A child-slave's blood washes the feet of the black prince in the mute heart of Africa. The prince will later use his blood-soaked feet to escape the lynching mob. One expects the dead child's family will be in the mob. But the little chief will use his Mercedes as well. One can always rely on a German automobile to run.

Naipaul (a Brahmin) in relation to:

- non-Brahmin Indians of Trinidad

- black people of Trinidad

- mixed people of Trinidad

- self-made people of South America

- native people of America (noble savages)

- the British

- independent people of Africa

- the East Europeans

- women

Guess, for Naipaul, the worst thing that could happen to a MAN is to be born as a BLACK WOMAN, in Africa…

- Little Chief is a member of the African aristocracy, that's why he has Naipaul's sympathy. After all, Indian women are traditionally sacrificed when their husbands die. Naipaul is not shocked when a child's blood is used in a ritual, for him the ritual is beautiful. Only when Little Chief runs before the people, before his low-caste African slaves, is Naipaul disappointed with him. That is when he leaves him, cuts him off and the little chief becomes just another barbarian…

- Blair – a self-made man – a proof that the transition between castes is not possible. He earns a part of an aura of a noble savage but has to die and not by the hand of the ruling caste, but murdered by the same savages he has risen from and whom he tried to save, bring up. To be vulgar: where should a monkey die but on a banana plantation?

The definition of the highest caste – No one belongs to it unless born into it. Although, one can fall out of it. Naipaul has an instinct in detecting imperfection, impurity. He's also surprised by his own fallibility but here is always the reassurance brought by the fact of birth. He's carrying an abstract pattern of superiority comparing everyone with it.

He ends every segment of the novel at the point when his fascination with the subject subsides, when he discovers his subjects don't fit the pattern, don't live up to his expectations. develop this