Black Mischief
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Black Mischief was Evelyn Waugh's third novel.
It was first published in 1932. It is still in print, with a recent edition issued in Boston by Back Bay Books in 2002 with ISBN 0316917338. This now controversial book helped to establish Waugh's reputation as a master satirist.
The novel is predominantly set on the fictional African island of Azania, located off the coast of present day Somalia, although it is a thinly veiled reference to the then empire of Abyssinia, now Ethiopia. The novel chronicles the efforts of the English educated Emperor Seth, assisted by a fellow Oxford graduate Basil Seal, to modernize his Empire.
After a civil war with his father, Seth, grandson of Amurath, the Nestorian brigand who united the local tribes into a nation, is the victor. Basil Seal, seeking something interesting, turns up in Azania, and Seth, having always admired Basil, turns to him for aid, making him the Minister of Modernization. Plenty of frivolous ideas are then tried to modernise the kingdom such as issuing the barefooted tropical army with boots and organizing a "Birth Control Gala" which the Emperor's subjects take to be promoting greater fertility.
It has been alleged that this book reflects racist, colonialist attitudes, and in fact it does so. However, these attitudes are hardly reflective of those of the author, as they are employed most effectively as satire on the sort of imperial arrogance which leads to poorly-thought-out efforts to "civilize" non-Western cultures. Nevertheless, the book remains somewhat controversial.