Author | Joyce Cary |
---|---|
Genre | Adventure fiction |
Publication date | 1939 |
Pages | 198 |
Mister Johnson (1939) is a novel by Joyce Cary. It is the story of a young Nigerian who falls afoul of the British colonial authorities. Although the novel has a comic tone, the story itself is tragic. Joyce Cary has been quoted as saying that Mister Johnson was his favorite book that he had written. Mister Johnson is often read in schools and has had a wide audience. It has been adapted as a play by Norman Rosten and a 1990 film by Bruce Beresford. Chinua Achebe has said that Mister Johnson struck him as superficial and helped form his determination to write his own novels about Nigeria. Other critics have found Cary's portrayal of his main character patronizing and Johnson himself childish.
Johnson, a young African, is assigned as clerk at a British district office in Fada, Nigeria. He is from a different district and is regarded as a foreigner by those native to the area. Johnson works his way into local society, marrying there only one wife (he is monogamous), but never really fitting in. At the same time, he has difficulties in adjusting to the regulations and mechanism of the district office and his official duties. The district officer, Rudbeck, meanwhile, is dissatisfied with his work in the service and his life in Africa.
Rudbeck conceives the notion that a road linking Fada to the main highway and larger population centers will be of great benefit to the region. Johnson, as Rudbeck's clerk, also becomes enthused about this project. Johnson stands out as one of Cary's most exuberant characters, possessing a contagious enthusiasm that elevates the spirits of everyone around him. People are drawn to Johnson and follow him without realizing that they are being led. Indeed, Johnson has no clear idea of where he is going.
His delight is in seeing those around him happy. His mood infects Rudbeck and, when Johnson suggests how the books may be fiddled to support Rudbeck's road project, the colonial officer is seduced. But Rudbeck's swindle is uncovered, and he returns to England to be with his wife. Johnson now goes to work for Gollup, a retired army sergeant who has married a Nigerian woman and runs the local store. Gollup is an abusive drunkard given to racist epithets, but he admires Johnson's good-humored courage in facing up to his words and blows.
Johnson, in turn, enjoys the compliment to his courage and, when Gollup next attacks him, retaliates. Gollup does not take this kind of violence seriously and thinks no less of Johnson, but he cannot have an employee who has struck him in public. Johnson is let go and leaves Fada. Meanwhile, a shortage of political officers means that Rudbeck must return. He immediately recommences his road-building. Rudbeck and his superior work out the extent to which he can finagle road-building funds from the accounts, but the older man warns Rudbeck that another scandal will destroy his career.
The road-building brings Johnson back to Fada. Rudbeck hires him again and Johnson's infectious enthusiasm makes the road-building successful. But Rudbeck discovers that Johnson has been engaged in petty graft and dismisses him. Johnson turns to theft from the store to support his lifestyle and, when Gollup discovers him, kills the storekeeper. Now Rudbeck must try Johnson for murder. The trial brings Rudbeck to the breaking point. Johnson is found guilty and begs Rudbeck to keep him from the gallows by killing him. Rudbeck follows his heart rather than the rules and does so, though the act will destroy his career and possibly have other ramifications, legal and personal, that lie beyond the close of the novel.
The book was adapted into the 1990 film Mister Johnson starring Maynard Eziashi in the titular role and Pierce Brosnan as Harry Rudbeck. The film was entered into the 41st Berlin International Film Festival, where Eziashi won the Silver Bear for Best Actor [1] —it was his first major film role. [2]
There was a 1956 stage version written by Norman Rosten and starring, among others, Robert Earl Jones.
The 1985 Indian film Massey Sahib starring Raghubir Yadav and Arundhati Roy is based on this novel. In the film the colony is changed to British India and the protagonist is changed to an Indian convert to Christianity who marries a tribal girl and, due to his sheer lack of sophistication and corrupt nature, ends up in suspension and finally gets hanged for a murder.
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Along with Things Fall Apart, his No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the "African Trilogy". Later novels include A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). In the West, Achebe is often referred to as the "father of African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization.
Brock Peters was an American actor and singer, best known for playing the villainous "Crown" in the 1959 film version of Porgy and Bess, and Tom Robinson in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. He made his Broadway debut in the 1965 Norman Rosten play Mister Johnson. He was nominated for a Tony Award and won a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for his lead role as Rev. Stephen Kumalo in the 1972 Broadway revival of the musical Lost in the Stars. He received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1991 and a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992.
Leo Calvin Rosten was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography.
William Andrew Murray Boyd is a Scottish novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director, opera director, screenwriter, and producer. He began his career during the Australian New Wave, and has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally and internationally in the United States. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee, and a four-time AACTA/AFI Awards winner out of 10 total nominations
Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary, known as Joyce Cary, was an Anglo-Irish novelist and colonial official. His most notable novels include Mister Johnson and The Horse's Mouth.
The Horse's Mouth is a 1944 novel by Anglo-Irish writer Joyce Cary, the third in his First Trilogy, whose first two books are Herself Surprised (1941) and To Be a Pilgrim (1942). The Horse's Mouth follows the adventures of Gulley Jimson, an artist who would exploit his friends and acquaintances to earn money, told from his point of view, just as the other books in the First Trilogy tell events from their central characters' different points of view. Cary's novel also uses Gulley's unique perspective to comment on the social and political events of the time.
The Color Purple is a 1985 American epic coming-of-age period drama film that was directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Menno Meyjes. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker and was Spielberg's eighth film as a director, marking a turning point in his career as it was a departure from the summer blockbusters for which he had become known. It was also the first feature film directed by Spielberg for which John Williams did not compose the music, instead featuring a score by Quincy Jones, who also produced. The film stars Whoopi Goldberg in her breakthrough role, with Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery, and Adolph Caesar.
The Citadel is a 1938 British drama film based on the 1937 novel of the same name by A. J. Cronin. The film was directed by King Vidor and produced by Victor Saville for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British at Denham Studios. It stars Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell. The film and book helped the creation of Britain's NHS in 1947.
Stefan Hammarén is a Finnish author who writes in Swedish, belonging to the Swedish-speaking minority of the country. He is the leading Scandinavian surrealist author, language anarchist, poet and text technician. He cannot be placed in any literary tradition, but his novels have recurring aspects of puns and wordplay, dadaistic eagerness and literary puzzles, and contain erotic digressions. His texts are extremely verbose with few visible threads, let alone plot or characterization, and have a distinct embellishment in a baroque pattern, partly with a Shakespearean solemnity. They resemble Joyce's verbal virtuosities in Finnegans Wake.
Mister Johnson is a 1990 American drama film based on the 1939 novel by Irish author Joyce Cary. The film, set in 1929, stars first-time actor Maynard Eziashi as a Nigerian who works as a clerk for the British civil service and adopts the style of the British colonialists in the belief that he is a true Englishman. It was the first American film to be shot on location in Nigeria.
Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1951 British drama film directed by Zoltán Korda and starring Sidney Poitier, Charles Carson and Canada Lee, in his last film role. The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Alan Paton.
Chris Petit is an English novelist and filmmaker. During the 1970s he was Film Editor for Time Out and wrote in Melody Maker. His first film was the cult British road movie Radio On, while his 1982 film An Unsuitable Job for a Woman was entered into the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival. His films often have a strong element of psychogeography, and he has worked frequently with the writer Iain Sinclair. He has also written a number of novels, including Robinson (1993).
Maynard Eziashi is a Nigerian-English actor. In 1991, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival for his starring role in Mister Johnson (1990).
Fada is a town in central Nigeria which is located northeast of Abuja. It is the setting of the 1939 Joyce Cary novel Mister Johnson. Its exact location is latitude 7° 15' 00" N and longitude 4° 04' 00" E.
Norman Rosten was an American poet, playwright, and novelist.
Men of Two Worlds is a 1946 British Technicolor drama film directed by Thorold Dickinson and starring Phyllis Calvert, Eric Portman and Robert Adams. The screenplay concerns an African music student who returns home to battle a witch doctor for control over his tribe.
Massey Sahib is a 1985 Hindi drama film directed by Pradip Krishen, starring Raghubir Yadav in the title role. It was Krishen's first film, and was an adaptation of Joyce Cary's 1939 novel Mister Johnson. It won Yadav two international acting awards. The film also stars Arundhati Roy, who was yet to write her first novel and win the Man Booker Prize, along with Barry John and Virendra Saxena.
Tunde Kelani, popularly known as TK, is a Nigerian filmmaker. In a career spanning more than four decades, TK specialises in producing movies that promote Nigeria's rich cultural heritage and have a root in documentation, archiving, education, entertainment and promotion of the culture.
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