In A Tempest, Caliban describes Prospero’s powers specifically as “white magic.” This white magic is portrayed as a force opposing the natural order of the island in the way that invasive technologies of colonizers had in the real world. Caliban even complains about Prospero’s technology and civilization that he brings to the island. I believe that Cesaire intended to equate the blend of white technology and culture into the force of “white magic” in order to give the power of white colonizers a name that is descriptive both of its other-worldliness to less technological cultures and its opposition to natural order.
Prospero’s colonization of the island is unnatural both to the natives of the island and the drunks who attempt to colonize it themselves, but for different reasons. When the drunks complain to Caliban of the rough nature of the island, he replies that the nature is unnaturally wild due to Prospero’s white magic. But Caliban and the drunken colonizers are, in reality, complaining about two separate problems. Caliban is merely upset at Prospero’s control of the island whereas the colonizers are upset at the island itself. Caliban blames their despair on Prospero simply so they help him reclaim the land. This scene shows that there is no “white magic” in actuality, but Prospero’s technology still makes him a stronger opponent than Caliban. The two drunken whites that intend to colonize the island are not stronger than Caliban, however, because they are cut off from their technology, and therefore cannot control the unruly nature of the island.
“White magic” is a direct tool of the civilizing mission that Prospero describes throughout the play. It is not magic itself, but the ability to use technology to modify and control nature to one’s desire. Prospero cannot control Caliban or Ariel themselves, but his technological power threatens them enough to make them follow his orders. I think that Cesaire’s use of the “white magic” theme ultimately points to the unnaturality of slavery. It is a system that is imposed on the world by those meaning to bend nature, and is therefore unnatural and otherworldly. Prospero’s very existence on the island is forced due to his exile from his home country, showing that his “civilized” way of life does not truly belong in the natural world.
I agree with this sentiment. It reminds me very much of Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony. This novel is based on the experience of Native Americans in New Mexico after World War II, but there is a similar idea about “white magic”. The idea is that “white magic” is different because it does not take into account the land; it only manipulates the land. I did not make this connection until reading your post, but I think it’s an interesting one to see!
What is also interesting is in the very end of the play, when just Prospero and Caliban are left on the island, Prospero shows genuine concern for his survival now that he can no longer rely on his magic. Once he notices the dangers in nature around him whihc he is not accustomed to, he still clings to his ideas of “white magic,” exclaiming, “I shall not let my work perish! I shall protect civilization,” even when there is hardly any notion of his own work left on the island with the two of them. When he realizes he must now work for warmth and shelter, he finally regards Caliban, who was able to live and survive without reliance on white magic before Prospero imprisoned him, as his equal in an attempt to save himself. Once Caliban notices this, he rejoices, having essentially reclaimed ownership of the land now that Prospero is not the de facto imperlialist leader he once was. With the ways of white magic and Prospero’s attempts at “bringing civilization” to the land gone, Caliban and the land itself are able to break themselves from his rule, seen in the land and its creatures literally taking revenge on Prospero. Without the grand protection of imperialist “white magic,” Prospero is totally out of his element and fearing for his life and Caliban is dancing freely because he has already learned how to live off the land without enslaving it or those around him. Cesaire uses this brief, somewhat comical ending to show that if the shadow of imperlialism were to disappear from conquered lands, the natives and the lands itself would have gotten along just fine, without the need for any “white magic” of their own, despite Prospero’s belief that his conquest is the only way to bring success and prosperity to the lands