SHADOWS IN ZAMBOULA (A.K.A. "THE MAN-EATERS OF ZAMBOULA")

At the beginning of "Shadows in Zamboula," Conan has been in the desert city of Zamboula for about a week and has gambled or drank away any money he had. A fellow Zaugir raider tells him that the inn Conan has chosen to sleep at is cursed: people check in, but they're never seen again after that and their belongings are sold in nearby shops. A real "Hotel California" situation. Conan, of course, doesn't find a new inn at which to stay.

He goes to the house of Aman Baksh, the allegedly cursed inn, and is shown to his room, which is pretty plush for the price he paid. Satisfied that the windows are secure and the door is locked, he drifts off to sleep, but not before noting that he's a little bit more perturbed by the raider's story than he had been in the daylight. Of course, he's awakened to a would-be assailant (who's gotten in because of a secret latch outside his door!) that Conan is able to fend off. Because of the whole "Man-Eater" title, I was initially kind of excited. I was reminded of the quests in Fallout: New Vegas revolving around the White Glove Society and the Ultra-Luxe casino, with the weirdo, ultra-rich cannibals.

​That's where the fun ends, though. Whereas many Conan stories are about the battle of civilization vs. barbarism, this is a story of white vs. black. It is without a doubt one of Howard's most racially-driven stories. The way Robert E. Howard chooses to characterize everyone in this story emphasizes racial traits mostly tied to skin color, and uses them to emphasize morality. The lines of good vs. evil and us vs. them are delineated along racial and ethnic ones.

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Let's begin with Conan himself. His racial features instantly set him apart from those in his surroundings in the opening paragraphs. He is described as, "the giant Cimmerian with his black brows, broad chest, and powerful limbs." Like usual, his blue eyes are highlighted:

"His blue eyes and alien features distinguished him from the Eastern swarms, and the straight sword at his hip added point to the racial difference."

While Conan is always described as being very tan, I think it's important to note that he's been "burned" or "burnished" brown in the sun and pains are always taken to designate him as white. That sets him apart from most others in Zamboula.

Let's look at the city of Zamboula next. This desert-nestled trading city is described as a sort of mutt- a mongrel, an unsavory mixing of races that betray Howard's feelings about race. As noted in the previous quote, it is populated not by people, but by "swarms." Lines like these are illustrative:

"They were Pelishtim, squat, hook-nosed, with blue-black beards sweeping their mailed breasts—mercenaries hired for work the ruling Turanians considered beneath themselves, and no less hated by the mongrel population for that reason...

The native population was no less heterogenous. Here, centuries ago, the armies of Stygia had come, carving an empire out of the eastern desert. Zamboula was but a small trading-town then, lying amidst a ring of oases, and inhabited by descendants of nomads. The Stygians built it into a city and settled it with their own people, and with Shemite and Kushite slaves. The ceaseless caravans, threading the desert from east to west and back again, brought riches and more mingling of races. Then came the conquering Turanians, riding out of the East to thrust back the boundaries of Stygia, and now for a generation Zamboula had been Turan's westernmost outpost, ruled by a Turanian satrap.

The babel of a myriad tongues smote on the Cimmerian's ears as the restless pattern of the Zamboula streets weaved about him—cleft now and then by a squad of clattering horsemen, the tall, supple warriors of Turan, with dark hawk-faces, clinking metal and curved swords. The throng scampered from under their horses' hoofs, for they were the lords of Zamboula. But tall, somber Stygians, standing back in the shadows, glowered darkly, remembering their ancient glories. The hybrid population cared little whether the king who controlled their destinies dwelt in dark Khemi or gleaming Aghrapur."

"​Nay, in this accursed city which Stygians built and which Hyrkanians rule—where white, brown and black folk mingle together to produce hybrids of all unholy hues and breeds—who can tell who is a man, and who a demon in disguise?"

Divisions in Zamboula are drawn not by competing interests- say, government regulations vs. traders- but by racial lines, with Stygians hiding in the shadows, believing the city to be rightfully theirs, and men from Darfar being forced into slavery.

At the end of the narrative, Conan demands a horse at a stable late at night, banging on the door from the outside. He takes this opportunity to assert his whiteness to the caretaker.

"​'I open no gates at this time of night,' grumbled the horse-trader.

Conan rattled his coins.

'Dog's son knave! Don't you see I'm white, and alone? Come down, before I smash your door!'"

There seem to be two possible conclusions to this remark: that white citizens of Zamboula are or should be afforded special social privileges, or that Conan is in danger because he is a lone white man in a city peopled by many Black men. Both things suck. 

But Howard's descriptions of Black men are the most troubling. He takes every opportunity to describe the Black men of this story as misshapen, guttural, stupid, sluggish, ape-like, cannibalistic, cultish, and subhuman. You get the sense that he feels very strongly that the enslaved state the men are in this story is their natural manner of being. ​

"​In a widening crack of starlit sky he saw framed a great black bulk, broad, stooping shoulders and a misshapen head blocked out against the stars."

"​The fellow's kinky wool was built up into horn-like spindles with twigs and dried mud. This barbaric coiffure had given the head its misshapen appearance in the starlight. Provided with a clue to the riddle, Conan pushed back the thick red lips, and grunted as he stared down at teeth filed to points."

"​Lying in wait, beneath a dark arch—black men, like great, hulking apes!"

While there are periodic characters of color in Conan stories who are not villains, as well as villains who are not characters of color, Howard always takes special care to denigrate Black villains. It's not necessarily that they're Black because they're evil, but they're evil because they're Black.

The leader of the man-eaters of Zamboula, Baal-Pteor, while he seems to also be a Black man, is instead described as "brown," granting him immunity from the existence that Howard seems to think Black skin condemns a person to.

"​This man was naked except for a loin-cloth and high-strapped sandals. He was brown-skinned, with close-cropped black hair and restless black eyes that set off a broad, arrogant face. In girth and breadth he was enormous, with huge limbs on which the great muscles swelled and rippled at each slightest movement. His hands were the largest Conan had ever seen. The assurance of gigantic physical strength colored his every action and inflection."

Baal-Pteor is noticeably contrasted to his environment, which is described as being entirely made of white or light-colored reflective materials.

"He was looking into a broad, square chamber, somewhat more clearly lighted than the corridor. Its walls were of white marble, the floor of ivory, the ceiling of fretted silver. He saw divans of rich satin, gold-worked footstools of ivory, a disk-shaped table of some massive, metal-like substance."

Also troubling is Conan's rescue of "Zabibi," really Nafertari in disguise (yeah, I'll spoil this piece of shit story), in that his whiteness seems to not only mark him as completely safe for a white woman to be around, but also grants him unfettered access to her body. While Zabibi has just escaped hostile men, Conan helps himself to wrapping himself around her waist and she is calmed like magic.

"​Admiration burned in his fierce eyes as he looked down on her splendid bosom and her lithe limbs, which still quivered from fright and exertion. He passed an arm around her flexible waist and said, reassuringly: 'Stop shaking, wench; you're safe enough.'

His touch seemed to restore her shaken sanity. She tossed back her thick, glossy locks and cast a fearful glance over her shoulder, while she pressed closer to the Cimmerian as if seeking security in the contact."

Conan goes onto freely run his hands all over her body, to which she gives no protest. I'm not saying I'm holding Conan to a modern standard of "enthusiastic consent," I'm trying to point out that while Black men represent a serious threat to her, a white man such as Conan represents safety, desire, and stability. I'm not even reading into subtext here, this is just the fucking text of the story.

"Shadows in Zamboula" is truly tainted by the way Robert E. Howard seethes with racist vitriol in nearly every description afterword. He imbues every corner of this story with dripping, contemptuous racial hatred. Howard others the Jewish-coded characters as "hook-nosed" and always described their beards as not only black in color, but "blue-black," for some weird reason. He's even weirdly off-putting about the race of white characters in this story.

As he did in "The Vale of Lost Women," he also writes Conan worse than normal, passing all his prejudices onto the Cimmerian.

It's really disappointing. Whenever I have to write about a story like this, I think to myself, "Would it somehow be better if the other aspects of the story were better?" But that always seems to be a fruitless endeavor to me. The only reason why I'm asking that question is because I'm a white guy and it's me who's being portrayed as the hero in this story, not the villain. It feels really patronizing for me to ask someone who isn't white, "Yeah, but the villain was pretty good, wasn't he? Can't you look past the vile racism?"

So for me, it doesn't matter at all that Baal-Pteor is a physical match for Conan. I hear that sometimes trotted out as a redeeming factor of this story, but I'll pass.

Much has been written about Howard's cruel views on other human beings, thankfully challenged by his girlfriend, who was a teacher. In regards to this story, some people have said that they feel it's better because Howard only considers some Black folks to match the descriptions I wrote above. Some internet Conan fans, ones I have enjoyed reading and using as research for this blog before, have bafflingly not even mentioned it at all (one page says "Robert E. Howard was really on top of his game" with this one and that it was "[their] kind of Conan story, highly recommended." Fuuuuuck that).

I genuinely wish I had something productive or very thoughtful to add to this story that is a regrettable relic of it's time. Maybe one day I will.

The cover of Savage Sword 14 for Roy Thomas's adaption is pretty good, I suppose. Norem never misses, even if the story is dogshit.

"The Star of Khorala" is up next and is thankfully much better.

★☆​☆☆​☆

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