toward a deliberately
miscegenatedinternationalistpoliticsthatanticipated,amongotherthings,
theshapeofanticolonialmovementsofthe1930s,1940s,and1950s.Fourth,
it centralizes the place of Marxism and Marxian views on international-
ismforAfricanAmericansbeforethecataclysmofthedepression,andthus
foreshadowsthewholesaleturnbydozensofblackintellectuals—DuBois
amongthem—towardaMarxismthatwouldbecomebytheendofWorld
WarIIdecidedlyinternationalist.DarkPrincessthusstandsasacentraltext
inAfricanAmericandiscursiveengagementwiththeAmerican,Asian,and
internationalleftinthiscentury,anditconstitutesakeytextforunderstand-
inghowresistance,particularlytoEurocentricdiscoursesofrace,ledtothe
radicalrecastingofAfro-Asianrelationshipsascentraltotwentieth-century
worldrevolutionarystruggle.
DarkPrincessculminatednearlythirtyyearsofDuBois’sactiveintellectual
sympathyforthecontemporaryriseofPan-AfricanandPan-Asianpolitics.
Both earned his serious attention after the 1885 partition of Africa at the
BerlinConferenceandtheformationoftheIndianNationalCongressthe
same year. It was specifically the first Pan-African Congress in London
in 1900, which Du Bois attended as secretary, that turned his attention to
linkagesbetweenAfricanandAsianliberationmovements.DuBois’sspeech
“To the Nations of the World” announced his famous color line thesis by
referenceto“thequestionastohowfardifferencesofrace...aregoingto
positions11:1 Spring2003 220
bemade,hereafter,thebasisofdenyingtooverhalftheworldtherightof
sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern
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civilisation.” Four years later, after Japan’s 1904 victory over Russia, Du
Boisconcludedthat“TheRusso-Japanesewarhasmarkedanepoch....The
awakeningoftheyellowracesiscertain.Thattheawakeningofthebrown
andblackraceswillfollowintime,nounprejudicedstudentofhistorycan
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doubt.” In1907,inacolumnforHorizon,DuBoiscitedamilitantspeech
attheIndianNationalCongressasmarkingAsianuprisingasamodelfor
Pan-Africanandothercoloredrebellions:“Thedarkworldawakenstolife
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and articulate speech. Courage, Comrades!” Prior to World War I, Du
BoisviewedthecongressasIndia’s(andoneofthe“colored”world’s)best
opportunitiesfornonviolentoverthrowofcolonialism;thesocialdemocrat
inhimalsoadmireditsattemptsatparliamentaryinclusiveness—in1937he
wouldciteitasapossiblemodelfortheNationalNegroCongressformedtwo
yearsearlier.TheIndianNationalCongressmayalsohaveinspiredDuBois
tohelporganizethe1911UniversalRacesCongressinLondon,attendedby
representativesofbothPan-AsiaandPan-Africa.There,DuBoispresented
“The Negro Race in the United States of America,” a statistical survey of
BlacklivingconditionsintheUnitedStateslinkedtothoseofthe“darker
races”aroundtheworld.
TheUniversalRacesconferencelikewisedeepenedDuBois’sinterestin
andsupportforIndianswaraj,orhomerule,amovementwhosefeaturesalso
influencedtheplotofDarkPrincess.Thisinterestgrewwiththeformation
oftheGadar(Arabicfor“revolution”or“mutiny”)PartyinSanFranciscoin
1913.GadarwascreatedbynationalistIndianémigréstotheUnitedStates.In
1913itformedthenewspaperGadar,withHarDayalservingaseditor.The
GadarMovement,asitcametobeknown,attemptedtocoordinateefforts
with Indian nationals in Berlin to use German support to send arms and
ammunitiontoassistindependencestrugglesathome.Theeventsresultedin
the“Indo-GermanConspiracyTrial”inSanFranciscofromNovember1917
5
toApril1918. In1915,LalaLajpatRai,afounderoftheHindureformist
movement, Arya Samaj, began a five-year exile in the United States. Rai
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became Du Bois’s fast friend and mentor on Indian politics. In 1917, Rai
helped to found the Indian Home Rule League of the United States and
formedthejournalYoungIndia.In1921,DuBoisreportedpositivelyonthe
Mullen DuBois,DarkPrincess,andtheAfro-AsianInternational 221
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nationalconventionoftheFriendsofFreedomforIndiainNewYorkCity.
In1922,DuBoiswrotehislongeststatementinsupportofswarajinanarticle
fortheCrisistitled“GandhiandIndia.”Thearticlereportedfavorablyon
Gandhi’s1920motiontotheIndianNationalCongress(carriedbymajority),
callingforrefusalofallBritishtitlesandoffices;aboycottofBritishfunctions;
theestablishmentofIndiannationalschools;theboycottofBritishcourtsand
English-madegoods.DuBoiscitedGandhi’sprogramofnonviolenceasan
“outstandingfactor”inhisproposal:“Itkillswithoutstrikingitsadversary,”
hewrote.Gandhiis“amanwhoprofessestolovehisenemiesandwhorefuses
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totakeadvantageoforembarrassgovernmentinacrisis!” Finally,inthe
sameyearasDuBois’sarticle,theSovietCominternhostednumerousIndian
nationals,amongthemtheBengaliBrahmanM.N.RoyattheCongressof
thePeoplesoftheEastatBaku,andheldvigorousdebateonthe“Eastern”
questionattheComintern.Royhadbeenactivebetween1914and1916with
theIndianRevolutionaryCommitteeinBerlinlinkedtoGadar,andhehad
livedbrieflyonthecampusofStanfordUniversitybeforefleeingtoMexico
aftertheoutbreakofWorldWarI.Roywouldposeaseriouschallengeto
Lenin’sthesisonnationalismatthe1922Comintern,aneventwhich,Iwill
show,wouldeventuallybecomepartoftheallegoryofDarkPrincess.
Moreimmediately,thissequenceofevents,incombinationwiththeout-
breakofWorldWarI,helpedtoigniteafervoroforientalistdiscoursewithin
theUnitedStates,withwhichDuBoisalsobecameimmediatelyengaged.In
fact,hewasinpartresponsibleforitsemergence.In1922,threeyearsafter
theendofWorldWarIandfiveyearsaftertheBolshevikRevolution,the
American historian Lothrop Stoddard published The Rising Tide of Color
against White World Supremacy. Stoddard’s book openly owed two debts:
thefirstwastoCountArthurdeGobineau,thenineteenth-centuryeugenics
theoristcitedbyEdwardSaidasapioneerofEuropeanorientalism.DeGob-
ineau’s 1853 Essai sur l’inegalité des races humaines [Essay on the inequality
ofthehumanraces]describedastarkracialhierarchyofAryansupremacy
andAsianandNegroinferiority.InRisingTide,StoddardevokedGobineau
in order to interpret the decimation of Western Europe in World War I
as a tragic white holocaust. Ideologically, Stoddard’s book was a sequel to
fellowGobineaudiscipleMadisonGrant’s1916eugenicisttomeThePassing
oftheGreatRace,orTheRacialBasisofEuropeanHistory.Stoddard’sbook
positions11:1 Spring2003 222
primarily deviated from Grant by fixing its scientific racism hypothesis to
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eventsof1917. InhisintroductiontoRisingTide,Stoddardlinkedtheend
of the war and the Bolshevik Revolution: “Now that Asia,” he wrote, “in
the guise of Bolshevism with Semitic leadership and Chinese execution-
ers, is organizing an assault upon western Europe, the new states—Slavic
Alpine, with little Nordic blood—may prove to be not frontier guards of
westernEuropebutvanguardsofAsiaincentralEurope.”“Bolshevismis
the renegade,” he wrote, “the traitor within the gates, who would betray
thecitadel,degradetheveryfibreofourbeing,andultimatelyhurlarebar-
barized,raciallyimpoverishedworldintothemostdebasedandhopelessof
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mongrelizations.”
Stoddard’sseconddebtwasincomplementtothefirst,andofevenmore
directsignificancetothisessay:RisingTideincludedanattackonDuBois’s
1915 Atlantic Monthly essay “The African Roots of the War,” which had
appearedoneyearearlier,inrevisedform,as“TheHandsofEthiopia”in
Darkwater.“TheAfricanRootsofWar”revisedDuBois’s1903colorlinethe-
sis,viewingthewarasanexaggerationofthedividebetweenwhiteWestern
Europeandthecoloredworld.Europeancountries’supportofcolonialism
drew Du Bois’s condemnation and a call for “the trained man of darker
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blood”toorganizeagainstEurope. Therevisedessayalsoinvokedbiblical
andnineteenth-centuryimagesofEthiopia,with“handsofhelplessnessfor
anagonizedGod!”(74).TheresurrectionofAfricawassymbolizedbythe
ascenttothethroneofQueenNefertiti,who“redeemedtheworldandher
people”(74).In“TheDamnationofWomen,”publishedforthefirsttime
inDarkwaterin1919,DuBoisreturnedtotheimageofdefiantblackwom-
anhoodinantiquity:“TheprimalblackAll-Motherofmendownthrough
the ghostly throng of mighty womanhood, who walked in the mysterious
dawnofAsiaandAfrica”(165).Theall-blackMotheristheprogenitorof
darkandduskyheroinesofhistory—Cleopatra,Candace,SojournerTruth.
DuBoisnamesthisfigureas“Isis...thetitulargoddess,”whosespellstill
pervades the land of Africa. Du Bois’s final formulation is a global family
treedescendingfromaprimalmomentofAfro-Asiancommingling:“The
father and his worship is Asia; Europe is the precocious, forward-striving
child;butthelandofthemotherisandwasAfrica”(166).
Mullen DuBois,DarkPrincess,andtheAfro-AsianInternational 223
AsAlysWeinbaumhasperceptivelyargued,the“primalAll-BlackMoth-
er”imageinDarkwaterbespokeDuBois’seffortstocritiquebothorientalist
eugenicstheoryandthespecificU.S.culturalpracticeofdenigratingorex-
12
cludingblackwomenfromits“nationalgenealogy.” DarkPrincesswould
latersignalthesetwingoalsbyascribingimagesofblackmaternitytoboth
thebiologicalmotherofprotagonistMatthewTownsaswellasthePrincess
Kautilya. Du Bois’s efforts to revalue and reevaluate Afro-Asian mater-
nity also reflected his critical engagement with orientalist representations
ofIndiainbookslikeKatherineMayo’s1916MotherIndia.Mayo,aliberal
American feminist, offered a statistical indictment of reproductive risks,
child-bride customs, and paternalism in Indian society, patently essential-
istandcolonialistinherrefusaltoaccountforimperialism’sroleinIndia’s
13
social development. Both Du Bois and Lajpat Rai responded separately
14
and angrily to the book in their 1920s writings. At the same time, Du
Bois’sromanticandbiologicalessentializingofAfricanandAsianmaternity
in Darkwater reflected his own vulnerability to a tradition of what might
be called Afro-orientalism. It invoked what Wilson Moses calls Du Bois’s
“unilinearconceptionofprogress”drawnfrompopularnineteenth-century
Afrocentric notions that “the great civilizations of the past were Hamitic
15
andthereforecreationsoftheblackAfro-Asiaticrace.” Withthenotable
exception of Anna Julia Cooper, this tradition generally depended on an
exoticessentializingofAfro-Asianvitality,usuallyassociatedwiththefem-
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inine,andanuncriticalglorificationofblackantiquity. Variationsonthis
thememaybefoundintheworkofnineteenth-centurywriterslikeEdward
WilmontBlydenandAlexanderCrummell,aswellasinthewritingsofDu
Bois’scontemporaryMarcusGarvey.AlsomediatingDuBois’stendencyto
romanticizeAfricanandAsianantiquitywastheever-competinginfluence
ofhistoricalmaterialismandsocialistideology.Ashewouldlaterwritein
TheWorldandAfricaonthesametopic,“Africasawthestarsofgod;Asiasaw
thesoulofman;Europesawandseesonlyman’sbody,whichitfeedsandpol-
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ishesuntilitisfat,gross,andcruel.” Indeed,itwasinTheWorldandAfrica
thatDuBois,morecommittedtoananticolonialismrootedinhistoricalma-
terialist analysis, attempted to overcome and rebalance his own orientalist
tendency to diminish Africa’s potential as her partner in world liberation:
“Despitethecrudeandcruelmotivesbehindhershameandexposure,her
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degradationandenchaining,”hewrotethere,“thefireandfreedomofblack
Africa,withtheuncurbedmightofherconsortAsia,areindispensabletothe
fertilizingoftheuniversalsoilofmankind,whichEuropewouldnorcould
givethisachingearth”(260).
Interestingly,thesuperchargedrhetoricofpublicresponsetoDarkwater
discloses each of these aspects of Du Bois’s developing ideas on Asia and
Africa:inadditiontoStoddard’sphlegmaticreactiontothebook,theTimes
LiterarySupplementofLondonsaidDarkwaterrevealed“thedarkdepthsof
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apassionateandfanaticalmind.” ThePariseditionoftheNewYorkHerald
devotedaneditorialtothebooktitled“BlackBolshevism.”InDarkwater,the
paperwrote,DuBoisis“intoxicated”bycolonialself-determination,which
19
“partakesoffrenzy”and“representsthespreadoftheBolshevistmadness.”
Infact,inrealpoliticalterms,DuBois’swritingsinDarkwaterwerebyfar
hismostmilitanttodate.Thejust-concludedworldwar,hewrotein“The
SoulsofWhiteFolk,”
wasprimarilythejealousandavariciousstruggleforthelargestsharein
exploitingdarkerraces.Assuchitisandmustbebutthepreludetothe
armedandindignantprotestofthesedespisedandrapedpeoples.Today
Japan is hammering on the door of justice, China is raising her half-
manacledhandstoknocknext,Indiaiswaitingforthefreedomtoknock,
Egyptissuddenlymuttering,theNegroesofSouthandWestAfrica,of
the West Indies, and of the United States are just awakening to their
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shamefulslavery.
Typical of his color line formulations of this period, Du Bois perceived
Asia as the probable forerunner to African and black U.S. liberation. Yet
Darkwater also featured a new characterization of black U.S. life, which
becamegraduallymorecentraltoDuBois’slong-termassessmentofhemi-
sphericstruggle.Intheessay“OfWorkandWealth,”DuBoisdescribedthe
ongoingblackmigrationtotheNorthandthehorrificeventsofracistattacks
in1917and1919as“theoldworldhorrorcometolifeagain:allthatJews
sufferedinSpainandPoland;allthatpeasantsaresufferinginFrance,and
IndiansinCalcutta”(95).DuBois’snewconceptionofAmericanblackness
invokedastagistviewofmaterialstruggle,whichhaddepositedAmerican
Negroesinavanguardposition:
Mullen DuBois,DarkPrincess,andtheAfro-AsianInternational 225
Thereisnotonlytheindustrialunrestofwarandrevolutionizedwork,but
thereisthecallforworkers,thecomingofblackfolk,andthedeliberate
effort to divert the thoughts of men, and particularly of workingmen,
into channels of race hatred against blacks....the American Negroes
standtodayasthegreateststrategicgroupintheworld.Theirservicesare
indispensable, their temper and character are fine, and their souls have
seenavisionmorebeautifulthananyothermassofworkers.Theymay
winblackculturetotheworldiftheirstrengthcanbeusedwiththeforces
oftheworldthatmakeforjusticeandnotagainstthehiddenhatesthat
fightforbarbarism.(97)
DuBois’slargelyunremarkedonrevisionhereofthe“souls”ofblackfolk
asanuntappedtouchstoneofinternationalistraceandlaborconsciousness
was grounded in a new apprehension of black labor as a motive force in
history.“OfWorkandWealth”positsblackworkers’“culture”asAfrican
America’smostseductiveofferingtotheworld,adownwardmobilizingof
the“kingdomofculture”inhismorefamous1903formulationinTheSouls
ofBlackFolk.Too,thecultureofblacklaborcarrieswithitthebloodmessage
of ancient wounds suffered across the colored world, the stigmata of eco-
nomicexploitationfromIsraeltoCalcutta.DuBois’span-internationalism
inDarkwater,thatis,assumedaneconomistrhetoricabsentfromhisprewar
writings.ThistransformationoftropesandideasinDuBois’sworkismost
fullyapprehendedthroughaclosereadingofhis1928novelDarkPrincess,
a book encapsulating and dramatizing the events between 1917 and 1928,
whichreconfiguredbothhislaterviewsonAfro-Asiaandthecolorlineas
wellasthecolorofhisownpoliticalideas.
Subtitled“ARomance,”DarkPrincess’sstorylineisbothsimpleandcom-
plex:MatthewTowns,atwenty-five-year-oldblackAmericanmedicalstu-
dent,exileshimselffromtheUnitedStatesin1923afterbeingexcludedby
racefromregisteringforobstetricsattheUniversityofManhattaninNew
York.HearrivesinBerlin—whereDuBoishimselfattendeduniversityin
1892—andonedayintervenesonbehalfofastrikingyoungIndianwoman
after a white American accosts her with a racist expletive. The woman is
the twenty-three-year-old Kautilya, Princess of Bwodpur, daughter of the
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maharaja, “the last of a line that had lived and ruled a thousand years.”