CONRAD'S PORTRAYAL OF WILD AFRICA IN HEART OF DARKNESS

Representation of Africa and its inhabitants in Conrad's novel

River Congo

The standing of Joseph Conrad as a major novelist of his time has been for a long time unassailable. F. R. Leavis certainly regards Conrad as rightfully belonging to the “Great Tradition” of English literature. He is one of those artists who have extended the frontiers of the novel and created more space and more possibilities for the exploration and depiction of human life. The publication of Heart of Darkness in 1902 can be seen as an integral part of the development of that literature spawned by the European expansion into other parts of the world. In fact, there is a way in which it has elements of an Edwardian adventure story. Charlie Marlow, the narrator visits Africa for the first time in the novel and presents it as a different world which a European can hardly perceive unless he or she looks at it from its own point of view. River Thames gives him the feeling of home whereas river Congo stimulates his quest for the unknown as well as the search for mystery and adventurism. At no point in the text does the narrator tell us that he considers the river Thames as superior to that of river Congo.

 

          It is important at this point that Marlow decides to take a French steamer first to the mouth of the river Congo and subsequently through the heart of Africa not merely he is out of a job at that particular time. It was Marlow’s fascination from childhood with Africa which has been working in his mind for a long time that has motivated him in undertaking the journey. When Marlow finds in course of his journey a French gunboat unnecessarily firing shells into the dense, black depth of the forest on both sides of river Congo, it seems absurd to him that without any premonition the people in gunboats should consider the unseen Africa natives as their enemy. As Marlow continues his journey, he has to come across the dead body of a native who has been shot through the forehead automatically indicating it to be the handiwork of a European. While walking for 15 days to reach a central station, Marlow also sees all the native villages which they have come across are abandoned. This barely indicates the truth that the unnecessary shelling upon the native Africans have made them forsake their original habitat and go further into the country so that they are located at the central zone where the shells or the bullets can not reach. This inhuman act appears both painful and ironic to Marlow and enables him to realize that European imperialism and racism are rendering the African people homeless. He is also sympathetic towards them.

 

          It is Kurtz’s illustration of the river Congo that gives Marlow a better understanding of Africa. The primitive nature consists of the wilderness, lush but fearful greenery, snags and rocks in the riverbed and rising fog in the river after which become a manifestation of the African landscape. The bushes on the bank are also so very thick that it is impossible to see beyond them. Abruptly in this destabilize state Marlow and his boat mates have to endure the attack of the natives when thousands of arrows fly towards them. Marlow’s intelligence comes to his rescue because he sounds the boat’s whistle and scatters the terrified natives.

 

          When bewilder Marlow reaches Kurtz’s house he finds that it surrounds by a fence topped with human skulls. Marlow finds Kurtz as a lank and emancipated person but his native mistress appears as “a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman”. She has “draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet”. Here Marlow also sees the ritualistic dance and activities of the African people which makes him realize that it is difficult to evaluate Africa’s mystery and majesty from a Euro-centric perspective. Actually the native woman in many ways Marlow’s personalized symbol of Africa and more precisely symbolizes the spirit of the dark forest of Africa— mysterious, enigmatic but highly appealing.

 

          Conrad’s presentation of Africa is therefore multidimensional and regularly fluctuates and oscillates before reaching a dignified conclusion. Some critics like Chinua Achebe in his famous article ‘Conrad’s Image of Africa’ wrongly envisages that Conrad thinks “Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human factor. Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril.” With due respect to Achebe, we may say that the unfamiliar eyes of Marlow first time follow on the African landscape which he tries to comprehend and interpret. He meets native Africans in their true habitat very briefly only when he has gone to Kurtz’s hurt and sees how he has become virtually a God in the eyes of the natives. But when Marlow realizes that Kurtz needs proper medical care to survive, he does not have time to stay back, understand, evaluate and also celebrate natives’ activity. If he has stayed back in Africa for at least half a decade, he may have been in a better position to understand and evaluate the African community. Again the abrupt attack of natives with bows, arrows and spears upon his boat has left its scars upon his mind as a result of which he is often defensive in his evaluation of the African people. However, he clearly states his fascination with the native mistress of Kurtz and almost celebrates her beauty, pride and dignity. In such a situation, it will be wrong to say that Conrad's sole purpose is to celebrate Africa as a fascinating but mysterious and present the African natives in ignoble light because as Achebe claims that Conrad too was a victim of racism.

          From another perspective, it can also be said that the preposterous and perverse arrogance of French guys' firing shells into the dense forest to harm native Africans is a kind of manifestation of the mean attitude of  French men in the continent which in a way portrays the rivalry between two imperial power and neighbours like France and England.

          Finally, we can say that Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a historical and monumental work because it successfully turned the European gaze towards Africa and made us realize that Africa is too deep and enigmatic a continent both in its topography and populace, the true significance of which can not be completely depicted in a single work of art.