Imperialism In Africa

Imperialism is an infectious mindset; one that overtook the minds of the most powerful nations in the world in the late 19th and 20th centuries and is still present today. At the very heart of the principle, imperialism is racist. It is the belief that all white men are morally obligated to “help” (or rule) all non-white people groups of the Earth. At the time of the publication of Joseph Conrad’s book “Heart of Darkness,” “The White Man’s Burden” had just been released and Europe was entirely consumed with the “scramble for Africa.” It is clear that both “The White Man’s Burden” and the “Scramble for Africa” heavily influenced Conrad’s literary work in the way that Conrad’s characters exploit the native people of the Congo in Africa for …show more content…
Chinua Achebe wrote an article titled “An Image of Africa,” in which he argues that Conrad was intentionally and unnecessarily racist in his work. This is a hard and extreme claim to make, but extensive study of this time period will confirm that he is absolutely right. However, there is no one to justly blame here other than the society in this time and its twisted ideals. Imperialism was widely accepted and the white people implementing it genuinely thought that they were doing good by the people they were taking over. Only in hindsight can we as a society see that we were in the wrong, which follows the time-tried principle in history that with time comes regret-inducing clarity. Social norms are a force to be reckoned with; after all, segregation in public schools was not outlawed in American schools until 1954. “Heart of Darkness” is a powerful periodization piece in which we can see the harsh realities of this time period, and Achebe’s article provides further analyzation of the racial issues present in this book and why they appear. “Heart of Darkness” is a story about a man named …show more content…
Essentially, I whole-heartedly agree with Achebe- “Heart of Darkness” is horribly and blatantly racist. However, Achebe argues that Conrad is a sadistic human being for portraying this story as he did, and I think that it’s just the opposite. Conrad paints a raw picture of exactly how this portion of history unfolded, and to sugar-coat it at all would be an injustice to those who suffered. “Heart of Darkness” is a story that sheds light on the horrors of imperialism, and acts as a cautionary tale in the event that this mindset is popularized once again. Throughout the book, Marlow is consistently on the brink of the realization that his job is detrimental to humanity. Through this, Conrad (who proves to be quite the manipulative literary genius) pushes the reader to realize for themselves exactly how wrong the events housed in this jungle- and every other invaded home-