The Importance Of Power In Heart Of Darkness

1027 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Negative impact of imperialism on africas culture

When setting up the boundaries of superior and inferior one must have a certain knowledge that the other does not have. Once that knowledge has been established you divide and conquer the opposing side by tuning them against each other. And last show that you have power and because you have this power you are the superior one. For the African people of the Congo being on the inferior side was an over looked massacre because "white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking its manifestation goes completely unremarked (Achebe)." The people of the Congo were stripped of all their ethical rights as human beings and treated like animals.
Establishing Knowledge
The people of the Congo were at peace with their lifestyle until the white man (Europeans) came in the picture and brutally forced them to change. "Since then the whites have brought nothing but wars and misery to the Congo (16 Hochschild)." The European exploration was just a "philanthropic pretense to show off their work when in reality it was just to gain finical benefits for themselves. At first their approach to civilize the African people was peaceful until they realized the advantage they had over them. In the story the Heart of Darkness a character named Mr. Kurtz creates a pamphlet on how to control the African people he says: "We the whites, … must appear to them in the nature of supernatural beings … we can exert a power for good practically unbounded... and Exterminate all the brutes (Conrad 38)." All this means is that they will show all the ones that are willing to learn a few things to improve their lifestyle and murder all the ones that stand in the way of that because after "people fear what they do not understand and hate what they can not conqu...

... middle of paper ...

...s did not understand the African lifestyle they feared what they did not know, so they demanded that the African people adapt to their way of life. Physically the European men believed that African male could dominate them but rather then just give the upper hand to the Africans they kept it to themselves. Instead they justified their superiority by playing with the intelligence of Africans and protecting the European women. They believed “that the African men had a higher sexual drive than the white men and could pose a danger to the white women (Hochschild 210).” To turn the tables around the European men raped the African women in front of the African men making them feel emasculated because they could not protect their women. In some cases “ soldiers made young men kill or rape their own mothers and sisters (Hochschild 166).“

Show More
Related

  • Slaves And Summary: The Transatlantic Slavery By William Snelgrave

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first aspects we can analyze is the level of difference between the slavery of Africa compared to the European form of slavery. As these sources illustrate traditional African slavery was quite different on several levels compared to the European form of slavery many are familiar with. Slavery in Africa as stated before can be more closely associated with indentured servitude where the slaves were often treated as a member of the family rather than treated with brutality. According to the multiple sources discussed earlier, a prominent aspect of European slavery in Africa was to the harsh treatment and dehumanizing of its slave it order to keep them subordinate to their European captures. Historians might beg the question why was European slavery different than traditional African

    Read More

  • Power In Fahrenheit 451

    417 Words  | 1 Pages

    There are many people that go overboard with power. Once they get their hands on just a little bit, they start to want more and more. They downgrade others to make them feel unimportant. The firefighters in the story of Fahrenheit 451, went mad with power; the firefighters in the story resemble some people in our day of age. The story Fahrenheit 451, depicted power v. weakness, hypocrisy, and self growth.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Basil Davidson's 'Different But Equal'

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization

    Read More

  • Scramble For Africa Dbq Essay

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    In many accounts of the Africans, the Africans were in disagreement with the European's Scramble for Africa. Ndansi Kumalo an African veteran wrote in 1896 if many of them to give or keep their land. In a distrustful and agony tone he spoke of how the poor treatment of the Africans in the Ndebele rebellion against the British advances in South America to convince many others not to stay because it has impacted many Africans and many died in the process of it. He says “So we surrendered to the White people and were told to go back to our homes and live our usual lives and attend to our crops. They came and were overbearing. We were ordered to carry their clothes and bundles (Doc.4).” A German military officer in 1896 wrote in a newspaper article about the reactions of the Africans about the white settlers. In an awed tone he wrote about the 1906 account of the Maji Maji Rebellion in German East Africa and to give an example of how the Africans believed in a magic medicine would help them defend themselves against the white settlers (Doc.8). Mojimba an African chief in 1907 described a battle in 1877 on the Congo River against British and African mercenaries to a German catholic missionary. In an appalled and hateful tone he used this description to show that these whi...

    Read More

  • Oppression of Imperialism in Poisonwood Bible and Heart of Darkness

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ion of imperialism has evolved. In both Heart of Darkness by Conrad, and The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver, Africa is invaded and altered to conform to the desires of more “civilized” people. While this oppression in the Congo never seems to cease, the natives are consistently able to overcome the obstacles, and the tyrants, and thus prove to be civilized in their own regard and as capable of development as the white nations. As Orleanna says herself: “Call it oppression, complicity, stupefaction, call it what you’d like…Africa swallowed the conqueror’s music and sang a new song of her own” (Kingsolver 385). Kingsolver illustrates that though individuals may always seek to control and alter the region, the inhabitants and victims of the tyranny and oppression live on and continue past it, making the state of the area almost as perpetual as the desire to control it.

    Read More

  • The Collision of Beliefs in Things Fall Apart

    1161 Words  | 3 Pages

    No one likes to be told how to live. In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, missionaries came to Africa to teach the natives a new way of life, Christianity. The natives had lived one way their entire life, and enacted their beliefs whole-heartedly. European missionaries wanted to convert them from these ways. Each group of people had a difficulties communicating with each other; this caused a type of ignorance towards the other. Joseph Conrad did an adequate job portraying the views of Europeans in his novel Heart of Darkness and why they felt they needed to be in Africa. The traditions and beliefs in these two novels caused a major separation between the natives and whites; could this have caused more damage than good?

    Read More

  • European Imperialsim in Africa was Justified

    455 Words  | 1 Pages

    When the Europeans arrived in Africa, many would of thought that imperialism wasn?t fied because the Europeans were enslaving the Africans. As stated in David Diop's An Anthology of West African Verse, "And in the Conqueror's voice said, 'Boy! A chair, a napkin, a drink.'" Stated blatantly, the "conqueror" is a European, and he is commanding an African to serve him. Forcing Africans into slavery certainly doesn?t justify European imperialism in Africa, however, there are many reasons as to why imperialism actually was justified.

    Read More

  • Gendered Oppression in African American History

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    African men and women experienced the brutality that accompanied the institution of slavery in different ways. European men as well as African overseers raped African

    Read More

  • Awa Thiam's Arguement Against the Statement “Rape is to Women what Lynching is to Blacks”

    1724 Words  | 4 Pages

    The European view point of exploitation of women in Europe compared to the African American women shows an inaccurate judgment. If rape is to women compared to the raping of black, then what is raping and lynching to the African American female? This is a paradox which Thiam explained. Indirectly European feminist Kate Miller is referring to white women being raped has her concern. Fighting for liberation of women, the black women is forgotten and also denied in this case. Thiam states during the colonial period African women suffered a double domination and enslavement. The black women were visualized as a sexual stratification to be abused sexually and through hard labor.

    Read More

  • European Imperialism in Africa

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the early 1880’s, the powers of Europe started to take control of regions in Africa and set up colonies there. In the beginning, colonization caused the Africans little harm, but before long, the Europeans started to take complete control of wherever they went. The Europeans used their advanced knowledge and technology to easily maneuver through the vast African landscape and used advanced weapons to take control of the African people and their land. The countries that claimed the most land and had the most significant effect on Africa were France, England, Belgium, and Germany. There were many reasons for the European countries to be competing against each other to gain colonies in Africa. One of the main reasons was that the Europeans believed that the more territory a country was able to control, the more powerful it could become and the more powerful it would be seen as by other countries. Other reasons for the desire to control African land included the many natural resources that could only be found in Africa, such as diamonds, gold, and as time progressed, rubber. It also provided new markets in surrounding places so that manufactured goods could be sold for a larger profit. The Europeans had many motives for imperialism in Africa. Yet the true motives were often shielded as they tried tom present themselves as humanitarians when in reality they were making Africa a terrible place to live with brutality and harsh treatment of the African natives. The ways of the Europeans had many physical and emotional costs for the people of Africa. The imperialism process also took a toll on the people of Europe. The European imperialistic colonization in Africa was motivated by the desire to control the abundant natural resources an...

    Read More

  • A Journey into Darkness in Heart of Darkness

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    is an exposure of Belgian methods in the Congo, which at least for a good

    Read More

  • Civilization is not as Advance in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    Apart from the discernable darkness depicted in England and Belgium, and the Congo, each places’ surface traits are not comparable. The civilized European cities are portrayed as refined, but also as a “whited supulchre,” with “prejudice no doubt” and a desire to “make no end of coin by trade” (Conrad 14). The term “whited supulchre” is a biblical allusion, referring to a person who is superficially pure, but categorically deceptive. In its literal sense, a supulchre is a coffin, and in being whited, it is beautiful on the outside but contains horrors on the inside. This bleak and inhumane place characterizes itself to be civilized, and there in lies the people who willingly welcome the burden of edifying the unfortunates in Africa. Alternatively, the primitive life along the African Congo strikes a glaring disparity to pristine European society. Not only are the riverbanks “rotting with mud” and “thickened with slime,” but also, a “general sense of vague and oppressive wonder” sets a sinister tone to the land and people of the Congo (Conrad 11). The notable absence of description of its inhabitants furthers Africa’s and Africans’ depiction as indistinguishable and incoherent to the European perception. Actual people living in this environ...

    Read More

  • The Psychological Impact of Colonialism on the Victimization of Africans

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    While Collins does a succinct job of examining the economic and political factors that heightened colonization, he fails to hone in on the mental warfare that was an essential tool in creating African division and ultimately European conquest. Not only was the systematic dehumanization tactics crippling for the African society, but also, the system of racial hierarchy created the division essential for European success. The spillover effects of colonialism imparted detrimental affects on the African psyche, ultimately causing many, like Shanu, to, “become victims to the white man’s greed.”

    Read More

  • The Perception of Africa as a Single Entity

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the time of European expansion, many in Europe only knew of Africa, though the letters of self-appointed anthropologist and adventurers who described Africa as a dark continent; the people were dark skinned and primitive; they worshiped idols and practiced mysticism. This was evident in the way that British colonist described the Africans and Africa as “the savage was the very embodiment of dirt and disorder, his moral affliction all of a piece with his physical degeneracy and his pestiferous surrounding” (Comaroff 216). The land was dark, warm and moist; full of jungles that had all kinds of hidden dangers. The animals were ferocious and fierce, every step whether on land or on the river was a step into the unknown. The idea that Africa was Europe before it became civilized, excited people who were weary of their mundane life and wanted to have an adventure. Unfortunately, this image of Africa and the Africans never diminished; in fact, it only grew. Soon, it was the duty of the Churches of Europe to go to Africa and bring them salvation, it was the duty of the empires to go there and bring with them the light of civilization. This image of Africa as a place of primitive cultures and decay created the stereotype of what Africa was in the eyes of the world. This same stereotype, a dark, primitive place, still occurs ...

    Read More

  • Imperialism in Heart of Darkness

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Marlow passes through the waters of the Congo, it is easily visible the trouble of the natives. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth half coming out, half effaced with the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.” (20) Show that the holding of these colonies has started. The soldiers have come in and taken the inhabitants and are destroying them and taking from them the one thing they deserve over everything, life. The imperialists seem to not care about the Africans and are just there for their land.

    Read More

More about The Importance Of Power In Heart Of Darkness

Open Document