The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

Lurking discontentedly in the background of the text are the Swahili-speaking men who assist with the safari and preparation for the hunt: cooks, gun-bearers, guides, and other servants, some only young boys. (Only one, “Kongoni,” is directly named, perhaps because he is the most senior of the servants.) But none of these characters, including Kongoni, receive any dialogue, internal or external. These figures are subject to violent punishment from their superiors, the white hunters, and general scorn and disgust. Both Robert Wilson and Francis Macomber demonstrate indifference and even downright cruelty toward the natives. “The hell with him,” Macomber says, referring to a boy who “understands a little English,” after complaining about the “filthy food” the servants have offered. Wilson, for his own part, discusses beating the servants—showing no remorse for these violent actions—and notes that “you don’t want to spoil” the servants by giving them large tips. As a result, the Swahili servants are often described as bearing sullen or downtrodden expressions. These brief expressional details are the only characterization of the servants available to readers. It could be suggested that by diminishing these figures, Hemingway is pointing to the way in which the British empire treated African natives: as mere bodies or objects. However, it is also possible that their silence within the text reflects Hemingway’s own colonialist views. Their voices and struggles, it seems, are not as valuable to Hemingway as the perspectives and problems of the spotlighted white characters—even in the context of the natives’ own country and hunting traditions.