European colonization of the African continent in the late 1880’s in novels

In the novels Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the authors describe the European colonization of the African continent in the late 1880’s. The novels give the contrasting perspectives of the colonizer and the colonized. Conrad writes the narrative of a steamboat captain who ventures into the Congo and sees the exploitation of the African natives taking place.

Heart of Darkness

The captain, Charles Marlow, travels into Africa on a search for a man, unburdened by the reality of what is happening in Africa.

As his journey brings him closer and closer to the center of the continent, he sees the horrors of colonization. He returns with the horrific truth and insight into man’s true nature. Achebe’s novel focuses on a Lower Nigerian tribe whose culture and beliefs are taken over by colonizers. White men come to them with a new religion and government. They bring a new church, which tells them that their gods are not real and that there is only one true, all powerful god.

The tribe’s beliefs are discredited and their customs shamed. The colonizers bring chaos to the once peaceful tribe. Colonization reveals man’s inherently greedy and evil nature. Everything is exposed when the colonizers impose their culture on somebody else.

Colonization exposes man’s inherently evil nature. Although human kind is capable of doing good things, their true inner intentions are corrupt. These two novels bring what lies in every man’s heart to light.

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Conrad compares colonization to a light being brought to the darkness. The image of a heart of darkness is presented many times. Conrad however eventually leads the reader to the conclusion that the evil actually lies in one’s heart. The Heart of Darkness is written through the perspective of man traveling into Africa. He has not yet been exposed to what has been happening. The colonizers believe that they are enlightening the natives by telling them about their god. They think of themselves as “supernatural beings” (Conrad 60), who hold all the power and all the answers. They believe the act of colonization is a “noble cause” (Conrad ).

Marlow is ignorant of the corruption before he travels into Africa. However, when he gets there he sees the exploitation and appalling crimes committed against the natives. Conrad uses many racist terms and dehumanizes the natives. Many times he compares them to dogs, “ They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces” (Conrad 43). As Marlow travels deeper and deeper towards the center of the continent, he sees the loss of order. The jungle gets denser, his thoughts become clouded and time slows down. Marlow and his men get farther and farther away from their sense of their humanity: “we were too far and could not remember” (Conrad 42). It is at that point in the chaos that what lies in every man’s heart is revealed. When there is nothing else to hide it, nothing to hide under or be disguised by. It has no other option than to be revealed for what it truly is; corrupt.

When Marlow returns to London, he is burdened with the knowledge of the horrific truth. He feels as if he is “buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets” (Conrad 77). He will be forever burdened with the knowledge of what mankind is truly capable of. Achebe’s novel tells the story of a once peaceful tribe whose power is slowly taken away by colonizers. The tribe, Umuofia, is a civilized society with organization, law and order. However, when the colonizers come, the natives are seen as animals because their society is different from their own. They see the natives as nothing but primitive beings: “He saw things as black and white. And black was evil” (Achebe 184). The colonizers impose their own culture on the tribe by telling them about their god and discrediting the beliefs of the tribe. Umuofia is held together by kinship and loyalty to their own. When people start to convert to Christianity, the things that hold the tribe together begin to fall apart. When their beliefs are discredited, they lose their unity. The colonizers bring evil to the once happy tribe. Members of the tribe recognize this and know that they “must root out this evil” (Achebe 204). The colonizers destroy a man’s entire life and only devotes a paragraph to him. His entire life, all of his accomplishments and greatness are diminished to one paragraph. The colonizers see their destruction of a culture and the lives of many as just a “pacification” (Achebe 209). The lives of the tribes are meaningless to the colonizers.

Things Fall Apart

Achebe gives the perspective of the tribe to allow the reader to understand what they are going through. It provides an understanding for what the colonizers could not, that this tribe was a group of human beings, not primitive animals. Man’s inherent nature is exposed through the act of colonization. Colonizers bring chaos to indigenous tribes by imposing their beliefs onto them. They establish their control over the people and appropriate the land for their own use. They make money through trading _ of the land. Colonization reveals the greediness that lies in every man’s heart. Colonizers destroy the lives of many people just to make a profit. They exploit the natives and turn them into slaves. In The Heart of Darkness, Kurtz steals ivory from the natives.

Colonization is a very racist act. In the history of the world, dark skinned people have always been colonized by white men; the European colonization of the African continent, of the Native Americans, of South America. The colonizers feel a sense of supremacy over the natives. They feel that they are the far superior race and that they must enlighten them. The Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart show both sides of colonization to reveal the inherent nature of man.