The Darkness that troubled Conrad

Honestly, it never stops to amaze me the amount of ignorance that people have. That I, personally have. I read this book twice. The first time it was incredible, it was a whole new world that I just discovered within its pages it was fresh and new, but mysterious and wonderful at the same time. Needless to say, I pretty much fell in love with this book.

But, luckily, in one of the courses that I am taking this semester we study this book. I decided, of course to reread it. Well, what I discovered was beyond anything that I would have imagined I would discover. I read in an article published by Chinua Achebe in which he talks about the deeply rooted and profound racism in this book. It shook me. Of course I noticed the words in which Conrad describes the African natives ("They were dying slowly -- it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, -- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom" -- just to give an example) Of course it was clear to me that 90% of the times in which the author/ the narrator mentions the African people the language that he uses is not appropriate. Of course I noticed that. But what I utterly and completely failed to notice is the fact that every single time that Conrad describes Africa he uses these dark, somber and gloomy words to describe the surroundings. Naturally, one can argue that the scenery is in tight correlation with Kurtz's evolution and his psychological decay. The problem here is that Conrad uses Africa as a background every single time. Africa and its citizens is used merely to describe a white man's journey.

The next question that I've asked myself is weather or not we still need to read these books, even if we know that racism and racial issues are encountered. I believe that we still need to read these books. But (and a huge, huge but is needed here) we need to point it out. Sadly and grossly, those were the thoughts of the people who lived back then. Unjustly, these are the ways in which African natives were treated back then. I truly believe that we need to show our respect to the sufferings that they endured, to the years and years of mistreatment that they were put through by reading and acknowledging what was going on back then (and sadly still goes on). We owe it to history to inform and educate ourselves. Banishing nooks that are considered racist? I don't know about that.... Instead, I say teach the young people how they should approach such a book, how they can detach themselves from such a book, how they can become impartial and can only take what this book has good to offer.

I will leave a link to prof. Achebe's article: https://polonistyka.amu.edu.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/259954/Chinua-Achebe,-An-Image-of-Africa.-Racism-in-Conrads-Heart-of-Darkness.pdf