Doris Lessing's "The Old Chief Mshlanga"

 Doris Lessing’s short story, “The Old Chief Mshlanga” not only transitions literally from third to first person but it also depicts the transformation of a little white girl in colonial Africa (Lessing 248). Lessing utilizes the theme of nature to contrast with structures and elements of the Western world and before her transformation, the young girl’s world. In addition, Lessing situates contrasting descriptions of the white girl’s world at the opening and the close of the story. In the beginning of the story, the native land is described as “violent” (Lessing 247).

 The reader learns in the first paragraph of “The Old Chief Mshlanga” that the young girl is “sightless for anything” other than images from her familiar world (Lessing 247). In addition,  the “pale willowed river” and  “a pale gleaming castle” both serve as symbols synonymous with the pale skin of the superior race (Lessing 248). Finally the young girl is singing to Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot” another symbol of the Western world that she comes from (Lessing 248).                Progressing through the next paragraph the author pairs nature or the “native land” with aspects of her experience indicating the turmoil she is about to experience. As the girl walks through cornstalks she notices they are “arching like cathedrals” and she come upon witchweed that resembles “a fine lace” (Lessing 248). Conversely, the girl describes the remains of the Chief’s village in an awakening as a “lush warm valley” in the close of the story (Lessing 256).

 Through the eyes of a coming-of-age white girl, Lessing’s story explores racism as well as the girls transforming attitude towards racism, which could broadly represent the entire process from British rule to independence. Set in Southern Rhodesia during British rule, the story effectively demonstrates half of the “two tiered system” consisting of white dominated colonies who “had achieved considerable self-determination” and “white minority colonies”, like the girl’s, which “remained firmly under British control” until 1980 (Dean Baldwin 25). In the closing paragraphs of Lessing’s story, “British control” is clearly demonstrated by a policeman on rounds who upon hearing about the kraal promises to “have a chat to the Native Commissioner next week” (Lessing 256). Not coincidentally, Lessing is sure to allude to Western culture when she includes the piece of information about the officer playing golf (Dean Baldwin 256). Ultimately, the opening and closing of the story represent the girl’s journey from the white dominated world where natives are servants to her own awakening during her face to face interaction with the very human Chief, to her awakening in the end.

In the story, the girl carries a weapon and explores with dogs at her side until she meets the Chief. What changed occurred within the girl that led her to use her gun in a different way than usual?

Works Cited

Dean Baldwin, Patrick Quinn. An Anthology of Colonial and Postcolonial Shortfiction. Belmont: Wadsworth