Houseboy

The church in general is symbolic of a moral authority that can be seen throughout the novel. The church reforms the African villages, breaking up pluralistic marriages and taking in African boys and women to reform and reeducate the local populations. The church is the meeting place for white Europeans in Dangan, and as such, is the place where they go for direction in their lives. With the blessing of the church, the Europeans of Dangan enact their barbarity upon the locals, and feel vindicated that they have the moral authority to do so. The church can be viewed more as a blind eye than as an outstretched hand offering mercy.

The hospital is feared by the African population, and is generally viewed as the penultimate stop before death. As with the prison, many who enter do not come back out. For many Africans, western medicine is strange. Others realize that Africans will not be treated as nicely as whites are in hospitals, a fact which itself leads to many of the deaths seen in Dangan. The hospital is also symbolic in that it highlights one more aspect of white domination as, ultimately, the whites decide who receives treatment and who does not (evidenced by the white doctor who does not think Toundi’s wounds are serious despite him being near death).

The European Club is symbolic of a power base held by whites in Dangan. Whites go to the club to socialize and fraternize, and Africans are not allowed there. Africans do look on from the outside, and are often chased away by large dogs, to the amusement of the whites. As such, the European Club symbolizes privilege, violence, and exclusivity.