3.2 Hospitality
Like loyalty, hospitality is also one of the admirable traits. In this novel we can see that the African natives, although they are still primitive or uncvilized,
display their hospitality to their mastes, the white people. In a simple term, the word, hospitality means kindness in welcoming strangers or guests and
receptiveness Collins English Dictionary. Broadly speaking, we can say that the word containd and understanding how a host serve his guests loyalty and well.
In this case, loyalty does not mean a great welcome with its glamorous party, but it brings an image of sicerity. When the narrator is experiencing his long and
exhaustible journey, the villagers are overpoweringly hospitable, serving him, his cousin, Barbara, and all the carriers with drink and food, and treating them
politely. The narrator takes a very long journey in the deep jungle in Liberia. It
takes him four weeks and covers three hundred and fifty miles. Along the journey he decides to take some rests in the villages he passes through. They will start
their journey in the next morning. By doing this, they can be fresh and are able to carry on their journey. His spending the night with the villagers has made him
learn some valuable things about the natives. Although they are savage, poor, oppressed by the white people, they serve the narrator and his men very well.
They provide huts, drink, and meals. They also perform the traditional dance to entertain their guests.
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The chief at Kpangblamai was overpoweringly hospitable… Now they
had brought with them a basin full of eggs… a huge basket of oranges, and
three gourds of palm wine… I was longing for a wash and I hadnt had time
to shave before I left Bolahun, but the hospitable chief kept me on the run. No
sooner had he gone after presenting the chicken then his son came in to say that
the devil would dance for the visitors… I felt such as a member of the royal family
must feel after a tour of and industrial fair… It was the first time I had slept in
a native hut…. I had never befor experienced….Greene, 1980:111-5
The condition at Kpangblamai has given the impression to the narrator that the chief of the village and his people show their hospitality not only to the
white men, but also to the carriers who are black. They are really good although they are uncivilized. They treat their guests who are strangers very warmly and
generously, regerdless of the difference in the skin color. The most wonderful thing about these people is that they present some gifts to their guests before
leaving the village.
Mark and Amah had nearly three hours start, for the chiefs hospitality was by no
means over. He gave my cousin a hideous leather satchel made in the
village in the bright crude colours of Italian leather work. And his son gave
me a bundle of kives from the smithy…. His hopitality included the carriers and
he provide them with a large meal before they started.
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Greene, 1980:116
Through the narrators observation, we can understand that the natives possess the capacity of the honorable human behavior which makes them
improvious to the greediness and corrupted Europeans. We can say that this novel indicated the contradictory between the noble savage and the civilized Europeans
who are corrupted and bad. The narrator observes the moods and manners of the villagers from his own direct imaginative perception. He only gives his
compliments objectively. The narrator also receives a warm welcome form the natives when he and
his men arrive at Pandemai. To his surprise, thtee messangers from the village welcome them outside the village. They say that their boss, the chief of the
village, and all inhabitans have prepared everything to welcome their guests.
On a narrow path we met three men with long curved cut-lasses cutting away the
bush; Alferd spots to them. They came from Pandemai, They said the chief had
expected the white man the night before, he had swept the hut and cooked food
for thirty men. Greene, 1980:118
For the narrator and us, the reader, the villagers hospitality is incredible. They are able to serve the strangers, especially the white men, at their
villages although they only accommodate and serve food and drink in a very moderate way. They never think of getting reward from their guests although they
actually deserve it. They are motivated to do their best only by sincerity,
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expecting nothing from other people. The honorable custom of the African natives is praised heartly by the narrator, He says:
If you are English, they would argue, you fell at home her. If you dont like it
you are not English… the country which has given them only this: a feeling of
respectablity and a sense of fairness. Greene, 1980:44
It seems that the narrator gives us a hint that a European who always claim themselves as respectable people is nothing compared with the
respectability showed by the African natives, The villagers never think about materialistic things since money is not important for them. They even do not
know how to use money because if they want to get something, they only do it by doing a barter. The narrator himself finds a problem when he tries to give the
chief of the village some money.
When, thinking of lthe wasted chop and the trouble he had taken the night before,
I prepared to dash him five shilling in return, the missionary caught my hand,
He said he couldn’t allow it, there is no need to give the chief anything: I was the
guest of the country. At last he allowed twho shilling to pass to the chief who
stood by with a beaten smouldering air like and honest man who watches,
without the power to intervene two recketeers squabbling over his property.
Greene, 1980:119
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From the quatation above, we can understand that the natives never consider money as important. They only show their respectability and hospitality
as their custom. Throughout his journey in the deep jungle of Africa, the narrator never finds a single village whose people are indifferent to him and his men. It
means that most of the native are good. Therfore, he is so impressed by the honorable and admirable traits of the natives that he always praise and admire
them. He never imagines that he will find such memorable experiences in his journey, He used to claim that the black people were uncivilized, savage, and
frightening. He got the wrong information from many white men about the African natives. Now, after he himself experiences and knows the good side of the
natives, he realizes that all information about the black people is wrong. At the very beginnign of the novel, the narrator says that he will surely be dissappointed
making his journey through the jungle of Africa because he thinks that he wiill find many difficulties, especially when he gets in touch with the natives. On the
contrary, after trekking the whole journey and getting through the real adventure, he admits that everything is running well, and he is never disappointed.
This was carried with me into new country, an instictive simplicity, a
thoughtless idealism. It was the first time, moving on from one place to
another, that I hadnt expected something better of the new country than I had
found in the old that I was prepared for disappointment. It was the first time, too,
that I was not disappointed. Greene, 1980:99
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When the narrator says that he was not disappointed. It does not mean that he does not find any difficulties along his journey. He plainly wants to say
that he fells happy and satisfies with the natives conduct. He and his men oftenly get lost in the dense jungle. Besided that, they usually encounter wild animals,
swamp areas, poisonous snakes, and so on. He frequently cannot sleep at night because there are many rats and cockroaches in his tent.
I wanted something to make me sleep … but most of the night. I lay awake
listening to the rats cascading down the walls, racing over the boxes.. now I
learned that at night anything left outside a case would be eaten… by cockroaches
and rats. Greene, 1980:130
However, he is still very grateful to the chiefs of the villages for their kindness they have provided him and his men some huts so that they can be
proctected from the wild animals at night. Eh should appreciate the natives hospitality by providing them the huts although the huts themeselves are not
comfortable. But the villagers have swept and cleaned off the huts before the narrator and his men used them. In short, the villagers want to do their best to
make their guests feel comfortable.
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Nicoboozo was a clean little town, the huts wide apart, the chief was old,
hospitable and incurious. He dashed us a chisken and hamper of rice, saw that the
hut we were to sleep was swept… Greene, 1980:133
To sum up, the uncivilized African people in the thick jungle if Liberia and perhaps the African people in general have good traits and behavior, Here,
morality plays an important role in human life. David Hume in Brand;s Ethical Theory, says
… morality naturally has a influence on human passions and actions: Men are
often moved to do something because they think it is good or right, or moved
not to do it because they think it ought not to or that is bad.
Brand, 1959:31
Based on Humes idea about morality, we can say that the African natives in the novel are doing something which they think is good or right. They are rally
not motivated by materialism or reward. For them, hospitality is one of their obligations in receiving their guests, regardless of what colors their skins have.
3.3 Honesty
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