Colonial American Imperialism

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3.4.2 DEPICTION OF AFRICA AND AFRICAN IDENTITIES IN THE NOVELLA

The Congolese, in this instance symbolize Africans, who are representated in a relativelynegative manner. In the literature of the empire, as in the novella, the Blackman is dehumanizedsuch that in the colonizer ’s discourse he is depicted as an animal. The colonizer “unpeoples” theindigenous populations so as to make them inferior and make them bow to the dictates of theoccident who claims to be the superior race. Conrad in the novella depicts African identities in asubjective and unrealistic manner. The Congolese are animalized, they are seen as incomplete, and the Whiteman is thus portrayed as the opposite. This is depicted in the novella through thefollowing descriptions: …show more content…
All their meager breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, theeyes stared stonily uphill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete,deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. (pg 28-29)
From this description it can be argued that Conrad depicts the Congolese, African identities inthe Tarzan mode. The phrase“….waggled to fro like tails” shows how the West animalizes theorient in order to impute and reinforce racial inequalities and stereotypes. Marlow views theBlackman, Congolese, as associated with vices and he associates them with criminality. Not onlydoes he criminates these black identities but further aligns them to savages and closer to death,thus Conrad denies life and humanity to Africans. Inferiorisation of black race is the ultimateresult of imperial discourse and misrepresentations.Of paramount significance to note is that racial inequalities thus prevail as portrayed in thenovella. All the Blackman, Congolese are subjected to ground work while all the Whiteman aregiven white collar jobs. This is depicted in the novella (pg 28) when Marlow meets a group of six Blackman carrying baskets on their heads full of earth. There is a contrast on how the tworaces, black and white respectively are depicted in the novella. All the
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