In Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness  the author is not guilty of racism, but guilty of unfolding the truth about dehumanization of black people by white people, presented through the eyes of a white person. He does this perfectly in his fictitious novel where he displays the humiliation of the native black people of the Congo in Africa through the eyes of Marlow, a white European, and an unnamed narrator, to people of the ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’ worlds. Through this narration, Conrad proceeds with, and takes advantage of an assumption which was widely held at the time of his writing, and is perhaps still held even today; that the civilized world is comprised of people who are of lighter skin, are well organized, hard working, educated, and belong to a culture that is superior to others.  In contrast, the uncivilized world is inhabited by people who are darker in complexion, uneducated, inefficient, and lost in an uncongenial environment.

The novel Heart of Darkness is reveal through the eyes of an unnamed narrator and the main protagonist Marlow. The setting for this story is The Congo of Central Africa.  The Congo is a country that was once ruled by King Leopold 11 of Belgium and was formerly know as “L’ Etat Independent du Congo. King Leopold 11 promised to convert the native blacks of the then Congo to Christianity and civilization. But this promise erupts into a cruel joke. Instead the Congolese were slaves in all but name. This is the same Congo that the author physically visited and wanted to leave as quickly as possible. Was his writing really to invoke contempt for, insult blacks or to inform his readers about their inhuman treatment? My argument is that Conrad was revealing the truth about what was happening to black people in Congo and other parts of the World.

Many persons may view Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness as literature which incites racism, but is this the only view? Conrad was a Norwegian writer who spoke three languages.   English was not his first language, but he eloquently mastered it, and has written other novels such as Lord Jim, Nostromo and The Secret Agent which were some of the most influential poetic novels ever written in English. Conrad possessed many insights into human nature, which he gained from his own life experiences and his wide far off adventurers traveling to the East and the West Indies. However, the voyage that had the greatest impact on his writing was his trip along the Congo River in Africa. In the Epoch that Conrad was writing black people were seen as inferior and inhuman by the rest of the so-called civilized world. In his book Heart of Darkness  he used many negative adjectives repeatedly to describe black people, such as niggers, black, dark, grotesque. These unsavory adjectives are enshrined in the so-called civilized views of black people and Africa. However, when he described his role model, Mr Kurtz a white man, he sings nothing but praises.  Apparently, this description scale appears to be unbalanced simply because Conrad did not use equally pleasing expressions to describe both groups of people. In his novel he portrays white people as superior because their culture differs from that of the black people, and depicts the native black people of Congo as inferior because their different culture which appears to be primitive. Did Conrad witness the sufferings inflicted on the native blacks by the white men who frequently visited Congo in search of financial gains?  And is this form of oppression a continuous reality in contemporary society?  My view is that he did, and it is because he wanted to expose a misunderstood and unjust situation that Conrad wrote the novel the way he did. 

To accuse the author of being racist is a superficial reading of the novel.  Conrad began by presenting his situation in the point of view of Europe and the white western world.  That is why the assumptions of white superiority and civilization are presented through the narration, because Conrad wanted to make his statements by allowing the readers to see the whole affair through white eyes.  He even employs the title of the novel as a part of his strategy.  A journey such as this one undertaken by the character Marlow, similar to the journey undertaken by Conrad himself, was seen as a journey into the heart of a dark continent.  The “heart of darkness” was supposed to be the depth of savagery and the absence of civilization in a country inhabited by ‘black savages’.  Nobility was supposed to be taken into these regions by the ‘civilized’ whites.  However, Conrad uses the title ironically, because that is not what he shows.  The author’s main point is that the “darkness” and ‘savagery’ do not reside in the black Africans, but deep in the heart of man.  These qualities are found within the nature and the subconscious mind of mankind, rather than in any one race.

He describes Marlow’s expedition as, “we are wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet”. Black people’s culture appeared to be prehistoric and mysterious in the era that Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness and this assumption still continues today. 

Should Conrad obscure reality and not state the fact? Or did he hit the message home; white people possess eurocentric attitudes about black people? Many readers opposed to racism would feel offended after the first reading of the Heart of Darkness and would convict and label Conrad as a racist. But is he really a racist? Although the instinctive response would be a resounding yes! a more thoughtful and thoroughly thought out answer would have to be No !

Conrad is a white man who describes black people as “niggers” and repeatedly calls them black in excess of fifty times in his book of only ninety-five pages. Why would Conrad who was an influential writer use such derogatory remarks about black people in his book?  Was this form of oppression a reality in the time period when Conrad wrote his book?  When Conrad visited the Congo in 1890 King Leopold ruled it for decades, a ruler who often referred to the native people of Congo as “wretched Negroes with sanguinary habits”.  The inhuman treatment for the Congolese people was the norm of the day during the time period Conrad visited the Congo, hence it is possible Conrad may have witnessed the cruel treatment the native people received from those governing them.

 It appears to be the view of many that because of the history of racism the words “niggers” and “black’ should not be used when referring to black people. So if Conrad is not a racist then he should have been  more sensitive to the pain behind the use of words “ niggers” and “black” when describing black people. What is ironic about this perception, is, it is acceptable when a black person uses these same words to address their fellow blacks, but what is unacceptable is for a white person to write using these same words to expose reality; demoralization of black people for decades.  Why then does Conrad, a writer possessed of such great enlightenment, do it? 

It seems he wanted to first of all reflect the reality, because those thoughts existed in the hearts and minds of the people about whom he was writing and the people who would be reading his work.  But apart from reflecting the reality, Conrad would have wanted to shock his readers, and through this shock, provoke some change of attitudes.  Through the writer’s sensitivity, he wanted to challenge and question the norms of his society.  The words “the horror !” are repeated in the book, but they are not aimed at the ‘savagery’ of the Africans, but at the appalling state of the mind of man and what it was capable of.

Is it as a result of history?   Some would argue that White people cannot denounce racism because they are the perpetuators of this crime. Therefore a white man cannot possess feelings of profound sadness about the treatment and dehumanization of blacks.  But Conrad is indeed an enlightened writer, and he makes his statements by allowing the reader to see an alternative attitude and to be shocked into believing that ‘the norm’ is not necessarily ‘the acceptable’. 

 Is Conrad striking on the core of “Othering” that exists in mankind? It an attempt to expose the atrocities of the white civilized world, he also disclosed the “Othering” in black people. They are now also guilty of projecting racism themselves. It appears that there is now a black and white world, instead of one world comprising people with different cultures. Had Conrad related in his story Congolese being praised and given equal treatment, he would have been accused of distorting history and lying. Conrad did not name his book whiteness of darkness, but Heart of darkness. Was there a latent message in this name?

The name of Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness is sending a universal message to humanity. He is saying in his ninety-five pages that the dehumanization of the black people is suffered by many helpless groups of people across the globe. He uses the native black people residing in The Congo of Africa to highlight the sufferings of helpless people of different ethnic backgrounds worldwide.  Conrad describes the deaths of both the black people and Mr Kurtz as a symbolic meaning just as the name of his book. “They were dying slowly- it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, and they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of diseases and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom”.  This is one of the moments of the heart of darkness for the native blacks of Congo.

Likewise the approaching moment of death for Mr Kurtz a white man is also a symbol of darkness “Kurtz discoursed, a voice, a voice! It rang deep to the very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart. Oh, he struggled! he struggled”. Kurt’s dying words to the narrator Marlow reveals his horror of being afraid of punishment. He did not want the people back home to know the reality of his work.  At this point in his novel Conrad is showing the dying moments of the black people in Congo and Mr Kurtz as a symbol of the Heart of Darkness experienced universal. Death is inevitable for all; hence everyone has to experience the heart of darkness. In his novel black people eventually became “nothing” they were dying without the fear of being punished. However, Mr Krutz dying moments were nothing but horror. He was experiencing the heart of darkness moments before his death; he now becomes the enemy and the criminal because he is responsible for the dehumanization of the native blacks.   

Our interpretation of this story should not be one of racist intent on behalf of the writer. Conrad was a writer who traveled the East, West Indies and then Congo gaining a further insight into human interaction with each other. The geographical locations he visited had suffered the fate of slavery, Indentureship and colonization. There is an old saying “traveling is educating” Conrad was soaking in all he witnessed in his travel. But then he reveals the hard cold truth about humanity, and some people cry racism. But is he guilty of racism? No he is not. What he is guilty of is revealing reality to the world.