The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Mentouri University, Constantine

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English

RACISM

IN

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial

Fulfillment for the Degree of Master in English

Languages, civilization and literature

Supervisor:

MR.Yachir Mohammed

Submitted by:

Meziani Meriem

2010
 Acknowledgements:

I have first to thank Allah, the almighty and then my parents.

I find it necessary to list several acknowledgements to people who offered me

help, guided me through, and gave me constant support while writing my

dissertation.

I would like to thank MR.Yachir for his help to make my master dissertation

which is about racism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of darkness and for his guidance, and

general patience in taking so much of his time for this dissertation.

I would like to thank all my teachers Dr .Megherbi, Mr Boughanout, Dr .Harouni for

being a constant source of positive encouragement and at the end, I would like to

thank the Head of The Department of English.

I would like to thank again my parents especially my father, thanks to his support,

emotional, financial, and material .I thank him again one thousands times, for the

opportunities he has given to me.

I must thank my sister Imen and my brothers Billel and Oussama .I must thank my

friends Hannen, Zahira, Sara and Sara, Manel.

Abstract:

This paper deals with the concept of racism, which is considered as a dark

chapter in the history of the world .Throughout history, racist ideology widespread

throughout the world especially between blacks and whites. In addition, many

European countries started to expand their empire and to get more territories in other

countries .

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness which is his experience in the Congo River during

the 19th century dealt with the concept of racism, which was clear in this novel because

of the conflicts that were between black and whites and it explained the real aims o

colonialism and expansionism in Africa, which were for wealth and power.
Résumé :

Ce document traite le racisme qui est définit comme le pire chapitre de

l’histoire du monde.

A travers les siècles, l’idéologie raciste c’est développée d’une maniers cosiderable et le

gouffre entre les races surtout les blancs et les noirs s’est creusé, Pour leurs fins

d’envahisseurs les pays européens sont adopté cette doctrine pour élargir leurs

territoires dans d’autre continents ; et cela, à cause de l’industrialisation ainsi que les

transactions commerciales spécialement au 19em siècle.

Dans sa Heart of Darkness, joseph Conrad son expérience dans le fleuve du

Congo au 19em siècle il a abordé le concept du racisme qui était clair ; le racisme qui

était vécu par les africains au des blancs pour exprimer l’expansionnisme des

empires européens, ces empires qui voulaient exterminer les africain pour

s’approprier leurs biens et s’emparer du pouvoir surtout en Afrique.

 ‫اﻟﻤﻠﺨﺺ‬

‫ﺗﺘﻨﺎول ھﺪه اﻻﻃﺮوﺣﺔ ﻣﻮﺿﻮع اﻟﻌﻨﻒ اﻟﻠﺪي ﻛﺎن ﯾﻌﺘﺒﺮ اﺳﻮء ﺟﺰء ﻓﻰ ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻢ ‪.‬ﻋﻠﻰ ﻣﺮ اﻟﺘﺎرﯾﺦ ﺷﮭﺪ‬

‫اﻟﻌﻨﻒ اﻧﺘﺸﺎرا واﺳﻌﺎ ﻓﻲ ﻋﺎﻟﻤﻨﺎ ھﺪا ﺧﺎﺻﺔ ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﺠﻨﺴﯿﻦ اﻻﺑﯿﺾ واﻷﺳﻮد ﺣﯿﺚ اﻋﺘﻤﺪت ﻋﺪة دول اوروﺑﯿﺔ‬

‫ﻋﻠﻰ ھﺪا اﻟﻤﺬھﺐ ﻟﻜﻲ ﺗﺤﻘﻖ اھﺪاﻓﮭﺎ اﻟﺘﻮﺳﻌﯿﺔ ﻟﻠﺤﺼﻮل ﻋﻠﻰ ﻣﻘﺎﻃﻌﺎت واﻟﺪي ﺳﺒﺒﮫ اﻧﺘﺸﺎر اﻟﻮاﺳﻊ‬

‫ﻟﻠﺼﻨﺎﻋﺔ و ﺗﺠﺎرة ﺧﺎﺻﺔ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻘﺮن‪.19‬ﻋﺒﺮا ﻟﻜﺎﺗﺐ ﺟﻮزﯾﻒ ﻛﻮﻧﺮاد ﻋﻦ ﺗﺠﺮﺑﺘﮫ اﻟﺨﺎﺻﺔ ﻓﻲ ﻧﮭﺮ اﻟﻜﻮﻧﻐﻮ‬

‫ﻓﻲ اﻟﻘﺮن ‪ 19‬ﻓﻲ رواﯾﺘﮫ ﻗﻠﺐ اﺳﻮداد ‪.‬ﺣﯿﺚ ﺗﻄﺮق ﻓﯿﮭﺎ ﻋﻦ ﻣﻮﺿﻮع اﻟﻌﻨﻒ اﻟﺬي ﻛﺎن ﻣﻨﺘﺸﺮا ﻓﻲ دﻟﻚ‬

‫اﻟﻮﻗﺖ ﻓﻲ اﻓﺮﯾﻘﯿﺎ و دﻟﻚ ﻣﻦ ﻃﺮف اﻟﺠﻨﺲ اﻻﺑﯿﺾ اﻟﺬي ازداد اﻟﻘﻀﺎء ﻋﻠﻰ اﻻﻓﺎرﻗﺔ اﻻﺳﻮد و دﻟﻚ ﻣﻦ‬

‫اﺟﻞ اﻟﺘﻮﺳﻊ و اﻟﺤﺼﻮل ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﺜﺮوات اﻟﻄﺒﯿﻌﯿﺔ‪.‬‬

Table of contents:

INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………………1

CHAPTRE ONE: RACISM

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………….4

1 .Historical background of racism ………………………………………………………….5

2 .Racism in Africa in the 19th century…………………………………………………….9

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………..14

CHAPTER TWO: Racism in Heart of Darkness

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………….16

1. Racism in British literature………………………………………………………………….17

2. Racism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness ……………………………………21

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………27

CHAPER THREE: Joseph Conrad between racism and realism

Introduction …………………………………………..………………………………..................28

1. Racism and Joseph Conrad ………………………………………………………………….28

2. Realism and Joseph Conrad ………………………………………………………………...33

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………….39

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………….41

BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………………………. 43
Introduction :

This paper deals with the concept of racism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of

Darkness. Racism was considered as the darkest chapter in the history of the world

which crated many conflicts between societies .From the 17th to the 19th century there

was an increase in racial violence and racist ideologies, also there were different

religions and different theories that supported racial worldview.

Racist ideologies and views, widespread legally and illegally, in the United States

but also in Europe were deeply entrenched in the values of many societies, in their

ideologies and the religions, political and cultural sides. As a general rule, racism and

discrimination were used to protect the political and economic interests of those

who discriminate .

Racism spread throughout the world especially in the 19th century and many

racist groups tried to impose their civilization and their values because they believed

that they had different abilities and different characteristics, so the racist powers used

different strategies or ideologies in order to put down the power of the other races

making them less human .In addition, people who are treated as inferior seem to feel

the need to find others over whom they can claim superiority .So, slavery, segregation

Nazism and apartheid, all represent the word racism but racial discrimination and

slavery were considered as the darkest sides.

 In the United States and in European countries, white people considered

themselves superior to darker people that created many problems in the same

societies .In addition, industrialization and trade led many European countries to

adopt all types of racism in order to achieve their goals ,also they competed with each

other in order to get more territories abroad.

So, Europeans started to adopt new ideologies that supported the white races

every where and denied the superiority of non –white races which means black or

brown ones .European’s need for wealth and raw materials in the 19th century led them

to search for territories in Africa or India and they started to establish them selves as

great powers.

Many European writers and the British in a particular, took the opportunity

in order to depict the world of racism and colonialism especially during the 19 century

and English writers described the world of new imperialism which was caused by the

British competition for trade and power.

Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad’s experience in the Congo River and Joseph

Conrad used Marlow as a character in order to recount his real story .The writer

depicted terror because Heart of Darkness put light on the colonial era and on

colonizer’s ambition to power and raw materials and wealth .Joseph Conrad gave too

much importance to the hypocrisy of the colonial efforts that was interested in

material sides.

Heart of Darkness gave too much importance to the pretexts of civilization

which were used in order to hide the real aims of colonialism when the colonizers
suggested that the real goals of colonialism were to help the black Africans who were

considered as a backward people.

Heart of Darkness described the Africans who were the victims of European

supremacy and their economic growth ,so the use of race and racism helped them in

their mission. The rise of European expansionism and imperialism in Africa led to

the expansion of racist ideologies because imperialists were obliged to use such racist

methods in order to achieve their goals.

This paper was divided into three chapters .The first chapter discussed the

concept of racism and it is also divided into two parts that are: historical background

of racism and racism in Africa in the 19th century.

The second chapter discussed the concept of racism in Heart of Darkness and it is

divided into two parts which are: racism in British literature, and racism in Joseph

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

The third chapter discussed the research question, which classified Joseph

Conrad as realist and racist and it is divided into two parts, which are racism and

Joseph Conrad and the second part is realism and Joseph Conrad. Each chapter has its

introduction and its conclusion.

This research discussed the following question:

Is Joseph Conrad really racist?

 CHAPTRE ONE:

RACISM

Introduction

Racism is an act of showing difference between people according to their

race .According to oxford‘s definition “racism is unfair treatment of other races or

belief that some races of people are better than others”1 In other words it is the belief

that race account for differences in human characters or ability that a particular race is

superior to others and it is a term used to describe the negative feelings of one ethnic

group or people towards an other .It means that a particular race of a particular

country viewed that it is superior to the other races in the world.

In addition, racism denotes race based on prejudice, violence, dislike and

discrimination or oppression, also this kind of superiority is generally based on skin

colour, but sometimes it is considered as a kind of discrimination against a particular

race’s culture, belief or traditions .As it is known, people in our world are divided into

different races: whites, blacks, red, yellow, and so, this ill-treatment commonly is

practised by the powerful races because they believe that they possess different

abilities and different characteristics, which are determined by race.

The racist powers use different strategies or ideologies in order to put down

the power of the other races, by making them less human or inferior, so they can

criticize their religion, their culture or traditions and even their way of behaving.

1
« Racism ».Oxford: learners pocket dictionary. Oxford university press, 2003.P352.
 Racism is a vivid issue that can be used to refer to the prejudice based on race

against one person or group of people and it is considered as an evil that can destroy

society because of its bad effects on people‘s life.

1-Historical background of racism:

Before the middle ages, there was no clear racism in other cultures in

Europe or in the world. However, the identification of the Jews with the devil and

witchcraft in the popular mind of the thirteenth century was perhaps the first sign of a

racist view of the world official sanction for such attitudes came in Sixteenth century

Spain when Jews who converted to Christianity and their descendents became the

victims of a pattern of discrimination and exclusion. So, racism in European history

was the persecution of the Jews in fifteenth century Spain.

During the renaissance period, European powers tried to increase their

contact with other people such as: Africans, Asians…..and started to show a kind of

superiority .Also in the seventeenth century there was a kind of racism between

blacks and whites and there were laws that forbade marriage between these two

different races for example in English North America because blacks were alien

and inferior.

As it is said, racism is ill-treatment of other races, this problem generally

existed between whites and other races and some historians believe that racism is

generally associated with the clash between white and black races especially in the

eighteenth century because racism was in the heart of North Americans and Europeans

who ill-treated other.

 The conflict that was between the Germans and the Jews is a vivid example

of racism in Europe because Germans were seen as the highest cultural achievers

and the saviours of humanity, however the Jews were considered as a race of greedy,

inferior and foreigners who lived in the midst of Europe, but behaved differently than

their neighbours.

In addition, there was a struggle between these two races because the

Germans ‘s hate of the Jews and their attempt to destroy them .Racism was a great

and major phenomenon in the Nazists’s ideology, because they tried to make the Jews

less human and considered them as an inferior and even similar to’ mice and flees’.

In the United States, racism has been a major issue and its burdens have

fallen upon Native Americans, Irish Americans and at the end African Americans .So,

it can be noticed that there were differences between people from European origins

in America of African descents who were considered as slaves in the South of the

United States because it was based on agriculture and many Americans in the southern

states owned slaves and they believed that slavery was necessary to their way of life

because they were used for agricultural labour as animals .

Racism in America was a big problem because there were people with different

races or different colours as Manning Marable stated :

“From the vantage point of people of colour, and especially

Americans of African descents, our collective histories
And experiences of interaction with the white majority
have been largely defined around a series of oppressive
institutions and practices .While laws have changed
regarding the treatment of racialized minorities over the
the deep structure of white prejudice, power and privilege
Which has formed the undemocratic foundation of most
 human interactions has not fundamentally been altered “2

In the American south, blacks had not the right to vote because of the

segregation laws and the actions of the ku.klux.klan, which showed the superiority of

the white race and the inferiority of black one.

As it is said, blacks had not the right to do what the white can, because

they were just slaves that is why they were not equal to each other .The majority

of the Americans in the south owned slaves because of economic needs and social

prestige because only a rich white southerner owned slaves. In addition, these owners

pushed slaves to marry for stability in order to prevent them from running away,

because they were forced to work in mines and plantation, which were hard, and

white people believed that they could not do such kind of works because of

superiority and because they thought that blacks can do hard works better than

Americans or Europeans in general.

Black slaves were victims of their master’s abuses because they were

threatened by violence, sexual abuses and they had no rights. Americans in the

South believed that the presence of black slaves in America was very necessary

where they can get civilization and religion.

The situation of the black slaves in South America affected the blacks a lot

because they were forced to leave their homelands and to travel to foreign countries

where they lost their rights and opportunities to live as human beings, so racism in

the United States which was a struggle between whites and blacks led to a racial

2
Marable, Manning .Structural Racism and American Democracy. Geneva: UNRISD, 2001.P3.
tension and conflicts in the American society because blacks had no civil rights and

had not the right to participate in political, economic or social fields because they

had no education and even no civilization which gave the American whites the ability

to be the leaders of the American society.

Many European countries started to be great powers because of

Industrialization, so they started to believe that they were superior to non –European

countries, which led to the expansion of racist ideas. These great powers tried to go

beyond and , they tried to expand their empires to other countries such as: India, south

or north parts of Africa …in which they thought that they had the right to expand in

this countries because they were from different religion, different civilization and that

is why they believed that that they had the responsibility to bring the right civilization

to the savages.

These European countries tried to expand more and more in other

countries as it is said before in India and different parts from Africa in order to take

their raw materials and even their people as slaves.

The British empire was a great example because it tried to expand in different

countries in the world under the pretext of civilising those poor and uneducated

people because the British believed that it was their right to take their natural

materials or resources.

In addition, British expansion included many racist ideas because, the British

believed that their race was the best one. This last statement justified that the British

expansion in the world especially in India or Africa was for economic reasons. The
British started to show their superiority because they believed that an Indian princes

or an African chief were considered as the social equivalent of English gentleman.

Industrialization in European countries pushed them to bring slaves from other

countries who were generally black skin colour in order to do hard works. So, slavery

is a great sign of racism in which a man owned an other man according to his colour,

his language, his customs and his place of birth, which is very important because

there was a kind of presumption of moral superiority, which was largely widespread

throughout the European nations.

In the United States, white domination over blacks was legal and

supported in all branches of the American government because they believed that they

were just slaves, they had no civil rights and no opportunities .Slaves in European

countries were forced to do hard labours especially in agriculture because Europeans

believed that slaves were better at doing hard works than them. In addition European

countries believed that the existence of these black slaves in Europe was very

important where they can get civilization and religion.

It can be noticed that the ugliness of the powerful countries who used

racist methods in order to achieve their goals which was expansion more and

more, so white’s need for power and money damaged their souls and their attitudes

which means that the white’s hypocrisy and desire for power and wealth truly

motivated the bad sides of their souls.

2-Racism in Africa in the 19th century:

European history was too much influenced by the idea of expansionism .So
many European countries especially France, Spain, Germany, and Britain competed

with each other in order to dominate every thing and to be the leaders of the world.

During the 19 the century this idea of expansionism developed more and

more because of European’s need for wealth and raw material. So, European countries

competed with each other to win or to get colonies in other continents especially in

Africa.

Africa, which was a blank area in European maps of the world became the

goal for many European countries .European explorers were able to fill in the blank

area and they were able to impose their values and standards on the continent. The

cause with which Europeans tried to dominate different parts of Africa is explained

by the power they had resulting from industrialization and also they believed that they

were superior to these Africans and they had the right to rule every thing in Africa. The

rise of expansionism or western imperialism led to the expansion of the racist

ideologies and the imperialists were obliged to use racist methods in order to get what

they want.

Europeans tried to implant in the African minds that black race was an inferior

one, and the European mission or European presence in African continent was very

important to bring the right religion and superior civilization because it was their

burden .So, racism in Africa had different purposes and the goals of European

empires especially France and Britain who went there in order to develop their

economy because Africa was colonised and pillaged by these European countries for

Its resources and wealth.

 In addition many African countries such as Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Congo

Niger ….were the victims of European greed for power and money .European powers

were obliged to use racist attitudes in order to get raw materials and territories which

led to the expansion of religious and racial theories that supported the white race .The

famous European expansion in Africa was the French and the British .The French

settlement in North Africa was and it was very aggressive in its mission there, because

it used racist methods in order to get more colonies.

Algeria and Tunisia in the north of Africa were the victims of French

Colonizers who tried to get more raw materials and resources because it was the

active colonial powers .North Africa citizens were not able to resist because they

were not able to fight such great empire, which owned superior military power .France

was able to take the lands from their owners, who became workers in their land

without having a salary.

In addition, native workers were treated as animals, they were forced to do

hard works without having the right to resist .This treatment led people to experience

a feeling of pain, shame, and inferiority because they lost their identity.

So, France was the most active colonial power in Africa and it acquired the

largest territories, and the first big step in European colonization was the French in

Algeria and its rule extended into the Algerian Sahara. France tried to get more and

more territories because of its economic needs and its greater knowledge of the

continent obtained from exploration and its use of violence against the native citizens

especially in Algeria .
 Britain was the second European empire because it tried to expand more

and more especially in the south of Africa. British superiority led them to believe

that from their burdens and duties, to civilize and educate such black people . As

it is known that South Africa was rich with its natural resources such as ivory and gold

that is why Britain competed with other countries in order to get these natural

resources under the pretext of civilizing mission and according to D.K.Fieldhouse:

“Missionary movement was in full flood.

Mission of all denominations moved inland
from the coasts, and some missionaries, like
David Livingston, were major explorers .But
neither explorers, missionaries, nor their
supporters expected formal European occupation.
They were concerned to lighten the dark continent,
not to govern it .Commerce was desirable as an
alternative to the slave trade: but European commerce
was thought to be compatible with the independence
of enlightened African states.”3

Britain discovered a new world, new resources and new animals in Africa .The

British considered Africa as a desert or a black place .In addition, and because of the

emergence of imperialism, expansionism, and the discovery of natural resources

especially gold and ivory Britain competed with other European countries in order to

get more territories in the dark continent as they called it.

Britain was very aggressive in its expansion because the British colonisers‘s

ambition of power and money .They used the high ideals of colonization in order to

cover their real goals .They started to spread their beliefs ,their ideologies in order to

dominate every thing through their missions of civilization.

1Fieldhouse, D.K.The Colonial Empires. New York .Dell Publishing, 1996.P184, 185.
 The British and because of their beliefs in the white man’s burden doctrine and

the white man’s superiority, they believed that they must occupy all African

territories especially in the south and east of Africa to teach or civilize these black,

savage people .The British believed that the blacks or the Africans were lost and dead

even they were alive, they tried to teach them how to eat and even how to speak.

The British believed in the idea or in the theory of the super man who does not

fear danger and he is able to improve his situation and the lower or inferior man who

fear danger and cannot help or improve his situation .In this way, the super man was

the white or the British one and the lower man was the black or the African citizen ,so

the super man should control lower man and impose his rules and the super man

reflected the British who were proud with their race ,their religion and even their

civilization .

Racism was clear in Africa, because African citizens and during the British

colonisation ,were treated as animals or savages who were suffering from diseases and

starvation because of white man’s abuses .They were chained ankle to ankle, and

worked without having any rest .In addition, they were forced to do hard labour such

as: ship pilot, miners, and they had not the right to interfere in politics or other fields

because the British or Europeans in Africa in general believed that Africans were

intellectually inferior but superior in doing hard labour.

European expansionism in Africa was for getting more and more territories

and Europeans believed that their motive behind colonialism and imperialism was to

civilize the ugly and ignorant people .They tried to hide their real aims which was
colonial exploitation by the humanitarian ideals, so in reality their mission was not for

developing the Africans, also they were not interested in educating or civilizing the

Africans .The European imperial powers were Christian countries, so there were a

religious missionaries in order to spread the principles of the Christian faith and

Christianity was used by these empires as a tool in order to expand their imperial

control or frontiers.

Africans under any European empire were victims of supremacy and

their economic growth and industrialization, so the use of race and racism helped

them a lot in order to get what they wish and these two aspects race and racism were

very necessary to colonize and to rule and control the colonized people .Africans were

attacked in their identities and even in their capacities, and started to believe that they

were inferior and , white people were superior, so the Africans believed that only

the traditions, the religion and even the civilization of the white man was the right

one.

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, racism is an action of showing difference between people

according to their race; so a particular race is superior to so a particular race is

superior to the other race and this ill-treatment occurs when a racist group find it

necessary to put down the other group’s race in an attempt to strengthen their own.

In addition, racism spread throughout the world especially during the 19th

century and many European powers tried to invade other territories and started

to control every thing. So, Europeans need for raw materials and wealth and even for
power led them to compete with each other in order to colonize more and more

territories especially in Africa.

So, Europeans‘s need of raw materials and wealth and even for power led

them to compete with each other in order to colonize more and more territories

especially in Africa .In addition, Europeans believed that Africa was a dark continent

where there was no civilization and even no religion and they used this pretext to get

more and more wealth, also they ill-treated the black Africans who were considered

as slaves.

Britain and France were the most active colonial powers in Africa they

competed with each other in order to get more territories .These two active powers

were very aggressive in their expansion because , they used high military forces

against the natives who became victims of their ambition to power and wealth. So,

racism in Africa was used for economic purposes and it helped the Europeans a lot to

get more wealth and to strengthen their empires.

Dark and White

 Chapter two:

Racism in Heart of Darkness

Introduction

Racism and discrimination were a vivid issue in the world especially

in the 19th century, .Many European writers took the opportunity to show their skills

in the art of literature .They tried to depict colonialism and imperialism of European

countries in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world and through this art of

Literature they tried to give their views and ideas about what happened during the 19th

century.

Many European writers in general and the British in a particular such as:

Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, and E.M .Forster also Joyce Cary who tried to

depict the issue of racism and imperialism through novels and poems for example

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, a passage to India by E.M Forster, and The white

Mans Burdens by Rudyard Kipling. So, all these works had brought the

colonial world into the art of fiction.

All these writers that were mentioned before gave too much importance to the

issue of race, power, and economic expansion and also to the conflicts that existed

between Europe and other continents on which Jonah Ruskin said:

“Modern novelists –from Conrad to Lawrence

from Kipling to Orwell, from Forster to Cary
-have been preoccupied with race, with
cultural and n4ational conflicts.”1

1Ruskin, Jonah .The mythology of imperialism .New York: mothly review press, 1971.P45.
1-Racism in British literature:

The British literature gave to much importance to racism and colonialism

of Britain and other European powers .So British literature is just an example in

which writers tried to use the concept of racism that was seen as the classification

of human beings into groups according to their religion, race, and civilization.

Some views believed that writers of the British history did not write in the

same way because they argued that some writers tried to hide the real goals of

imperialism, but others tried to show the real goals of imperialism and the evils of

colonialism as it is said by Jonah Raskin:

“His second ripped under the imperial house

of modern fiction: Rudyard Kipling‘s monument
to the empire. Kipling’s walls hide the truth of
imperialism .Conrad broke them down “5

English writers tried to expose the relation between the colonizer and the

colonized in a colonial context such as novels or poems and they tried to examine

and depict the British or other European powers abroad .They gave too much

importance to the British expansion, which tried to establish its large political empire

in Africa and Asia that was called the new imperialism. The English writers tried to

depict the English man in Africa but also in Asia .English man went to Africa or Asia in

order to establish him self as a strong power also in order to rule and punish millions

of black and brown people in these two continents.

The concept of new imperialism, which was caused by the British competition

for trade and power led to the appearance of new racist ideologies which were depicted

5
Raskin, Jonah. the mythology of imperialism. New York: Monthly review press, 1971.P03
in many English poems and novels.

Racism was clear in many works of British literature because English writers

gave too much importance to British superiority, because they believed that whites

were superior to non-whites and had the burden and responsibility of bringing the

blessings of their superior civilization to the black or brown races.

British literature portrayed the world of colonialism and imperialism of the

British Empire during the 19th century and it battled with other European nations for

wealth and power because many European countries competed with each other to

colonize as much of Africa and Asia as possible .Most British works focused on the

evils of colonialism and paid more attention to its damages on both sides which

means on the white colonizer’s souls and on the life of black or coloured natives in

Africa or Asia.

In addition ,most novels revealed the hypocrisy of the colonial efforts

because British imperialism was justified by lies and pretexts which suggested that

colonialism was not for bringing wealth to Britain but it was also for civilizing and

educating the non-white races.

So, British literature during the 19th century focused more on racism and racial

discrimination and paid more attention to the traditional justifications which were

used as a tool by the British empire in order to dominate every thing in India or in

South Africa .Some British works represented fear, terror and darkness because it

depicted the power of the British empire and the suffering and misery of weak nations

who were under the British control.

 Many British writers and through their works tried to depict or send the

message of non-white’s mistreatment because the reader was able to understand how

British and coloured races were treated differently.

In addition, novels or poems of English writers were often based on their

experince in Asia or Africa and E.MForster’s A Passage to India is the best example

when India was a colonial possession of Britain .In the novel the concept of racialism

which is the separation between two races and it is a negative attitude towards

minorities or towards people who are different from each other, was clear and it was

practiced by the British who tried to dominate every thing in India.

There was a struggle between the British and the Indians in India because

the British considered them selves superior to other races .In addition, E.M Forster

tried to depict racism and oppression of Britain that ruled India. Also the British

invaded India under the pretext of civilization because they believed that they had the

burden to civilize and educate the Indians who were considered as backward people

and they obliged the Indians to behave or even speak as the British . There was a

struggle between two different cultures but the British tried to spread their values and

their culture.

So, racism in E.M.Forster‘s a passage to India was clear because the British’s

used a racist ideologies and its use of power which made India a miserable place in

order to achieve what they called the goals of British colonial imperialism.E.M.Forster’s

passage to India depicted colonization, which denied any chance of friendship between

the English and the Indians.

 E.M.Forster depicted the cultural clash that existed between the west which

was represented by the British and the East which was represented by the Indians

because the colonial situation made friendship or the co-existence between the English

and the Indians impossible. So, through E.M Forester’s description, readers were able

to understand the real aims of British racism in India during the 19th century and to

have an idea about its use of power and missions of civilization in order to steal wealth

and raw materials.

So, most English writers described what they have seen in Africa and Asia

according to their experiences in order to depict the world of imperialism and

colonialism during the 19th century and the clash which was between whites and non-

whites.

Joseph Conrad‘s Heart of Darkness was an other example of racism in British

literature and he gave the reader an image about Congo in the 19th century, which was

considered as a dark place because of the evils of colonialism and imperialism .The

clash between the blacks and whites was present present in Heart of Darkness and

through Joseph Conrad’s description, black Africans were considered as criminals or

backward people which means inferior, however the whites were superior empires and

they justified their presence in the Congo by missions of civilization and modernity.

So, racism was clear in many British works, which supported white

colonialism. Rudyard Kipling‘s The white man’s burdens was the best example of racial

discrimination .Kipling‘s goal was to encourage the American government over the

Philippines, so, his poem reflected the subject of American colonialism .It suggested
and encouraged the white man to colonize and rule other nations for the benefit of

those people . Kipling‘s white man’s burden argued that white people have an

obligation to rule and civilize other people, which encouraged racism and racial

discrimination between people in the world.

2-Racism in HEART OF DARKNESS:

Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad’s experience in the Congo in 1890.Joseph

Conrad was a sailor and a writer in the same time .Heart of Darkness fits into the genre

of colonial literature and the narrator told the story from a ship at the Thames

river Joseph Conrad used Marlow as a character who recounted his experience of his

time in the Congo or in Africa in the early midof the 1890’s during the colonial era .The

story was one of the 19th century ‘s novels when many European writers tried to depict

the world of colonialism and imperialism of European countries in Africa and Asia.

Africa was the goal for many European nations who competed with

each other to colonize more and more territories, which led to the scramble for

Africa .These European countries tried to implant in the African minds who were

primitive and innocent, that their presence in Africa was very important for the

cause of civilising and educating them but their actions were against the reality.

Europeans and especially during the 19th century were interested in

gaining more and more resources and wealth without giving importance to how they

did it which means self interest .The best reason was that Africans were treated as

animals or let’s say as savages or criminals because European countries believed

that Africa was a dark continent where there was neither civilization nor religion .So, it

can be noticed that colonialism in Africa in the 19th century based its actions on

racism, racial discrimination and segregation because colonizers were interested on

gaining wealth and raw materials.

Heart of Darkness is a great and powerful depiction about what is said

before .It was set in the Congo in the 19th century when Britain was the greatest power

because it controlled more and more territories in the world and especially in Africa.

The Congo was the best example in which Joseph Conrad told his experience

and it is a great example of how much the colonial power were racist because Heart

of Darkness revealed the hypocrisy of the colonial missions in the Congo in particular

and Africa in general. Joseph Conrad in his novel, used strong images about how

much colonisation damaged white coloniser’s souls because of their bad treatment

and greed towards black Africans. Racism in Heat of Darkness was clear from the

beginning of the novel. Marlow started recounting his experience by saying to his

fellows:” I do not want to bother you much with what happened to me personally “6

Marlow tried to say that his trip was a strange and disturbing one because of

what he had seen there and his statement worked as an alert to his fellows. Heart of

Darkness gives a clear image about how the natives or the Africans were ill -treated

because of colonialism and the greed of imperialism because they were treated as

slaves or objects rather than human beings :

“Black figures strolled about listlessly pouring water

on the glow, whence proceeded a sound of hissing,
stream ascended in the moonlight the beaten nigger

6
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P10.
 groaned some where “7

Heart of Darkness is a novel about racism and British superiority

because the British believed that blacks or niggers as they called them lived without

any purpose or goal because they had no civilization, no education and even no

religion .In addition, they believed that black people in Congo behaved as animals

and their attitudes annoyed them a lot:

“It was paddled by black fellows .You could see

from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening.
They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with
perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks-
these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality,
an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and
true as the surf along their coast”8

Heart of Darkness gives a clear image about black people in the Congo who

were obliged to do hard works without reacting as Marlow had seen them falling

down and carrying a lot of packages which were full of earth under the white master’s

control as a cattle of animals :

“They were building a railway, six man advanced

In file, toiling up the path, they walked erect and slow,
balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and
kept time with their footsteps “9

Heart of Darkness depicted black Africans during the 19th century

who suffered from starvation and illnesses, and also suffered from the racist

attitudes of imperialist powers, which took their land, their wealth and treated them as

slaves .Darkness was every where in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and it is

7
Conrad, joseph .Heart of Darkness. London: penguin books, 1994.P37.
8
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994 .P20.
9
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994 .P22.
considered as the most powerful sign of racism and imperialism in Africa in general

and Congo in particular. When Marlow went deeper and deeper into the Congo, he

started to discover the greed and horror and also the abuses and hypocrisy of the

imperial system and imperialists who were interested in money, land and power.

Marlow witnessed illness and humanity, people who suffered under

the white empire and treated as machines .Also he described the black Congolese

who were ill- treated when they were forced to do hard works and enchained at the

same time to each other and this is slavery .So; blacks were forced to do hard labour

especially in agriculture or in building for example rail ways because white colonizers

believed that blacks were better at doing hard works than them .

Marlow faced horror and fear because he was not able to believe in

what he had seen that is why his description was filled with images of darkness :

“Black rags were wound round their loins and short

ends behind waggled to and frolike tails. could see every
rib, the joints limbs were like knots in a rope; each had
an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together
with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically
clinking”10

White agents forced the Congolese to do slave labour by means of torture

that is why they could not even react, Marlow’s journey can be considered as a

nightmare because of what he had seen there from disease, starvation, natives who had

been exploited or whipped or even killed them by millions at a time .

In the novel, there is a reference to a total denial of any civilization in Africa

because Europeans believed that Africa and Africans in general were uncivilized which

10
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P22.
means backward or primitive people that is why Marlow described his trip as a journey

back in time as he had said: “going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest

beginning of the world “11.So the British adopted all types of racism in order to get what

they want which led to the misuse of power that reflected the evils of colonialism .

Heart of Darkness can be seen as a story of a man who faced a number of

political ,moral and spiritual horrors and Congolese were treated as slaves: the white

man, sometimes, tried to invent excuses to punish or torture them because they were

masters and superior. In this description, Marlow insisted on the suffering of the

Africans because they were alive physically but morally dead as shadows :

“Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the

trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging
to the earth, half coming out ,half effaced
within the dim light, in all the attitudes of
pain, abandonment and despair.”12

In addition, each statement in the novel reflected the suffering of the

Congolese who were forced to work under the white master’s control who adopted all

types of violence and racism in order to frighten, or kill the Africans. Congolese in the

novel had no names, they were only dead people or let’s say shadows or black shapes

suffering starvation and diseases :

“they were dying slowly-it was very clear.

They were not enemies, they were not
criminals, they were nothing earthly now,
nothing but black shadows of diseases and
starvation .Lying in the greenish gloom.”13

11
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P48.
12
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994 .P24.
13
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of darkness .London: penguin books, 1994 .P24.
 Africans in Heart of Darkness were only black wild, natural shapes who

lived in the jungle as a dark place like animals. In addition Joseph Conrad’s Heart of

Darkness explains the goals of the coloniser who used the pretext of civilisation in

order to get what they wish, which means wealth; ivory and money in order to

develop their economy.

The British entered Africa and tried to spread their religion, their language

and their civilization because they believed that it was their responsibility to spread

the superiority of their civilisation .In addition, they believed that their mission was to

lighten the dark continent Africa and they thought that blacks had no sense of

personality that is why they need the Europeans help.

However, the British acts were against their missions of civilization

because their presence, was not for the benefit of the Africans but their interest

was on natural resources especially ivory .Kurtz in Heart of Darkness reflected what

is said before thanks to Marlow’s description. Kurtz who was the chief of the inner

station in Congo, was a man of great talent who intended to be the man of virtue .His

goal before establishing him self was to civilize and help the natives of Africa, he was

sent to the Congo for the purpose of bringing morals and European enlightenment to

the colonists in which Africa, was considered as a savage and mysterious continent.

However, Kurtz was transformed from a man of European enlightenment

and morals to an evil or monster because of his greed, and he became inhuman. In

fact, Kurtz reflected the British colonialists who saw them selves as a people of great

ideas just as civilized ones ,but their civilization abused the Africans and took their raw

materials and their wealth .Kurtz turned out to be the greatest monster of all
because he had forgotten his morals and his mission of civilization and he became a

thief who took the wealth of the natives by force rather than trading for it.

In addition, Kurtz misused his values which became power and he

started to treat the natives as animals rather than people .He obliged blacks to work

for his benefit, also they were forced to carry heavy baskets under his control .In

addition ,Kurtz established him self as a god for the natives which means that he was

just an evil or monster because he took the dark situation of the Congolese in order to

establish him self .Kurtz ,in Heart of Darkness represented the British colonialism and

imperialism, which claimed to civilize and educate the natives but their actions,

showed the opposite because they were interested in wealth not in people .

Conclusion :

As a conclusion, many readers had classified Joseph Conrad as racist and

others had classified him as a realist .Chinua Achebe believed that Joseph Conrad was

more racist in his novel Heart of Darkness because of his ugly description towards the

Congolese and he believed that his novel supported the white colonizer’s behaviours

towards the natives.

However, other readers had classified Joseph Conrad as realist because they

believed that his novel depicted the white colonizer’s ill-treatment towards the

Africans and revealed the real aims of imperialism which suggested that colonialism

was for the benefit of the Africans and Joseph Conrad considered it as a lie for

expansion.
 Chapter Three

Joseph Conrad between Racism and Realism

Introduction

Heart of Darkness, is Joseph Conrad’s experience in Congo River and

he described his trip in a form of novel , which was recounted by Marlow. Many

critics had classified Joseph Conrad as a racist and others ha classified him as a

realist .Many readers believed that Joseph Conrad in his novel Heart of Darkness

was more racist rather than realist and they believed that he gave too much

importance to the black people’s shapes and behaviours as an ugly people rather than

criticising the imperialist behaviours against the Africans.

Other critics believed that Joseph Conrad in his novel Heart of Darkness was

more realist rather than racist .They believed that Joseph Conrad was against the

white colonizer’s behaviours against the native Africans who were considered as

victims of colonialism and colonizers ambition for power, wealth and money.

1-Racism and Joseph Conrad:

So, many critics had classified Joseph Conrad in his novel Heart Of

Darkness as a racist writer because they believed that his novel supported white man’s

behaviours in Congo in Africa and it showed the white man’s superiority.Chinua

Achebe the African writer, believed that Joseph Conrad was more racist in his essay “an

Image of Africa: racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness “, because he believed that

Joseph Conrad gave too importance to the description of natives and their behaviours

In addition, he believed that Joseph Conrad‘s description made the African

continent, a place of horror and devils that is why he started his description by saying

to his fellows “I don’t want to bother you with what happened to me ….”14 .So, Chinua

Achebe believed that Joseph Conrad tried to make Africa, a place of monsters and

nightmares where there were ugly things, the European‘s had the ability to see

them.

at the beginning of the novel, Chinua Achebe believed that Joseph Conrad

described the Thames River as a place of tranquillity, where he depicted Europeans

who sat there. However, Joseph Conrad’s description of the Congo River was more ugly

because he considered it as the beginning of horror and darkness and travelling on

that river was like going back in time which means that Joseph Conrad considered

Africa as a backward continent by contrasting it to Europe as it is mentioned in the

novel:”going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginning of the

world ….”15 .So, for Chinua Achebe the two rivers; the Thames, and Congo River; were

represented differently ;the Thames river represented modernity and civilization while

the Congo River represented darkness and devils.

In addition, Chinua Achebe believed that the beginning of the novel on

which Joseph Conrad tried to remind readers that Britain is a place of modernity, and

civilization was one day a place of darkness because of the Romans exploitation. But,

Chinua Achebe suggested that Britain was a place of darkness, which means in the

14
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P10
15
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P48.
past, but now Britain became a country of light and modernity.

Chinua Achebe believed that Marlow was interested on African’s institution

because he gave too much importance to the behaviours and the shapes of the Africans

also Joseph Conrad insisted on the inferiority of the Africans who were living in a dark

continent without having any purpose, so he described and expressed his personal

thoughts which were considered as racist views.

Chinua Achebe believed that Joseph Conrad’s use of words such as niggers,

savages reflected racism because these words dehumanized the Africans and

transformed them from thinking people into animals or subjects, and these description

pushed Chinua Achebe to classify Joseph Conrad as a racist writer.

In addition, Chinua Achebe believed that Joseph Conrad’s description failed to

achieve what he has called an anti-imperialist or an anti-colonialist work, because he

did not give too much importance to these side. Also, he believed that Joseph Conrad

or Marlow was more racist than an anti-imperialist as many readers had classified

him:

“black shapes crouched ,lay set between

The trees leaning against the trunks,
clinging to the earth,hlaf coming out,
half effaced within the dim light, in
all the attitudes of pain, abandonment
and despair”16

So, Chinua Achebe believed that Joseph Conrad dehumanized the native

Africans because of his use of words such as, black shapes rather than Africans, also

his description means that Africans lived without any purpose or goal . Europeans and
16
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994 .P24
through the description of Joseph Conrad, became superior because of their pride

with their civilization and their race, whereas the African race became inferior because

of their civilization and their behaviours which was presented by Joseph Conrad in an

ironic way .

Joseph Conrad’s description made Africa a dark continent, a savage and

mysterious place where their was their was savage and ugly people who had no

civilization and the Africans need the European help in order to be human beings as it

is mentioned in the novel:”The earth seemed unearthly “17

In addition, Joseph Conrad’s description made the African way’s of expressing

them selves an ugly one, because he believed that Africans behaved in a mysterious

and strange :

“They howled and leaped, and spun and

made horried faces”. 18

So, Joseph Conrad’s use of words such as howled, leaped …dehumanized the Africans.

Some views said that Chinua Achebe read the novel from a modernist point of view

because this views believed that Joseph Conrad depicted Africa of the 19th century

and he used words such as savages, niggers were familiar at that time .However,

Chinua Achebe argued that racism can not be justified by time and he insisted on the

idea that Joseph Conrad was a racist rather than realist because he did not give too

much importance to the greed and the evils of imperialism and colonialism.

In addition, Chinua Achebe believed that Joseph Conrad tried to relate every

17
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London :Penguin books,1994.P51
18
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness. London: penguin books, 1994.p51
thing bad and awful to the Africans especially when he described their physical

appearance :
“in the evening three woman of whom one
one albino, passed our camp; horried chalky
white with pink blotches; red eyes; red hair;
features very negroid and ugly. “ 19

So, he believed that Joseph Conrad was a racist in his description because he had

related the ugliness to black Africans who had red eyes which means that African

women were awful and Joseph Conrad in his novel Heart of Darkness showed a kind of

of superiority, because he believed that the black race was a race of ugliness whereas

the white race represented purity.

Many readers believed that there was a contradiction between the beginning

of the novel because Joseph Conrad described Marlow’s fellows and how they were

sitting on a “deck of a cruising yawl “and the description of the black Africans . Marlow

was not able to tell his fellows about his experience in the Congo river , he considered

his journey as a nightmare, also he believed that his fellows lived in a world of

modernity and civilization.

Many readers believed that Conrad did not respect the native Africans because

of his representation which treated the Africans as a sub human on which regelind

Farn said:

“Conrad’s representation of the Congolese as “savages”

without merit can inspire a real craving for a historical
facts .Because it depicts central Africa as being without
a history and geographical unspecific.” 20

So, many readers believed that Joseph Conrad’s work did not go deeper and deeper

19
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness. London: penguin books, 1994.P65
20
Farn ,regelind.Colonial and Post colonial rewriting of heart of darkness .Florida: Boca Raton ,2005.P07
to the issues of imperialism and colonialism ,but his work was interested in Africa

and Africans who were badly described .In addition, Congolese in Heart of Darkness

represented fear, despair while white characters represented hope, and power.

Many readers criticised Joseph Conrad’s description of the Africans, when they

were forced to do hard labour because they believed that his description denied the

idea of equality between blacks and whites .These descriptions made the Africans

more inferior and, reflected a sign of death and hopelessness while white master’s

descriptions reflected a sign of power.

2-Realism and Joseph Conrad:

Realism in literature is to depict or to portray life as it truly is by representing

social or political environment in a realistic way. The 19th century was a period of

colonialism, imperialism and racial discrimination, so many European writers tried

to depict life at that time in a realistic way.

Many readers viewed Joseph Conrad as a realist and considered his experience

as a depiction of what happened in the Congo and Africa in the 19th century. They

believed that Joseph Conrad in his novel Heart of Darkness was realist and his

description depended on words which were familiar during the 19th century .Through

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad gives a real image about the hypocrisy of the entire

colonial efforts and how Europeans tried to justify their presence in Africa by the

pretext of civilization .

Joseph Conrad portrayed European civilization as a corrupt one, which pushed

many readers to believe that his novel was not for abusing the Congolese because of its

attack on colonialism and imperialism in the Congo.

Some views believed that Joseph Conrad described imperialism as a

robbery of wealth and raw materials with the use of force and power and how the

European nations were interested in money and trade without giving too much

importance to their treatment of the Africans. In addition, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of

Darkness attacked colonialism and depicted the aggressive attitudes towards the

African victims of European imperialism and also condemned and accused their

system, which forced the Africans to work as a machine and denied their right for

Possessing a land or getting an income.

In addition, what made Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness more realistic

and Joseph Conrad as a realist writer is his condemnation of colonialism and his

sympathy for the natives which reflected his sense of moral responsibility :

“The man seemed young -almost a boy-

But you know with them it‘s hard to tell.
I found nothing else to do but to offer him
one of my good Swede’s ship’s biscuits I had
in my pocket”21

Heart of Darkness was only a presentation of African realities and the

horrors of the political system in the 19th century by showing the real aims of civilizing

missions of European imperialism .The novel gave too much importance to the evils

of colonialism and its damages on the white colonizer’s souls which made the Africans

more pure and less corrupt but innocent, while the white colonizers were more

corrupt and represented the world of darkness.

21
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P25.
 In addition, many readers believed that Joseph Conrad was against the white

colonizer’s attitudes and their system towards Congolese who suffered from diseases

and starvation and showed a kind of compassion towards them:

“They were dying slowly –it was clear .They

were not enemies ,they were not criminals,
they were nothing earthly now,-nothing but
black shadows of diseases and starvation lying
confusedly in the greenish gloom.”22

Each part of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness represented the

immorality of white colonizers who ill-treated the Africans and considered them as

slaves. However, his description was for disgracing the imperialist attitudes and the

horror of colonialism in Africa. In addition, Joseph Conrad used strange words such: as

niggers savages which angered many readers because they believed that theses words

reflected racism and racial discrimination .But Joseph Conrad used words which were

familiar during the 19th century and because he presenting real facts .

Some critics argued that, throughout Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

the reader can distinguish between the concept of good and evil because colonizers

believed that the white race was good and the dark race was evil .So the novel clarified

the idea of whiteness which was associated with imperialist, became wrong because of

their ambition to power and wealth.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness put a kind of light on every thing

that happened against the natives and during the 19th century under the imperialist

powers and its role was to make people know the reality and the truth, and to accuse

the colonial system in Africa which was misguided .Joseph Conrad suggested that

22
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P24.
the white man’s presence in Africa transformed it into a dark continent .In addition,

colonial powers were white physically but morally black because they abandoned their

morals because of power and wealth as Regelind Farn said:

“It also a story of colonies an other important
Contomporary genre, but Conrad whites are
neither noble .Triumphant more pleasantly
titillated by exotic surroundings .The
contemporary stereotype of African darkness
is partially reversed by suggesting that whites
have their own darkness and bring it to Africa”23

Africans in Heart of Darkness were better than Europeans who were corrupt.

Joseph Conrad in his novel Heart of Darkness felt pity towards the native

Africans and he was horrified to see them doing hard works and taking packages or

being beaten by the white masters and going slowly towards their death and, led him

to feel miserable .In Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad appeared alien or against the

western culture ‘s ideas which tried to steal other nation’s wealth under unbelievable

pretexts especially Britain which tried to justify the colonial exploitation by a mission

of civilization.

For Marlow, white people who believed that they were superior beings and

masters were just devils who misused their mission of civilizing and humanizing the

Africans. They became a source of evil and violence:

“I have seen the devil of violence and the devil

Of greed and the devil of hot desire.”24

So, Marlow was against these masters because they were criminals and

thieves and his description gave too much importance to the white imperialist’s greed

23
Farn ,Regelind.Colonial and Post Colonial Rewriting of Heart of Harkness .Florida: Boca Raton,2005.P. 08
24
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P23
and violence rather to the inferiority of the Africans .In addition, he blamed those

white masters who ill-treated black Africans and he felt pity because of the white‘s

systems of punishing and killing the natives.

Realism in Heart of Darkness was clear and readers cannot blame Joseph

Conrad as a racist because he was just describing what he noticed in the Congo during

the 19th century .Marlow showed a kind of compassion towards the natives and he

considered them as his equals which means human beings not slaves or animals:

“Yes ,I looked at them as you would as any

human being with curiosity of their impulses
motives, capacities, weaknesses …”25

So, the concept of inferior versus superior does not exist because all human

beings are equal and they must share the same rights ,so blacks or any race in the

world can not be treated according to the skin colour .Marlow took the case of the

British imperialism in Africa as similar to the Romans. Marlow believed that England

was one of the dark places of the earth and how London as a civilized and large city

was a dark place .So ,English during the Roman exploitation were in the same

situation to Africans in the 19th century:

“And this also, said Marlow suddenly has been

one of the dark places of the earth”26

So there was a kind of evil in the mission of civilization because these

mission was misused because it was corrupted by people’s hot desire for wealth, land

and money. In the novel Marlow was against Kurtz‘s behaviours in Africa and his ill-

treatment towards the Africans .Kurtz was sent to the Congo to educate and civilize

25
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P59, 60.
26
Conrad, Joseph .Heart of Darkness .London: penguin books, 1994.P07.
the natives, he was sent for a moral mission and he was expected to be white morally

and physically .However, what may be considered to be light was dark in Heart of

Darkness because Kurtz’s desire and ambition to get more ivory or wealth led him to

become a source of evil and his goals of civilizing and helping the natives were lost.

Joseph Conrad‘s description of Kurtz led the reader to understand the real

goals of civilization in Africa and summarized the British imperialism and colonialism

into one character which was Kurtz and his attitudes towards the Africans reflected the

evils of colonialism.

For Marlow or Joseph Conrad, his trip to the Congo was a journey of

discovery because he discovered the truth of the western culture and he started to

realize that civilization was a lie and for him light and whiteness became dark. In

addition, Marlow’s journey led him to know the real aims of European imperialism,

and he started to believe that their presence in Africa was not for moral goals .

However presence in Africa was not for humanizing or helping the Africans who

were used as objects in their land, their presence in Africa was negative towards the

natives but positive towards the Europeans.

The imperialist presence in Africa led the continent to be darker because of

the colonizers system of hypocrisy, which aimed to take not to give . Joseph Conrad

did not show his superiority towards the Africans and he was against this idea because

he believed that what made these natives full of diseases and starvation, was the

European’s greed for power and money. For Marlow, Africans were just victims of the

British superiority, which tried to spread its civilization and religion into the African
continent and into the Africans.

Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness was an anti colonial work as many

readers viewed it because they believed that the writer tried to accuse the European

imperialism and colonialism in Africa .In his novel Joseph Conrad gave importance

to the damages of white colonizer’s souls, which became dark because of their greed

to power and wealth.

In addition, Joseph Conrad believed that black Africans were noble

primitive and innocent, while white colonizers were criminals and thieves, so darkness

reflected white colonizers who used the pretext of civilization and missions of

humanizing and educating the natives in order to steal other nation’s wealth and

resources by force and whiteness reflected black natives who were considered as

victims of the evils of colonialism .So, through Heart of Darkness, the reader can

realize the true nature of human beings and can distinguish between the evil and the

good or noble.

Conclusion:

As a conclusion, 19th century was a period of racism and imperialism,

when many European countries competed with each other in order to get more

and more territories and power, which pushed them to adopt all types of violence

in order to get what they want .The 19TH century was a period of European

superiority and racial discriscrimination. European writers in general and the British

in particular were able to depict, colonialism and imperialism of European countries

and their ambition to power and raw materials.

 Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is the best example of racism and

discrimination, because the writer was able to depict the greed and the evils of

colonialialism, imperialism, and he gave a clear image of the black Africans who

were the victims of European supremacy and their economic needs. So,the European’s

use of violence and racial ideologies help them a lot. Throughout Joseph Conrad’s

Heart of Darkness, readers were able to understand the real goals of European

missions of civilizing and educating black Africans, which were considered as lies or

pretexts.
Conclusion:

This paper has dealt with racism in Heart of Darkness, which was written by

Joseph Conrad, who was born in 1857 in Poland. At the age of seventeenth, he

travelled to Marseille and began to work as a sailor . He began to sail on the British

ship and became a British citizen in 1886.At the age of 29, he started to feel British and

he published his first short stories .For the next eight years, Joseph Conrad continued

to write.

Joseph Conrad started to write his best known works from 1899 and Heart of

Darkness was the best example .Heart of Darkness, which fitted into the genre of

colonial literature in which European writers portrayed the colonialism and

imperialism of European nations from Africa to the Far East In the 19th century.

During the 19th century, European powers battled with each other for wealth

and power and competed to colonize as much of Africa as possible .In addition, the

colonizing Europeans claimed to civilize the African continent but their actions were

against the reality because they were interested in gaining wealth and did not care how

they did it. So, Heart of Darkness gave a real image of what happened during the 19th

century and the Congo was just an example .Joseph Conrad worked as a captain on a

steamship in the Belgian Congo and Heart of Darkness is based on his experience

there, where he revealed the hypocrisy of the colonial powers .

In Europe, the colonization of Africa was justified by the idea that it was not

only for bringing wealth to Europe but it was also for civilizing and educating the

Africans. So, Heart of Darkness showed that European colonizers used the high ideals
of colonization as a cover to their real goals .Heart of Darkness paid more attention to

the damage that colonization did to the souls of white colonizers .In addition, Heart of

Darkness portrayed the European civilization that as blindly corrupt, also darkness

was every where in this novel .This novel denied the idea of white as good and dark as

evil, and it attacked colonialism and its missions of civilization which were misused.

Heart of Darkness argued that the Africans were less corrupt and primitive and

in that sense they became superior to white people, white colonizers were

sophisticated and corrupt. Many readers and critics argued that Heart of Darkness is a

novel about racism but others believed that the novel attacked colonialism which

denied the idea of racism in. It might lead us to think Joseph Conrad was realist in

the novel Heart of Darkness because he depicted the real image of Africa during the

19th century which is based on his experience on the Congo River.

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