Review: Introduction to Black Hamlet – Jacqueline Rose

The mind of an African and the writings of a psychoanalyst.

Black Hamlet by Wulf Sachs is a book about the relationship between two men, Wulf Sach a psychoanalyst and John Chavafambira a Zimbabwean nganga (witch-doctor). Chavafambira moved to Johannesburg, South Africa in the late 1920's. Sachs was the first practicing psychoanalyst to come to South Africa and wrote about Chavafambira. The Johns Hopkins edition of Black Hamlet has two introductions, one by Saul Dubow and the other one by Jacqueline Rose. Dubow focuses his introduction on the historical, anthropological and political world of the book, where Rose has a more psychological focus.

I apologize in advance if I do not highlight every that Rose talks about. Black Hamlet is a rich text and it is not possible for me to mention everything. The narrative in terms of its “pull”, is seen “as engrossing as fiction” mentioned in the Evergreen edition and a reader can complete this compelling book one sitting (40). Rose says that Sachs' choice in choosing Shakespeare's Hamlet was “because of the remarkable narrative affinities between Hamlet's tale and Chavafambira's” (40).

Rose makes reference to the history of Shakespeare's play Hamlet and its similarities to Sachs Black Hamlet. Through this, Rose says we as readers can re-read Hamlet backwards – that is, the story can be identified as a form of “personhood bereft once outside its collectively or ancestrally sanctioned domain” (41).

Throughout her introduction, Rose refers to Freud and his work. Freud can be seen as the founder of psychoanalysis therapy. Rose relates Freud's work and studies to Black Hamlet and to what Sachs was probably doing at the time. Rose says that it is clear in Black Hamlet that the analyst, “fervently wishes for the patient's political emancipation, locks the patient into the imaginary world of his own demands” (44-45).

Maggie becomes an important person for Rose and she is mentioned along side Chavafambira. Maggie comes between the relationship of Chavafambira and Sachs. She becomes a warning for their relationship and is convinced that “no good will come of mixing black and white medicines” (Sachs 287). Rose mentions that in Black Hamlet, Sachs tries to diagnose the women in the book and “attempts a brief analysis of Maggie...these women are beyond the analytical pale” (63). Rose states that it is not that the women set a status of “truth” or that they set limits to what psychoanalysis can do in Africa but rather that psychoanalysis does not have the last word, physically or politically, in Africa (63). This can in the end be seen as the “fundamental principal of psychoanalysis” (64).

Rose has an easy to read style and is understandable. She simplifies the psychological aspect of the book by also showing the similarities between Sachs and Chavafambira. For me, the psychology of the book questions both Chavafambira as well as Sachs' story.

In as much as this is a story of John Chavafambira, Sachs “has made this his own” (39). This can be seen as a story of both the native and the colonial.

Work Cited

Sachs, Wulf. Black Hamlet. 1996 [1937]. Introduction by Jacqueline Rose. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1996. Print.