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In their native yet intrusive nature, water hyacinths represent the internal hypocrisy of “the new African” as the President tries to define him, separate from and yet intrinsically of Africa and its past. The first appearances of the water hyacinths, occurring only over the past couple of years, coincide with the President’s rise to independent power on a platform of “new Africa.” The hyacinths themselves are new, but Salim notes that they are “the fruit of the river alone,” meaning they are not themselves invasive; they are created entirely from the native ecology of the river and the bush. The type of African around whom the President wishes to define the independent nation’s new identity likewise claims to be “new” and modern, but borrows from and appropriates the traditions and historical grounding of the bush. To this end, Salim notes that the hyacinths are moving as if the river and the rain were “tearing away at the heart of the continent,” evoking the erosive plundering of the place’s native identity by its own people. The people of the town have no word for the vine, calling it “the new thing in the river,” and yet it spreads quickly, reflecting the spread of new ideology as it takes root in the minds of a people even before it can be defined. And as the hyacinths threaten to clog the waterways of the country, so too does the idea of the new African threaten to destabilize the country once more, founded as it is upon the increased zealotry and corruption of the President’s new government.
Water Hyacinths Quotes in A Bend in the River
The A Bend in the River quotes below all refer to the symbol of Water Hyacinths. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3
Quotes
Always, sailing up from the south, from beyond the bend in the river, were clumps of water hyacinths […] It was as if rain and river were tearing away bush from the heart of the continent and floating it down to the ocean, incalculable miles away. But the water hyacinth was the fruit of the river alone. The tall lilac-coloured flower had appeared only a few years before, and in the local language there was no word for it. The people still called it “the new thing” or “the new thing in the river,” and to them it was another enemy. Its rubbery vines and leaves formed thick tangles of vegetation that […] clogged up waterways. It grew fast, faster than men could destroy it with the tools they had. The channels to the villages had to be constantly cleared. Night and day the water hyacinth floated up from the south, seeding itself as it traveled.
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Water Hyacinths Symbol Timeline in A Bend in the River
The timeline below shows where the symbol Water Hyacinths appears in A Bend in the River. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...goes home for the rainy season, and Salim begins to notice the great clumps of water hyacinth floating up the river from the South.
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Chapter 5
...body placed in a dugout by his killers to drift down the river with the hyacinths. His death makes Salim feel like life is a waste, and he mourns all of...
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Chapter 10
...Salim accompanies Ferdinand to the steamer to see him off. By the river, the water hyacinths seem to speak of times changing and things moving on.
(full context)
Chapter 16
...scale. And in the presidential gardens near the rapids of the river, the same water hyacinths float down toward the ocean.
(full context)
Chapter 17
...detached from the front of the steamer and is floating away, cutting through the water hyacinths. Then the searchlight turns off and the barge disappears into the night. The ship continues...
(full context)
