There were three aspects of
the Nazis’ vision for Africa that I wanted to
represent – the messianic, technocratic and sadistic – so planned a villain for
each. Hochburg is clearly the messianic, Kepplar the technocrat (keen readers
will notice how he never raises his hand, merely gives the orders), while UHRIG
was the violent thug.
The inspiration for Uhrig’s
character came from a line in Orwell’s 1984.
I can’t recall the exact quote but it’s something like ‘all that hate is sex
gone wrong’. I knew Uhrig was going to be the most vicious character of the
book, but I also wanted to know why.
What if he had a proclivity
for black women? Given the Nuremberg Laws this would be as impossible as it was
illegal, and it was the repression of his desire that had twisted him so much.
Some readers have seen Uhrig as little more than a rent-a-villain, which always
disappointed me because he is actually one of the most subversive characters: a
member of the Einsatzgruppen who is also a miscegenist.
 |
| If Uhrig was in the Union army... |
I also saw him coming from
the Mario Bregga school of thuggery: big and bawdy, vaguely comic. Again,
playing with types, I liked the idea of such a brutal character not only being
funny but also an object of derision for the reader and other Nazis: both Hochburg and Kepplar make jokes at his
expense.
[With the American
publication due in a few weeks, there maybe people looking at this who haven’t
read the book, so spoiler warning for the next paragraph.]
As I approached the end of
the writing I was undecided what do with Uhrig. To satisfy the narrative I knew
he had to die at Neliah’s hands but wasn’t sure of the exact circumstances.
Then I made the connection between him and monsters – and knowing how in a
horror movie the monster always comes back one last time, realised he had to
‘rise’ from the dead, which leads me to...
U is also for Underworld
There are many theories of
story. One of the most influential on me is Joseph Campbell’s ‘monomyth’
(before it got hijacked by the Vogler school... but that’s another blog
altogether!). Campbell’s writing posits the idea that all stories are actually
journeys to the underworld: a task the hero must undertake to discover the
elixir of life. You can certainly interpret Afrika
Reich this way.
The prologue shows the
ordinary, upper world of a farm in Suffolk: a summer’s dawn, orchards. The rest
of the book is set in the ‘underworld’ of Africa: hot, dark (often literally),
with regular bouts of fire and torture, and it is in this crucible that Burton
must learn the true value of home. It’s practically The Wizard of Oz with swastikas!
