The question here which will carry on this research paper is, is Conrad really racist, or he is just trying to be a realist? After reading a few lines of Conrad's racist description to the denizens of the Congo, I really could not fathom why such an open-declared racism against people whose only fault is that they were born with a skin that is different in colour. Conrad did not hesitate from making bitter statements in his description to the black
Some of the first civilizations started in Africa, and forever after other civilizations wanted to conquer Africa as a means of showing their global superiority. Africa's worst domination, however, came from the Europeans. European colonization set the stage for imperialism that Africa deals with to this day. Before the resurgence of imperialism Africa was a resourceful continent. During imperialism, Europeans went into Africa and stripped its land of its resources and this also changed the climate negatively.
Hunt Hawkins believes that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was an anti-imperialism novel, as opposed to what some may believe while reading the novel; an example would be Chinua Achebe, who believes the novel to be racist and de-humanizing. Imperialism in Africa was evident in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and the affects of it was not only political, but also social, psychological, and spiritual. This essay will show a critical deconstruction on imperialism and Conrad’s work. Background In order to understand the point of this essay, one would need to understand what deconstruction is as well as imperialism. Deconstruction, according to Jacques Derrida, started in late 1960s France and “upends the Western metaphysical tradition.
Although he is indicated as the “amazing” Mr. Kurtz, readers find out at the end that Mr. Kurtz was the one with the dark heart. “Heart of Darkness” does not reveal its meaning in digestible morsels, like the kernel of a nut. Rather, its meanings evade the interpreter; they are larger than the story itself. (Yale.edu-modernism research) “Heart of Darkness” is about savagery, racism, slavery, harshness. The story is an exploration of the difference between the savagery and civilization, and the colonialism and the racism which makes the imperialism possible.
In Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie, there is a critical presentation of the oddities in Nigeria as well as Africa in general, as the continent trudges in the biting tyrannical trauma of the military and anarchical leaderships. This aspect is x-rayed beyond the micro setting (families) to the macro society (countries) as the inhabitants, represented by the naïve Kambili, perceive unruly torture in their experience of governance. We see a novel that reassesses what Izevbaye (1979) expresses as “the civilizing function which literature performs by tearing down the veil of sophisticated drawing room manners and fashionable clothes… dealing with the African image in the past or the politics of the present” (African Literature Today 10, 14). This paper examines how Chimamanda Adichie has unraveled the problems of politics, freedom, gender and development within the threshold of governance in Africa. 199 The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.1, no.9, August 2007 Introduction Charles Nnolim (2005)1 explains critically that the third generation of writers in Nigeria (which includes Adichie) exhibits “a literary jungle- rich with varieties of life and growth, awe-inspiring and full of breath-taking surprises…” (8).
Europe, Africa, the river, and Kurtz are all plausible candidates for the heart of darkness within Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness. Marlow may refer to Europe when mentioning the heart of darkness for numerous reasons. The European governments and trade organizations have been the primary reasons for the infiltration and development of Africa. The Europeans have been the ones to enslave the African people and bring misery upon them. Marlow encounters much of this misery when first being introduced to the Chief Accountant of the Trade Company.
To him, art and society are indivisible, which is the African tradition. Unlike writers in European communities, the African artist is accountable to the community. Achebe is further influenced by the fact that African writers believe it is their mission to change their society through education. 37 Chapter 2: Things Fall Apart and Colonialism 1. Okonkwo’s Actions Foreshadow Colonialism’s Impact on Traditional Values Christopher Heywood 47 Even before the colonial rule directly impacts Okonkwo’s world, he betrays African and Igbo tradition in beliefs such as the hatred of his father’s way of life.
Europe wanted to set up and colonize in Africa, mainly because of Africa's raw materials it was purely economic. . (Iweriebor, 2011) The African's did not take kind to this, and it provoked not only African political responses but also diplomatic responses and military resistance. A lot of treaties of protection for the leaders of African societies, states, and empires went out. There was a lot of controversy about these treaties and eventually the military had to step in.
In this novelette Conrad bravely exposes the horror at the heart of Europe, the absurdity of Europe’s civilizing quest in Africa, and perhaps prophetically points to the rise and eventual fall of the European Superman, Neitzche’s man with the will to power, Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler. The tale is told by a European, not one whom History might show as pathologically averse to genuine self-analysis when it comes to foreign atrocity, but by a character who is looking inward, morally and spiritually at Europe, an Eastern embodiment, a Buddha figure. The novelette starts at the entrance to the Thames, an almost mythic place, as Conrad notes. This estuary had “known and served all the men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled and untitled – the great knights-errant of the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels flashing in the night of time, from the Golden Hind returning with the round flanks full of treasure… The dreams of men the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.” But this eulogistic optimism is countered by a pessimistic note by
[ Arab Apartheid Beginning in 1991 elders of the Zaghawa people of Sudan complained that they were victims of an intensifying Arab apartheid campaign. Sudanese Arabs, who control the government, are widely referred to as practising apartheid against Sudan's non-Arab citizens. [26] The government is accused of "deftly manipulat(ing) Arab solidarity" to carry out policies of apartheid and ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs in Darfur. American University economist George Ayittey accuses the Arab government of Sudan of practicing apartheid against black citizens. According to Ayittey, "In Sudan... the Arabs monopolized power and excluded blacks - Arab apartheid."