Does Joseph Conrad Dehumanize African American Imperialism

Africa with its black inhabitants has traditionally been looked upon as an underdeveloped continent with uneducated, tribal residents that were ill equipped to deal with the vast natural resources available to them. In the 19th century, Africa became attractive for white Europeans to move down to and make new lives for themselves as landlords who ruled over the local black communities. The Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a great adventure novel that romanticizes and justifies atrocities in the name of king and country, not unlike how Teddy Roosevelt romanticized war. The Heart of Darkness dehumanizes an entire people, similarly to how the United States dehumanized Native Americans in their conquest of western lands. The justifications
The continent of Africa and its inhabitants were viewed as “other worldly” and as the “antitheses of Europe”. It was a popular belief that the people of Africa were subhuman, owing to their lack of intelligence, reason, and civilization. However, Things Fall Apart, which was written in 1958, approximately 60 years after the publication of Conrad’s novel, was authored in the English language. This is a direct counterargument to the notion that Africans were unintelligent. Achebe eloquently detailed the lives of the Ibo people in the pre- and postcolonial era using the language most common to European nations. The fact that Achebe deemed it useful to use the most commonly understood language, instead of one of the many different tribal languages of the region, speaks to organization and to unification; two concepts that are very modern. Despite Conrad’s ideas of savagery, lawlessness, and a lack of civilization that are present in The Heart of Darkness, the mere existence of Things Fall Apart is a counterargument to these misconceptions. In order to understand a segment of society or peoples, one must look toward their
Nevertheless, Things Fall Apart clearly depicts an ingrained societal structure amongst the Ibo people that mirrors that of European countries. The societies within Things Fall Apart are decisively patriarchal; men derive power and respect through violent conquests, land ownership, and the possession of many wives and children. Fortune and land are inherited from the father and given to the eldest son. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is ashamed of his father for not living up to the expectations of a respectable man, and is subsequent behavior to obscure his father's shortcomings are reminiscent of those undertaken in European societies. The author explains, “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw” (2.12). Okonkwo behaved in overbearing manner towards his family to demonstrate his manliness, a reaction to the emotional stress and shame he suffered about his lineage. Okonkwo’s fear of becoming his father overrides everything else, even fear of the gods. These psychological patterns, gender roles, and patriarchal themes can be found anywhere in Europe, and in the