Science becomes increasingly a metaphor for the explanation of why things are as they are: people look to science to explain the origin of human character and institutions; science becomes an important part of ideological argumentation and a means of social control. European scientists from late 18th to 19th century developed scientific theories to explain the racial differences. The attempt to cast a theory of race in biological terms was the product, in part, of the growing of science in European culture.

In America, scholars following in the tradition of the Europeans attempted to prove the intellectual inferiority of Indians, blacks, and women through the size of their skulls. Many believed and followed these theories assuming that most of the degenerate characteristics are inborn and genetically linked to certain races especially Africans. In Race and Gender, Nancy Stepan explains that many 19th-century scientists and laypeople viewed Africans as a degenerate race; Haggards representation of the Kukuana demonstrates that he did agree with this view.

A classic in its day, King Solomons Mines is one of the more famous titles from the Victorian eras. It is very much a classical boys own adventure typical of the genre. The story revolves around a group of three Englishmen searching for the lost brother of the three. The story is narrated by one of the three, Allan Quatermain, who is something of a big game hunter type of adventurer. Sir Henry Curtis has a lead that the missing brother is somewhere in the interior of Africa lost on his own quest for King Solomon’s mines.

While the book is written to be adventurous and fun to read, it depicts the typical exploitation of innocent tribespeople who are culturally different, rather than inferior. This book is particularly interesting as it indirectly manifests many theories of the racial science developed in the past. In The Mismeasure of Man, Gould refers to the study of phrenology that had a great impact on the field of racial studies. Many craniologists have made false statements and documents about the skull structure of Africans.

Besides the studies skulls which seemed to be most convincing, other scientists have compared other bodily structures to prove the biological inferiority of black people. In the first chapter of King Solomons Mines, Allan Quartermain gives a detailed description of the two men that he met on Dunkeld, a ship on which they were aboard. He describes Sir Henry Curtis as one of the biggest-chested and longest-armed and finest looking man he has seen who also reminded Quatermain himself of an ancient Dane. 1)

As for the other inferior race, Quatermain compares Ventvogel, one of the Africans traveling with him and his company, to an antelope for his keen sense of smell. While Quartermain respects the African’s talent, he is making him an inferior by comparing him to an animal. Quartermains tone in describing these two races is definitely different in that he make a clear distinction between the two by claiming that one is superior over the other. It is not an exaggeration to say that Haggard depicted the race inferiority, in part, to justify the exploitation of the Africans by the whites.

King Solomon’s Mines plays on this theory and many of its readers would not have found this adventure story in the least bit too fantastical. To emphasize this fact, and the racism implicit within, many people ascribed the discovery of Great Zimbabwe in Rhodesia as being easier to explain in the terms of the biblical stories of King Solomon rather than to credit any African civilization for their creation and construction. This book demonstrates nicely the kind of technological gap that existed between the whites and the blacks.

It gives a description of how the white hunters demonstrate their magic tube that speaks to some tribesmen that have never seen a white man before. The exhibition of firepower on some of the largest animals on the plains would have been as equally impressive in fact as it is here in fiction. The fact that the tribesmen then think that these white men must be from another planet can not have been too far from reality and must have been a source of terror and awe for millions of black Africans. Reading this book enables the reader to look at the world through a typical nineteenth century mindset.

The concepts expressed of fair play and philanthropy make very uncomfortable company with the racist commentary that can be detected throughout the book. This superiority complex of whites over blacks almost seems to find an exception in the budding romance of one of the heroes with a black woman who cares for him when he is injured, and ultimately dies protecting him. However, just in case any nineteenth century reader was concerned at any such interracial behavior, Haggard reasserts the inadvisability of such an occurrence with the heroine utterance: “Can the sun mate with the moon, or the white with the black?

In fact, just in case one misses this warning, he goes on to repeat it later. It is always easy to condemn an earlier generation by today’s standards. One might feel that Haggard is using the character Quatermain to express his own views on the racial difference and inferiority of the Africans. Haggard makes Quartermain see Umbopa, for example, as part of the lower class and belittles him throughout the book. Umbopa’s actions and character which are supposed to be normal to his cultural standard, are exaggerated to such an extent that they seemed contemptible to Quartermain and other Englishmen.

An example of this assumption that Blacks are part of the “lower” race is evident in the fifth chapter. Quatermain gets very offended when Umbopa addresses Sir Henry Curtis as Incubu which means an elephant in his language. Quatermain becomes extremely irritated about this matter because he says having names among the natives is okay, but it is inappropriate to call their master by such names. When Umbopa challenges Quatermain’s notion of whites superiority over the Africans, Quatermain again becomes angry because of Umbopas audacity.

To Quartermain it is an anomaly to receive such challenge from an inferior. This sort of represents the Kuhns idea of paradigm shift in that African do become free and accepted by other races as equal. The notion of inferiority developed during the previous paradigm disappeared by the persistent anomalies that once inferior races have prolonged. One might also feel that Haggard disagrees with the 19th-century scientists about viewing Africans as a degenerate race. The following passages excerpted from the introduction and the first chapter suggest that Haggard thinks otherwise of the Africans.

Thus, although, as Wendy Katz points out, Rider Haggard shared many of the racist assumptions of his contemporaries, as revealed in Quatermains discomfort over Foulatas relationship with Good, for instance, his admiration for natives in general goes well beyond contemporary attitudes. Haggard knew perfectly well that African way of life was not perfect; it was often arbitrarily cruel and crudely superstitious, but Rider Haggard was able to appreciate and to express the richness of its social organizations and customs, and the dignity of its people, in ways which were not to be surpassed until the novels of Chinua Achebe began to appear.

Introduction Haggard) And besides, am I a gentleman? What is a gentleman? I dont quite know, and yet I have had to do with niggers o no, Ill scratch that word niggers out, for I dont like it. Ive known natives who are, and so youll say, Harry, my boy, before youre done with this tale, and I have known mean whites with lots of money and fresh out from home, too, who aint. (9 Haggard) Above passages, to certain extent, suggests that Haggard is aware of the disadvantages that Africans have and they are due to different environmental factors that inevitably acting against their cultural advancement.

While this essay proves that Haggard agreed with the 19th-century scientists about viewing Africans as a degenerate race, his opinion about Africans are extremely moderate when compared to the opinions of his contemporary scientists who were so biased that they contrived ways of perfecting the human race by practicing eugenic experiments and taking away their right which was given by God.