Fellowship

The following piece by the Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) offers an interesting parable for modern Ireland to contemplate. Its theme of inclusion/exclusion has, obviously, more than one possible application. We print it in full, leaving the reader to decide which area(s) of Irish life it might currently serve to illuminate.

We are five friends, one day we came out of a house one after the other, first one came and placed himself beside the gate, then the second came, and placed himself near the first one, then came the third, then the fourth, then the fifth. Finally we all stood in a row.

People began to notice us, they pointed at us and said: Those five just came out of that house. Since then we have been living together; it would be a peaceful life if it weren’t for a sixth one continually trying to interfere. He doesn’t do us any harm, but he annoys us, and that is harm enough; why does he intrude where he is not wanted?

We don’t know him and don’t want him to join us. There was a time, of course, when the five of us did not know one another either; and it could be said that we still don’t know one another, but what is possible and can be tolerated by the five of us is not possible and cannot be tolerated with this sixth one.

In any case, we are five and don’t want to be six. And what is the point of this continual being together anyhow? It is also pointless for the five of us, but here we are together and will remain together; a new combination, however, we do not want, just because of our experiences. But how is one to make all this clear to the sixth one?

Long explanations would also amount to accepting him in our circle, so we prefer not to explain and not to accept him. No matter how he pouts his lips we push him away with our elbows, but however much we push away, back he comes.

Franz Kafka. from Description of a Struggle & Other Stories, Penguin, 1978/9.

Berlin West Africa Conference: 130 Years Later

"IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF the several plenipotentiaries have signed the present General Act and have affixed thereto their seals.
DONE at Berlin, the 26th day of February, 1885."

So concluded a three month long conference 130 years ago today.

Below, is a summary of that Conference as it appears in the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

"Berlin West Africa Conference, a series of negotiations (Nov. 15, 1884–Feb. 26, 1885) at Berlin, in which the major European nations met to decide all questions connected with the Congo River basin in Central Africa.

The conference, proposed by Portugal in pursuance of its special claim to control of the Congo estuary, was necessitated by the jealousy and suspicion with which the great European powers viewed one another’s attempts at colonial expansion in Africa. The general act of the Conference of Berlin declared the Congo River basin to be neutral (a fact that in no way deterred the Allies from extending the war into that area in World War I); guaranteed freedom for trade and shipping for all states in the basin; forbade slave trading; and rejected Portugal’s claims to the Congo River estuary—thereby making possible the founding of the independent Congo Free State, to which Great Britain, France, and Germany had already agreed in principle."

Another useful site for further details is: Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 to Divide Africa.

The consequences of this Conference are still being felt today and the debate continues.