The "Dark Continent"

I am almost sure that if you ask anyone what happened in World War II they know at least about the Nazis. Events like that one that create such a big impact are often remembered. By reading Joseph Conrad´s Heart of Darkness and Adam Hochschild´s King Leopold´s Ghost I realized that the Congo suffered from European imperialism but it´s not really known. Hochschild narrates the exploitation of the Congo when King Leopold was its ruler. It focuses on African slavery. Although this country already had slavery it was “more flexible and benign than the system Europeans would soon establish in the New World”. (Prologue)

In a different way Conrad reveals the same truth. Through Kurtz and Marlow he shows how the natives behaved with the Europeans and how the exploitation of ivory took place. Many people have this squared vision of Africa. They think it is the place and the uncivilized and a lower race that has always been oppressed by people that are superior to them. After reading these two texts I thought of a movie I had seen a long time ago: Blood Diamond. It shows how the country was tearing apart by the international abuse to get diamonds. The situation is different from the ones of the text but still they relate. The three of them manage to show in a different way that Africa throughout history has exploited, its people and natural resources.

King Leopold’s Ghost has a different approach on the topic because it narrates something that actually happened. While Heart of Darkness narrates a story that gives a picture of Congo and what was happening. Instead of taking a side, both texts expose a situation. In neither of them do you feel that the author is defending Africa nor Europe. It is inevitable to show how the whites mistreated the black, it is part of what happened. In a way, I would say the texts have a way to balance each other. One of them gives the reader detail and more facts on the topic while the other allows the reader to get into the situation. They both portray Africa as a mystery and they want to discover what they have. Once they people manage to do that they take advantage and use what it has in their benefits. in neither texts do they show compassion for the mysterious continent and they should not. Both texts are trying to expose and truth and should do it exactly like it is. The main point is this: “for Europeans Africa, remained the supplier of valuable raw material-human bodies and elephants tusks. But otherwise they saw the continent as a faceless, black, empty, a place on the map waiting to be explored”. I think they were intimidated by the “Dark Continent” but to their advantage knew how to conquer it.