"HEART OF DARKNESS" RACISM AND REACTION

ONE OF THE MANY EDITIONS OF THE CLASSIC NOVEL

 An enduring classic of English literature is the novella "Heart Of Darkness" first published in serial form in 1899 in "Blackwood's Magazine" and then as a book in 1902. But the spotlight shone on it with greater intensity in February, 1975 when the then 45 years old Nigerian Author Chinua Achebe made it the subject of an important public lecture. Achebe was already renowned for his novels "THINGS FALL APART"  (1958), "NO LONGER AT EASE" (1960) and ARROW OF GOD" (1964). At the administrative and communications level, he had been intensely active in the Biafran War (1967 -1970), in support of the effort to create Biafra out of the Igbo region of Nigeria.

CHINUA ACHEBE THE MOST RENOWNED AFRICAN AUTHOR

The lecture Achebe had been invited to give, was the prestigious Chancellor's Lecture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst on 18th February,1975, and it was later published in the Massachusetts Review in Vol. 18 No. 4 in the Winter of 1977. It was published in book form in 1983. Achebe gave the Lecture the title " An Image of Africa : Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." That very title signalled Achebe's view of Conrad's attitudes.


Anyone who has read Achebe's works is accustomed to his generous and measured style of writing , even when he is making harsh criticisms through the mouths of his characters. It comes as a something of a shock then, to encounter the vigour of his language in his assault on Conrad's work. But vigorous he is, and he does not simply make his targets the easy and obvious marks, but is carefully analytic in his approach. The result is to cause one to reassess one's view of "Heart of Darkness" entirely. 

Obviously the Western reader will come to the task of assessing the work from a different direction to that of this African intellectual and active patriot. When their minds have met, the result is bound to be interesting

CHINUA ACHEBE A MOST IMPRESSIVE AUTHOR

Heart of Darkness

Conrad's novella is a fascinating creation.  There is about it, from its very beginning, an air of the surreal, a group of friends on a sailing vessel at the mouth of the Thames waiting for the turn of the tide as evening falls, listening to Conrad's character Marlowe recount his experiences on the great Congo River in Africa. Marlowe touches reflectively on the ancient history of the Thames, and the people unknown who knew it then.

He begins to recount how he came to take a position as Captain of a small steam boat making its way up the Congo in an effort to reach the mysterious and legendary representative of a Belgian trading company.
But that reality is subordinated in the text , to an almost dream-like contemplation of the mystery of the great river and the jungle surrounding it, and the native people that populate the territory. The jungle, the river and the people , are presented as deeply mysterious, unknowable and menacing. The only black people who are known to Marlowe are a small group of cannibal crew members, and a solitary steersman who becomes important for his ability, but we never learn his name. There is an air of weird unreality about the whole setting. The only value that the place or the people have is their part in creating the air of mystery and menace Marlowe is experiencing. The climax of the tale is itself suitably weird, as is Marlowe's return to the Company's  Head Office to report the results of his mission. 

Reading the novella it is surprising to encounter routine use of the word "nigger" . I am 75 ,and even in far distant Australia it was never acceptable in my lifetime. Nevertheless I can accept that it might have been in common use in some stratas of English society in  1899.Or at least sufficiently so, for Conrad to put it in Marlowe's mouth. He also makes Marlowe comment critically about the Belgian company's treatment of the native people , but this is done in an oblique fashion and not with any systematic sense of moral outrage. But, by and large, river, jungle and the black people of the Congo are merely part of the surreal environment that menaces Marlowe. The book is, as it was no doubt intended to be, disturbing - leaving one with an uncomfortable sense of distaste for the experience it has presented. But one never doubts that it is a remarkable piece of work.

JOSEPH CONRAD (1857  -1924)

Joseph Conrad was born in 1857 in Imperial Russia in the Kiev region. He was Polish by birth, but was granted British Citizenship in 1886. He was a highly successful novelist writing at the height of British Imperialism. He is generally  regarded as having been very influential on many other authors with his modernist style and pre-occupation with human psychology in his characters.


Chinua Achebe 's Assessment

Achebe fully realised that he was dealing with a work and an Author of great reputation. The work was a standard classic in American academic circles and in his immediate audience there would be many academics specialising in English literature.

But , in considering "Heart of Darkness" he had come to the realisation that , as in so much literature involving Africa, the land and her many peoples, were given no recognition for their reality and inherent dignity , characteristics and achievements. They became mere wallpaper for Western performers and their preoccupations and intentions.

But , a man of great literary achievements himself, and an active participant in the inspired , yet ultimately tragic Biafran War he knew better than most the great reality of Africa : places, peoples and aspirations. These had and have the right to be treated with respect, consideration and recognition of their inherent dignity and merit.  What was it  that drove Conrad to refuse all of these and proceed as he did? One word summed it up : Racism.

Achebe carefully and thoroughly examined Conrad's work, his past works and was satisfied that yes, that was Conrad's real heart of darkness.

Needless to say, the occasion of the Lecture itself - immediately upon its conclusion - found Achebe  surrounded by outraged academic critics and some who actually approved of his view, others still were to come to him later and acknowledge conversion to his point of view. In time Achebe's view came to be accepted as correct. But again , in time - such is the nature of academic opinion - the revisionists came forward and at least put a contrary view once again.

What Are We to Believe?

What a cheeky question! There is only one thing to do : Read "Heart of Darkness" - the novella is easy to read in a short period. Then read the Lecture ! Both are continually available. Then judge for yourself.

For my money, the question hinges upon how far we are prepared to distance Conrad's creation from his personal views at one level. Then we need to consider the structure he has chosen to give the novella - and here is where , I believe it is hard to avoid Achebe's conclusion.

The very fact that Conrad's creation is not purposefully vicious in the nature of its racism does not avoid the fact that it is, that he is, racist. For he chooses to refuse the African peoples identity, presents them solely as menacing phantoms,menacing cannibals or a competent, but somehow ridiculous steersman whose life is nothing. He denies them their human dignity, motivation and any aspirations. And the whole of Africa becomes merely a stage for his European real people to act out their intentions.This attitude was wholly unsurprising in its time . Indeed it would have been regarded as simply the natural order of things.

This is not the view I had of the book until I read Achebe's Lecture and I resisted his presentation at first. I had been inclined to accept Conrad's scheme for the novella as  merely a legitimate choice of presentation.  But I have come to see that it was NOT a legitmate choice and it was reflective of a very deep seated and distasteful attitude in Joseph Conrad.

Altogether a very interesting exercise.   

JEWS, ITALIANS,BOOKS AND A SPARROW

Some weeks back my good friend on FB Stephen Sparrow from Christchurch New Zealand, recommended to me "A Thread of Grace" by Mary Doria Russell. I was able to secure it via Audiobook from Audible.Com and to have it accompany me on my daily Rehab. Walk for some days.  I am very grateful to Stephen for the recommendation, because the book itself is a very worthwhile, well-researched fictionalised account of real events. 

But that is not the only reason I found it so satisfying. In fact it cross- referenced loosely with another book (actually two books) which were given to me in Audiobook format by my Brother -in - Law. The books are "The Winds of War " and "War and Remembrance" both by Herman Wouk (best known perhaps for writing "The Caine Mutiny" made into a fine film starring Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray and Van Johnson). 

To further enhance the experience, it also cross-referenced well with the grand novel "The Red Horse" by Eugenio Corti published some years back by Ignatius Press and which I read in hard copy back in the day.

" A Thread of Grace" is the beautifully told story of several Jews who find themselves moved, under the threat of Nazi persecution, to escape firstly to France, then to Italy and the tale unfolds as various Italian Catholic families and groups including Dioceses, Convents and Parish Priests and Partisan groups, spirit them along and hide them in mountain valleys, in convents, in caves - wherever they can be made safe from the Fascist Regime at first and later from the invading , and later retreating Nazis. The fact that the author's research has been so thorough, enables her to base all the events on actual happenings in that time of great struggle. I would recommend this book without reservation. It is beautifully written and the story sensitively told without mere sentimentality. The author is a self-proclaimed convert to Judaism. ( I have never been convinced of the validity of such a process - how can one elect to become a member of a racial group of "Chosen People"?). 

"The Winds of War " and "War and Remembrance" are   superficially very American  - the story of an American Naval Family and their lives in the lead up to and during World War II. But the Jewish Author  Herman Wouk has a lot more in mind as he sets about  unfolding his truly ambitious epic tale. For the two novels allow him a very broad canvas upon which he displays several things simultaneously. Yes, there is the story of the American Naval family, whose patriarch "Pug" Henry rises to Admiral status via a brilliant career and significant dealings with world leaders.  But we pretty soon begin to realise that the Henry family are really the backdrop to Wouk's main effort to give his view of World War II, and an alternative view of it as well, via a fictitious German General's Commentaries.  And in the very foreground is the plight of the Jews in Europe in the lead up to, and during the War. At the same time Wouk , through his characters makes devastating assessments of world leaders, including Franklin D.Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and the French military and political leadership of the time. Much of his analysis is only possible because of the perspectives that he chooses, and is not necessarily objectively correct.  But there is no doubting the brilliance of his work. In following the lives of Natalie Jastrow who marries into the Henry family, and her wealthy author Father who lives in Italy, and her efforts to escape Italy to re-join her husband, we see reflections of the same struggles so well told in "Thread of Grace" in a more restricted geographical area. I commend both of Wouk's novels to any reader for the quality of conception, writing and research. Much of what was involved, I  was familiar with, in military and naval history, as well as political history. In these areas he is really solid. As for the Jewish angle - he is much more obvious than Russell in "Thread of Grace" , but it is not suffocating.

I took these two photographs outside the Palazzo Communale facing onto Piazza Maggiore in the heart of Bologna in 2009.  Bologna has been a centre of Italian Left politics for decades. The photographs show some of the fallen Partisans.   The lower photo gives some statistics Partisan combatants  14,425 (2212 women), Partisans fallen 2,059, Partisans wounded 945, Patriots Arrested 6,543, Patriots executed as reprisals 2,350 Patriots Died in Nazi Prison Camps 829, Recognition of Military Valour 22 Gold Medals, 40 Silver Medals. (N.B. The relatively small number of wounded compared to the number of Fallen is testimony to the ferocity of the fighting.  I do not believe it could be taken for granted that all of the fallen were victims of the Nazis, but some victims of other Partisan groups of different political persuasion

"The Red Horse" by Eugenio Corti is a story of heroic proportions It is years since I read it, but the above novels refreshed my memories in a  number of ways. In this case, the novel gains its authentic character because the author was in fact one of the principal characters in real life. Needless to say the particular character is a very attractive personality as we read along . He is very active politically and when he is called-up, his military service takes him deep into Russia where events of the blackest horror take place. The book is extremely well written, characters are finely drawn and the tale is thoroughly engrossing. Along the way it recounts the complex stories of the Italian Partisan groups. It is a complicated situation. Many but not nearly all, were Communist , and the various groups were just as adept at fighting each other, as they were  fighting the Germans. The bitterness of this internicine strife was truly terrible and led to vicious post war vengeance being carried out. The book also brings out the peculiar character of Italian Communism which was a much less ruthless strain than was to be found in Northern Europe. Much of the responsibility for this lay with the leadership of the Party and the experience of Palmiro Togliatti  Leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927until his death in 1964. Togliatti, like so many other Communist sympathisers went to Russia before the war to get close to the authentic Communist spirit. He got a little too close for his comfort and, when the Revolution started consuming its own children, he found himself on one of the extermination lists and quickly did a runner back home to mother Italia! From then on, he talked the talk , but he and his followers were always careful where and how they walked.The result was a form of Communism that was big on rhetoric but not so big on ruthlessness. "The Red Horse" is another novel of heroic proportions, but the author never loses control and the whole is finely crafted, and reveals many things not known at all in the West generally, including the terrible fate of the huge numbers of Italians who fought in Russia during the War.  The Jews do not figure largely in this novel for it is telling another story, but , in its extensive coverage of the Partisans it is even more revealing than Russell's book. Again, this is a book well worth reading, to complete one's understanding of wartime and post War Italy.

To sum it all up, my thanks to Stephen Sparrow for introducing me to " A Thread of Grace" for its own value, and also inadvertently causing me to complete and deepen my knowledge of the Italian experience of World War II .