An addendum: 1909 would have been when Picasso was in his African Period, and 10 years after the publishing of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which both presaged F

An addendum: 1909 would have been when Picasso was in his African Period, and 10 years after the publishing of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which both presaged French negrophilie and common early-century European attitudes towards Africans - specifically, as representing closer human proximity to nature and passion, and identifying black iconography (from manufactured works like sculpture and dance to the literal absence of light) with such. I wouldn't be surprised if Forster had encountered such sentiments and been influenced by them, for better or worse.