First off, let me say that it really bothered me that Marlow seemed to be so disgusted by what he saw happening in Africa, yet he did not object to having 60 barefooted Africans carrying "60-lb. load[s]" accompany him on his trip. But now that that's out of the way...
I will be the first to admit that I never realized the racism present (save for the above-mentioned issue) in Heart of Darkness until Chinua Achebe opened my eyes to it. And no, I don't agree with everything that I read. But the evidence seems relevant, as well as prominent. And, I have to agree - how can you judge another culture for their "unusual" customs, when every culture has their own? What were the "odd" customs that Conrad came across in Africa anyway? I agree that cannibalism is a little odd. But since the Company refused to give their African slaves any sort of nourishment, it was perhaps the only option. And in the grand scheme of things, cannibalism is not the worst, or even the grossest, occurence in history. I highly recommend reading "Of Cannibals," by Michel de Montaigne. "They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces." Well I can almost guarantee that some of the faces the white people made would have been considered horrid to the natives. In fact, I see people making horrid faces every day. Tha dancing, the drumming, the chanting - all of these things that were considered to be unusal or "savage-like' behavior were completely normal to the Africans. So I guess what I'm getting at, and what Achebe was as well, is that "unusual" customs are actually just unfamiliar customs.
Let's think about some of the customs or superstitions that we, as in Americans, find perfectly normal and acceptable;
-Making a wish and blowing out candles on a birthday cake.
-Shaking hands when you meet someone for the first time.
-Opening an umbrella inside is bad luck.
-Flipping a coin or playing rock, paper, scissors to make a decision.
-Not wearing white after Labor Day
The list goes on and on. None of these things really make sense, but they are believed to either bring good luck or to ward off bad luck. The same thing could have been said for the Africans' "unusual" customs. The had chants and dances and songs to help grow crops, to keep away evil spirits, etc. it's basically the same concept, but it was apparently acceptable only for Europeans to have their own customs.
5 years ago
3 comments:
The undertone of racism in a text is sometimes hard to see, especially when you are not looking for it. Harder still to find when when in old text like this, I normally write it off as just the prevailing view of the time and think nothing of it.
I had the same thoughts about the quote that you used in your introduction. Way to pick out that quote and tie it to Achebe's article!
Nice comment -- the connection to "Of Cannibals" is very interesting because Montaigne was, perhaps like Conrad at least according to Achebe, more interested in criticizing Europe than analyzing the "savages."
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