Africa is not in need of a Savior!

 

 

        My thoughts on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness - There are two narrators: an anonymous passenger on a pleasure ship, who listens to Marlow’s story, and Marlow himself, a middle-aged ship’s captain. Heart of Darkness centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, reputed to be an idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company, a Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo. As he travels to Africa and then up the Congo, Marlow encounters widespread inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations. The native inhabitants of the region have been forced into the Company’s service, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill-treatment at the hands of the Company’s agents. (Joseph Conrad, Spark Notes)

The writer witnessed the shooting and fight with the natives in Congo and their eventual slavery, but even worse, they were called criminals. He talks about how the white man appeared supernatural to the natives at that time and could use this unbounded power for good – civilization. He later learns that the attack by the locals was not because they were savages, but because they were afraid that he and his kind would take something from them.

Even though the writer was hoping to paint a picture of a society that he lived in but did not appreciate, it was also easy to see that he was inherently being racist. The black people mentioned in the book were mostly referred to in bits, and as metaphors, not real people. It emphasizes the savior complex of the white man with a higher calling of saving the primitive.

 The writer thinks everything should be in their right place and how tragedy happens when fine Europeans travel into the heart of darkness - Africa. Africans are described as savages with wild eyes using an unrefined language consisting of grunts and short phrases sounding like a violent babble. Africa is shown as the other world with bestiality contrasting the intelligence and refinement of Europe. The Africans are sometimes referred to as specimens, Marlow comments on how one African is an improved specimen because he can fire up a vertical boiler (Achebe 172). The description of Africa includes it being prehistoric earth with prehistoric men. Conrad also flattened his female characters like the way he’s done so with his African ones. None of the female characters were named or deeply discussed.

Sadly, we haven’t moved very far away from the writer’s style of writing. We are still in the era where Africa “seemingly” still needs saving. This has been fashioned in different styles, from Christian missionary trips to the US immigration elite quota system for Africans. I believe that real change takes time, but we must start small to see the world as it is. Africa is not in need of a savior; it needs to be taken seriously.

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