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Dusky comments of silence: language, race and Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno."
Studies in Short Fiction, Wntr, 1995 by Gavin Jones
Anthropological and linguistic investigation into the cultural transitions that took place when African slaves encountered European society seems to confirm the plausibility of the Spanish-speaking Africans in "Benito Cereno". As J. L. Dillard has argued, the common denominator of cultural and linguistic understanding that emerged within ethnically diverse groups of West African slaves was not necessarily discovered through the manipulation of a specifically African form of communication, but may well have come about through the formation of specific, European-based "pidgin" languages. Melville's tale seems to corroborate the opinion that the ethnic diversity of groups of African slaves, instead of preventing communication, forced the slaves to adopt European speech in order to obtain common linguistic understanding.(3) The "some others" identified in the deposition as the Africans "who were constantly on the watch, and likewise understood the Spanish" (110) seem to be more numerous than the four oakum-pickers and six hatchet-polishers. We have already seen how "Don Benito's story had been corroborated . . . by the wailing ejaculations of the indiscriminate multitude, white and black" (69), and how the African women are essential in communicating the "common tale of suffering" to Captain Delano. This broad linguistic competence filters down to the children on board: for example the black boy who, "enraged at a word dropped by one of his white companions, seized a knife, and though called to forbear by one of the oakum-pickers, struck the lad over the head, inflicting a gash from which blood flowed" (59). Seeing only social insurrection, Delano misses this incident's suggestion of impressive linguistic ability, its suggestion that the young African's linguistic ties to the Spaniards (whose words he clearly understands) are stronger than those to the Africans (whose words he either disobeys or fails to understand). These facts help to explain why the "knotter" resorts to English when warning Delano, and why Benito Cereno may have resorted to Portuguese when jumping from his ship. The Africans' dominance of the Spanish tongue is so pervasive that, in order to disguise any message of warning, a language other than Spanish must be used. Rather than simply mispronouncing his words, Don Benito may have been attempting to warn his shipmates in a language beyond the ken of their African persecutors.
The fact that so much of what is recorded in the "deposition" at the end of "Benito Cereno" is "believed, because the negroes have said it" (112) is the ultimate statement of unmediated communication between blacks and whites. Just as the testimony of the blacks is key to unlocking the significance of "Benito Cereno," the very fact that this testimony is delivered without any communicative hindrance is key to understanding the mechanism through which the black rebellion is planned and maintained. Melville's tale implies that the "daily conferences" held between Babo and Atufal while planning their design of returning to Senegal (106), and the many "secret conversations" held between Jose and Babo concerning "the state of things in the cabin, before the revolt" (111), may well have taken place in Spanish. Rather like the "yells" sent by the Africans in the place of bullets when the San Dominick is finally stormed (101), it becomes clear that, throughout the tale, the Spanish tongue has been a weapon turned against the whites. At the end of the tale, we not only discover the meaning of the sentence "'Seguid vuestro jefe,' (follow your leader)" chalked below the San Dominick's skeletal figurehead (49); we also discover the significance of who wrote it. These words, chalked by "the negro Babo," are the written sign of an African competence in the Spanish tongue that spells doom for the Spanish crew.(4)
