"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

63
The first chapter of Chapman’s critical study is devoted to The Skull in the
Mud. He refers to these poems as juvenilia but states that they nevertheless contain the
themes which will continue in Livingstone’s work: confrontation between man and his
racial memory; the desire to establish meaningful relationship between past and present
and between man and nature; and man’s acute awareness of isolation and his need to find
relationship in an uncertain world (19-20). I would include these themes under a broad
heading of ‘treatment of evolutionary theory’ because they all point to the fact that the
human race evolved – along with other life-forms – from a common ancestor or, as
Margulis argues, all life-forms are symbiogenetically connected to ancient bacteria (14,
43, 101). Livingstone’s poetry implies that apprehension of our biological basis is
humankind’s starting point for understanding our position in the world and our
relationship to nature. In short, a knowledge of evolutionary theory leads to an ecological
understanding of humanity’s reliance on interdependence. Chapman identifies another
important theme in The Skull in the Mud: Africa as the ancient continent impervious to
man’s hopes and fears (24). This points to what I call nature’s indifference towards
humankind, a realisation of which is essential for ecological sensibility or for man
knowing his place on Earth.
Chapman concludes the chapter:
Yet, although Livingstone in The Skull in the Mud has still to find an authentic
voice, his central concerns have been indicated. He will continue to reflect man’s
lonely struggle in a precarious world – the subsequent poetry being characterized
by its distinctive response to the problem of isolation and relationship, and
originality being dependent on the poet’s meticulous craftsmanship. (26)
If Chapman is saying that Livingstone’s craftsmanship improves in his later collections, I
agree with him. But I would argue that even in this early collection Livingstone’s voice is
authentic and that the poems reflect his view that humankind is “just another life-form”
(Livingstone 1989b: 74).
In the second chapter Chapman contextualises Livingstone’s poetry within the
South African tradition and discusses Sjambok, and Other Poems from Africa. He argues
that “Livingstone’s poetry embodies characteristically modernist ambivalences. Existing
in a tension of scientific and romantic attitudes, his work shows a sharp awareness of the
constant involvement of breakdown with new possibilities” (40). The final obfuscatory
phrase is clarified in the following sentence, which refers to Livingstone’s use of both