What does Africa, -What does the West stand for? Is it not our own interior white on the chart? Black though it may prove, like the coast, when discovered. Is it the source of the Nile, or the Niger, or the Mississippi or a North-West passage around this continent, that we would find? Are these the problems which most concern mankind? - Yet same can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater for the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot in their heads -

Henry David Thoreau. Walden (1854)

"Yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river where I first met the poor chap" p.11

In addition; speaking about Kurtz is by necessity speaking about Marlow, since it is after all part and parcel of the latter's maturing process about the world he observes, and by implication, the outcomes of the European Imperial march in Africa and much of the non-white land. This shows Kurtz's potential in the outward construction of the plot, but at the same time, this potential extends to the inward meaning and the whole scope of Heart of Darkness. Kurtz's personality as portrayed in the book undergoes a dynamic move which is associated with Marlow's realisation of the whole imperial enterprise he was part of, and which he originally came to fulfil in Africa—Imperialism.

In this sense and as far as Heart of Darkness is concerned, Kurtz's personality stands as a metaphor for the imperial march. Conrad presents three phases or careers of Kurtz, each phase depicting a period in the imperial development. By the division of Kurtz's career into pre-African, African and post colonial it is hoped to offer an accurate picture about Imperialism—how it works, what is it at heart and why it gains the upper hand in today's world. Conrad's genius is examined to see how he was able through his literary skills and prophetic vision to portray such a  sophisticated and complex a phenomenon as imperialism.

 

I - Pre-African Kurtz
 

We mean by Pre-African Kurtz that figure of Kurtz much publicised for his humanity, capability for good and magnificent intelligence. This portrayal defies the chronological dynamics of the plot, signifying what Marlow holds in mind as a Pre-African Kurtz before the former "self-realisation"1 of Kurtz and the system he represents.

Back from his journey in Africa and in the sepulchral city, Marlow gets some indications of Kurtz before he went to Africa as a colonial officer and an ivory gatherer. One person, claiming to be Kurtz's cousin, says that "Kurtz had been essentially a great musician. There was the making of an immense success" p.103

When a journalist comes to Marlow asking about 'the fate of his dear colleague' p.104, Marlow declares:

"And to this day I am unable to say what was Kurtz's profession, whether he ever had any - which was the greatest of his talents. I had taken him for a painter who wrote for the papers or else for a journalist who could paints -He was a universal genius" p.103

The journalist amplifies Kurtz's greatness by saying that "Kurtz's proper sphere ought to have been politics- He electrified large meetings" p.104. Later Kurtz's 'Intended' passionately bursts up in front of Marlow:

"Who was not his friend who had heard him speak once! - He drew men towards him by what was best in them. It is the gift of the great." p.108

She talks of "all his promise, of all his greatness, of his generous mind, of his noble heart." p.109

From all these above Kurtz is portrayed as an angelic figure who holds charismatic qualities. As far as Marlow can distil he is at the top of his humanity. But when Marlow returns to the sepulchral city from his journey in Africa finds himself "resenting the sight of people" because "they were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence because I felt so sure that they could not possibly know the thing I knew" p.102  These statements Marlow utters at the end of a preganent career in the heart of Africa. The people of the sepulchral city uncritically assume the goodness and achievements of Kurtz, and see him the personification of every thing noble, great and humane. Very much like the people of the sepulchral town Marlow, when starting his journey in the serpentine Congo, has the same ideal picture of Kurtz. The people, or rather, the pilgrims he met there described Kurtz as a very special being. At the coast the Company's Chief Accountant informs Marlow:

"In the interior you will no doubt meet Mr Kurtz-a first class agent. He is a very remarkable person, at the very bottom of there. Sends in much ivory as all the others put together" p.27

Further in the interior, at the central station, the Brickmaker speaks of Kurtz too as "a prodigy -an emissary of pity and science and devil knows what else—He is a universal genius" pp.36 ? 37 ? 40

This leaves Marlow in doubt. Not satisfied with "the chief of the inner station" Marlow bursts out: "Much obliged, everybody knows that". Reflected against the hellish background upon which these statements are pronounced, and in front of the double standing of every thing around him, Marlow wonders how this ideal picture of Kurtz could be maintained. Marlow had already witnessed in what he called 'the grove of death' the brutality, the wastefulness and the horror of' the work that "was going on": 

"Black shapes crouched, lay, set between the trees, leaning against the trunk, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment and despair. Another mine on the cliff went out followed by a slight shudder of soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place were some of the helpers had withdrawn to die" p.24

In addition, Marlow wonders how this Kurtz could "[send] in as much ivory as all the others put together" without some over-working, if not, dehumanising of the "helpers", or the native workers, without the same process by which Europeans, who are ironically labelled 'pilgrims', manage their business at "the grove of death". With this background in mind, Marlow gets some flashes of insight which allow him to declare:

"In the blinding sunshine of that land I could become aquainted with flabby, pretending, weakeyed devil of rapacious and pitiless folly how insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months later and a thousand miles farther" p.23

Intuitively, Marlow gains these insights about the futility and folly of Kurtz, and by implication, the system he advocates—Imperialism. Marlow goes to the inner station seemingly to fulfil the requirement of his job as the steamboat captain; intending to save Kurtz, but practically, to seeking to consolidate his intuition about the sinister reality of Kurtz. Before arriving at Kurtz's station Marlow lays his hands upon Kurtz's report, a magnificent piece of writing:

"the peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember. It gave me the notion of an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence. It made me tingle with enthusiasm. This was the unbounded power of eloquence-of words-of burning noble words" p.72

Marlow's irony—"of burning noble words"—plus his capitalisation of "Immensity" and "Benevolence" prompts the reader to wonder over the "magnificent", yet "difficult to remember" reality. Since Marlow's story is a retelling of his story of maturation one can note this phase in his gradual process of maturity "from that genuine commitment that can not be equated with the philantrophic pretence of the other pilgrims"2, to somebody more or less, and at this stage in the journey, strange and not as depicted before. Considering the objected of his facinscation, Kurtz, however, the nature of that "exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence" are, together with that geniune commitment for good, the subject of the second part of our study.
 

II - The African Kurtz

The report Kurtz wrote for the International Society for the Suppression of the Savage Customs marks Marlow's gradual maturing process from that ideal and often magnificent image of Kurtz to the opposite and contradictory view of him. Though "vibrating with eloquence" p.71, the report argues that:

"We whites, from the point of development we have arrived at, 'must necessarily appear to them (savages) in the nature of supernatural beings—we approach them with the might as of a deity - By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded" p.72

Kurtz knowingly writes for the International Society for The Suppression of Savage Customs but unknowingly he writes for all those who see imperialism at first hand. "[M]ust necessarily appear to them" holds a magic potential in getting to the reality and totality of all that imperial enterprise, and gives the exact meaning of the "exotic Immensity ruled by an  august Benevolence". This unbounded power for good is but a shallow appearance. To add further layers to meaning there is a sharp contrast in Kurtz's presentation: "scrawled evidently much later, in an unsteady hand - Exterminate all the brutes!"  This contrast speaks of "the broken idealism of Kurtz"3 and by extension the hypocritical do-goodism of imperialism. As one critic has put it "Kurtz's report reveals the distortion between the often religious or idealistic propaganda of Imperialism, and the harshly exploitive realities"4. The goodness, if it ever existed in this report, lies in building up the rhetoric of Imperialism, to consolidate it as a system and turn its cruel and spiritless logic into an apparently humane and noble-minded ideology. In other words, this rhetorical report charts a quasi-moral outline and helps simple minded people like Marlow's aunt and  Kurtz's 'Intended' believe in the void idea of "weaning the ignorant millions" p.18. As Edward Said comments: "the rhetoric of power too easily produces an illusion of benevolence when deployed in an imperial setting. Yet it is a rhetoric whose most damning characteristics is that it has been used before"5.  Another damning characteristic of this rhetoric no less dangerous is that it justifies the cruelty, barbarity, and perversity of Kurtz's deeds. Under the logic of this report the heads on stakes under Kurtz's station are nothing but the practice of that theory. Marlow learns from the Harlequin that the heads are those of "rebels":

"I was not so shocked as you may think. The start back I had given was really nothing but a movement of surprise" p.82 

It is as if Marlow had been waiting for this ultimate end of such a rhetoric. These heads are a further proof of "efficiency", the very thing Marlow spoke about at the beginning of his narrative:

"What saves us is efficiency, the devotion to efficiency" p.10 

This needs some defence. Marlow, one should know, when recounting the events of his story on the Nellie, has just undergone an odyssey full with instructive experiences that made him, by the end, a mature person. Conrad, in a letter to Garnett had confessed: 'before the Congo I was a mere animal' 6. The whole journey of Marlow, then, should be understood as a long maturing process which by the end of it Marlow retells his story both ironically and irritably (and sometimes disgustedly because it ended so tragically) to his listeners. The fact that Heart of Darkness is narrated by the end of such an odyssey and in such a way forces the reader to be aware of the complex dynamics of the plot. This means that Marlow's hard-gained insights and truths could be found anywhere along the story and not necessarily by the end of it. 

Under the effects of the rhetoric of imperialism the immature Marlow decides the claim of his time that "what saves us is efficiency"  is unlike the Romans whose "administration was merely a squeeze" and "brute force". However the mature Marlow groups the two imperialisms, the Roman and the European, on one platform: "The conquest of the earth, which means- What redeems it is the idea only". Efficiency is redeemed and somehow compensated. 

Certainly, to speak of this understanding openly Marlow would risk offending his audience. Obviously, then, he would need some length to develop all the tricks of his argument which is why he, soon after, declares to his audience: " To understand the effect of it [his experience] on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw [and perhaps more importantly] how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap". So, the gist of Marlow's experience had been understood when Marlow "first met the poor chap" - Kurtz. What he got when he finally met Kurtz is his skull-topped fence which Marlow accepts it tacitly at the beginning of his narrative as "brute force" and describes it ironically as "efficiency".  The chilling scene of the heads is a proof of what "efficiency" means in the dictionary of imperialim. Still further; the heads clearly render Kurtz's fear of the future. They are still hanged—Marlow remarks since quite a long time, and are meant to be kept there to frighten the natives and let them often see the end of any possible uprising against him. The heads are present to kill the dreams of freedom and insure that iron bound imperialism manages to impose upon those who wish to survive under its system. So what became of the much-highlighted idealism of Kurtz? What distinguishes him from the corruption of the other pilgrims? Marlow is bound to conclude that this Kutrz is nothing but the sum of the system he represents. Among all the heads Marlow had seen he returned to scrutinise the first one:

"a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole and with a shrunken dry lips showing  a narrow white line of teeth was smiling continuously at some endless jocose dream of that eternal slumber" pp.82 - 83 

Very much like this native head, Kurtz's would show "a narrow white line" that tells of his greed, curiosity and ambition for ivory, the very thing he comes to Africa for. "It was in want of ivory that imperialism necessitate such barbarism, which shows clearly that the ends so brutally justify the means"7. Kurtz's name means 'short' in German, and might by mere alliteration in the context of Heart of Darkness also reveal "Curd". The name is a borrowing which means 'over-ripe'—so much so that under the sun of Africa Kurtz goes 'rotten' under the skin. One here can draw a parallel between Kurtz and the Swede who hanged himself in the Outer station. At the begining of the narrative Marlow is told: "the sun too much for him or the country perhaps" p.21 The sun turned the fresh ideals into 'rotten' ones. The Swede could not stand the sun of Africa, which (the sun) is nothing but the corruption of the civilising mission. Kurtz has quite the same fate. His 'over self-estimation' and 'curiosity' makes him  ill, leading to his death.

Above all Kurtz's death is not simple. "It had to symbolise the destruction of the white man through his very aspiration which led him tainted by the greed for profit" 8. But such aspirations could by no means appeal to him without the natives's readiness for such treatment which reveals their sorry state of affairs. What is rather remarkable about Marlow is his firm refusal to judge Kurtz. He goes even far so as to ask "to render Kurtz that justice which was his due" p.111. Under the skull-topped fence Marlow asserts: 

"After all this was only a savage sight, while I seemed at one bound to have been transported into some lightless region of subtle horrors, were pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being something that had a right to exist—obviously in the sunshine" pp.83-84

This situational irony clearly shows why Marlow has refused to judge Kurtz. The heads on stakes, he admits, are savagery, but for him at least they are "pure, uncomplicated savagery". Compared to the impure and complicated savagery it is "a relief" and altogether had "a right to exist". It is true that Kurtz represents and even advocates the system of imperialism. But being a representative or advocator is by definition being a representative for others who stand in the shadow of his representation and advocacy. Marlow prompts us to understand that if Kurtz is to be judged and judged justly it is the whole body of the system he represents that should be judged. Indeed, Kurtz is but the helpless employer, very much like Marlow, since it is "his comparative poverty that drove him out there". Moreover, Kurtz comes the last in the imperial chain and that is why his savagery is "pure and uncomplicated". His superiors who stand back in the sephulchral city and their staff working in Africa all share at different levels the guilt of the impure and complicated savagery. "[T]he great man himself" behind that "heavy writing desk" together with the dotcor who cunningly glorified the company's business to Marlow are by no means innocent. Accusing Kurtz alone is scapegoating him since they all take benefits and percentages from the ivory he gathers. In fact Kurtz "grabbed what he could get for the sake of what was to be got" p.10. "[W]hat was to be got"—to be got for whom? one is bound to ask. Marlow would say that it is those who stay behind their heavy writing desks, that capitalism is to blame as it gives rise to colonialism and both interact under the banners of imperialism. 

Nevertheless, Kurtz's African life resulted in his death which symbolises the destructiveness with which capitalism and colonialism were linked in the imperial chain. There seems to be no other end. Marlow has already made his reading:

"By heaven! There is something after all in the world allowing one man to steal a horse while another must not look for a halter. Steal a horse straight out. Very well. He has done it. Perhaps he can ride. But there is a way of looking at a halter that would provoke the most charitable of saints into a kick" p.35 

III - Post Colonial Kurtz:

Heart of Darkness is first and foremost a very colonial work. This means that it stands at the heart of that European upsurge to power and overseas domination at that special moment in history—the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. What 'postcolonial Kurtz' represents here is the 'undying' or rather 'unkillable' Kurtz as he is portrayed in the novel. Conrad's prophetic genius was such as to enable him to hint, suggest and sometimes openly portray that though Kurtz/the man Marlow meets at the Inner station is to die, his spirit, his example, and his imperial image never will.

Kurtz's 'Intended' passionately tells Marlow that she "can not believe that [she] will never see him again, that no body will see him again". Marlow inwardly contradicts her:

"Never see him! I saw him clearly enough then -I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live-" p.110

Before this Marlow had just told her: "his words will remain". She breaks in, asking "and his example" p.109.  Marlow assures her: "True - his example, too. Yes, his example. I forget that." p.109.  It is this 'example' which is meant by post colonial Kurtz. If Marlow's interview with her is not enough clues for the 'undead' Kurtz argument, Kurtz's own words when he first meets Marlow face-to-face are then crystal clear for his 'out-living' example:

"-Sick! Sick! Not so sick as you would like to believe. Never mind. I'll carry my ideas out yet—I will return. I'll show you what can be done. You with your little peddling notions—you are interfering with me. I will return. I-"  p.88 

Though Kurtz is sick, his sickness and his death are not what Marlow "would like to believe". By his death, Kurtz "will carry (his) ideas out"  - which is  the end of colonialism. Nevertheless he "will return"—the out growth of Kurtz's example in postcolonial dressings—imperialism, and much more importantly, in the 'New World Order'. The "little peddling notions" of liberalism, nationalism, and independence were only "interfering" with Kurtz. The gist of it all is that Kurtz "will return". In this statement Kurtz uses the personal pronoun 'I' five times and ends his show of power with the self-assuring, self-asserting 'I'.

Though "Kurtz's document is in itself a lasting testimony to the inevitable decline of the humane spirit"9  it is a self assertive and pregnant document and its writer is very well aware of its potentiality. Marlow confesses that Kurtz: 

"-repeatedly entreated me to take good care of "my pamphlet" (he called it), as it was sure to have in the future a good influence upon his career" p.72 

The good influence, or rather the potentiality of this report is that it presents an ideology, a whole structure of principles and objectives that gives a living example or trace a model for the 'future Kurtz'. Marlow's realisation of this potentiality is intensified when he has already and tacitly got affirmation - before he gets sight of the report - that the other part of the play- African natives have no ideology at all. The natives in Marlow's imaginary steamboat - the fathers of post colonial Africans were thirty to only five Europeans. Marlow adds:

"-and have a good luck in for once, amazes me now when I think of it. They were big powerful men with no much capacity to weigh the consequences, with courage, with strength, even yet, though their skins were no longer glossy and their muscles no longer hard" p.59 

What Marlow is referring to here is the moral weakness and inertia resulting from lack of self-confidence and fear. Their muscles are no longer useful to attain either self-esteem or respect. Marlow ponders because the case before him is "one of the human secrets that baffle probability". In his bafflment and under the weight of shock, he ironically suggests that this inertia might be due to "Restraint". Perhaps Africans were showing self-control and applying reason, yet he soon withdraws and contradicts this shaky argument:

"Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear  - or some kind of primitive honour? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, or what you may call principles, they are no less than chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its sombre and brooding ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of one's soul—than this kind of prolonged hunger. Sad, but true. And these chaps too had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple. Restraint! I would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield. But there was the fact facing me—the fact dazzling, to be seen-" p.60

This above is a fine and interesting analysis of the black crew who were in Marlow's steamboat, and by implication, of all Africans who do not rebel against both colonial and post colonial Kurtz. A little paraphrasing will clear up the problem imposed by the irony. "And these chaps had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple" reads that there was no need for restraint. While "I would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield" reads Marlow would just as soon as have expected restraint from a hynea prowling rather than these natives in front of him; that they were exhibiting inertia. Conrad, through Marlow, argues that there is no reason for not rising against imperialism. All chances of success were present and they did not even give it a try. Not because they were physically short but more essentially, are morally weak. Despite his brilliant discussion of the novella Humphries seems to miss the point when he argues that the natives are to blame for the degeneration of Kurtz by "admitting the basic violence of colonialism"10.  Conversely, one could claim that it is not the admittance of the brutality of colonialism that destroyed Kurtz but more exactly their own ignorance, submissiveness and what is called ironically "restraint"  that offered Kurtz an opportunity to exert his cannibalism and cruelty. This cannibalism and cruelty are by no means exclusive to Kurtz; they rise to the surface whenever the balance is upset, which in this case we take as the natives' restraint. In post independent Africa, Marlow's crew could be understood as depersonalised individuals who prefer dependence because they think that they could not survive out of the steamboat of imperialism. They fear the damnation of the river, which is the reality of their race. The heart of the matter is that they are overwhelmed by self-defeatism11. They have no notion of themselves as separate and independent, and that is "why the triumphant natives (after decolonisation) soon enough found that they needed the west and that the idea of total in dependence was a nationalistic fiction designed mainly for what Fanon calls 'the nationalistic bourgeoisie'".12 It is this "nationalistic fiction" which gives Kurtz's report its true meaning. Kurtz writes "we must appear to them in the nature of supernatural being", his statmenet giving to his own life its undying stamp and example.

In Heart of Darkness's Africa there is "a logic to disorder, or perhaps even chaos even if that logic is, at first sight, incomprehensible to the outside observer. Disorder incorporates the notion of uncertainty"13. The fact that Marlow's helmsmen (an African under the service of the whiteman) is killed not by a whiteman directly but by other Africans under the service of Kurtz in the famous attack gives a glimpse of how Africans may deal with each other after their nations reattain independence. This is on the one hand predicts how a lack of ideology threatens to sweep Africa and other colonised Third World peoples in humiliation. On the other it gives rise and stamp of what Chabal calls "the logic of disorder" and how this logic is "instrumentalised politically"14. The impact of this logic of disorder, chaos and uncertainty forces Marlow to think of solution. Through his opposition of the two scenes (his African crew with Kurtz's report) and also through his irony, exclamation and question marks, one can tell that Marlow is searching for an alternative to Kurtzian ideology. It could be said that oppressed peoples need to balance Kurtz's ideology with a truly native anti-Kurtzian ideology, stressing self-esteem, self-determination and self-aspiration. What makes Kurtz non-defeatable is not his cruelty or 'efficiency' but, from first to last, his self-esteem, self-determination and self-aspiration.
Conrad's Heart of Darkness on one level reminds us that if we are colonised and imperialised it is because we have missed this fine element-an anti Kurtzian ideology of our own. On a second level it suggests that in the absence of this opposed ideology, Kurtz or rather imperialism will continue living, ruling and having the upper hand in much of the world's goods, treasures and opportunities under its solid control. 
 

Conclusion:

Throughout the three sections of this study one could follow the imperial 'adventure' in Africa and much of the world personified in Kurtz's three lives: pre-African, African and post colonial. It has become quite clear to observe more critically and at first hand how the system of imperialism manages to impose itself upon colonised peoples.

Conrad's genius was to detect in Kurtz the character, at a very early stage, that imperialism would in the long run survive and Colonialism end. Today and after nearly fifty years of political independence Africa is still identified in the west  as a Heart of Darkness; if not in the small details at least in the grand out-lines. Both imperialists and imperialised could, in fact, learn valuable lessons from this novel. 

Despite the huge academic literature which Heart of Darkness has provoked there are still many secrets resting within the two covers of the book. This study is on one level an invitation to study more, to analyse more and discover more. On a second level and by considering the book as a whole body narrated from the focal perspective of Marlow's maturing process we hope to synthesise the discourse about the novella between the racial and cultural discourses raised by Achebi and Said respectively to a more wide and delicate 'civilisational' discourse. Such a discourse, we hope, would take in consideration a fuller sense of the human history. Every civilisation, we know, bears the seeds of its destruction with it.  After three centuries since the founding of East India Company and after a massive imperial activity in vast territoies worldwide, Conrad rings the bells of alarm and danger. Is this not what he means by:
 

"And this also- has been one of the dark places of the earth."
"I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day- Light come out of this river since—you say knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightening in the clouds. We live in the flicker—may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday." pp.7-8 

---

Footnotes:

1. Sherry, Norman. "Conrad's Western World". Cambridge University Press. 1971. Paperback edition: 1981. p.349. In fact Professor Sherry calls it 'the nightmare of self-realisation'.
2. Berry, Robert. First Descent Into The Inferno: Parallel Ideology And Experience In Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Doestevesky's "Notes From The House Of The Dead". Dr Robert Berry, Deep South, v2 n2 (Winter 1996). Web page.
3. Dintenfass, Mark. "Heart of Darkness". A Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture. 1996. Heart of Darkness Comments Page. Harvard University.
4. Watt, Cedric. "Heart of Darkness". 'The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad'. ed. J.H.Stape. Cambridge University Press. 1996. p.50.
5. Said, Edward. 'Culture and Imperialism' Vintage Books.1994. p.Xvii
6.Bain, Jocelyn. 'Joseph Conrad, A Critical Biography'. Wiedfenfeld & Nicolson, London,1960. p.119 
7. White, Andria. "Conrad and Imperialism". 'The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad'. ed.J.H.Stape. Cambridge University Press.1996. p.191. 
8. Sherry, Op. Cit., p.118.
9. Berry, Op. Cit., Web page
10. Humphries, Reynold.Restraint, Cannibalism and the « UnspeakableRites »in Heart of Darkness. Université de LILLE III. L'Epoque Conradiene. 1990. p.60.
11. This idea of self-defeatism is very well developed in the works of the modern Ghanian novelist Ayi Kwei Armah, particularly  in his The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, which reflects a top of a cynical disillusionment and hopless inexorability that are all due, Armah argues, to a long process of depersonlisation started ever since the days of slave trade during the17th and 18th centuries. In a one telling passage, the teacher who stands for the alienated intellectuals in Post Independent Africa, tells the man, the protagonist of the novel, who has just ask if there is any hope : 
'No. It is exhausting, this chasing after gods not of our own making.'
'You used to see some hope, Teacher.'
'That was such a long time ago.'
'Not so long a time. Six years ?'
'But in my mind the time was buried under centuries now. True, I used to see a lot of hope. I saw men tear down the veils behind which the truth had been hidden. But then the same men, when they have power in their hands at last, began to find the veils useful. They made many more. Life has not changed. Only some people have been growing, becoming different, that's all. After a youth spent fighting the whiteman, why should the president discover as he grows older that his real desire has been to be to be like the white governer himself, to live above all blackness in the big old slave castle? And the men around him, why not? What stops them sending their loved children to kindergartens in Europe? And if the little men around the big man can send their children to new international schools, why not? That is all anyone here struggles for ; to be nearer the white man. All the shoutings against the the white men was not hate. It was love. Twisted, but love all the same. Just look around you and you will see it even now. Especially now.' (Italics are mine.)
Ayi Kwei Armah.1968. Heinemann Educational Books. Inc.1988.p.92. Indeed, it would be an excellent idea if one attempts  a comparative study between Heart of Darkness and The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, speaking of the latter as a manifestation and a further development of the theme of depersonalisation and lack of ideology which further gives an unquestionable green card for Kurtz to exert his show of power upon the newly independent countries. As we see this was all  initiated by Conrad in Heart of Darkness.
12. Said Op.Cit., p. Xviii
13. Chabal, Patrick. 'Apocalypse Now? A Postcolonial Journey into Africa'. Inaugural lecture delivered on 12 March 1997 in King's College London. Web page.
14. Ibid., Webpage
 
 
 

Bibliography:
 

Note: All references to Heart of Darkness are from Penguin Popular Classics, 1994.

 1. Adams, Richard. 'Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness'. Penguin Critical Studies. ed. Bryan Loughrey. Penguin Books. 1991.
 2. Burden, Robert. Conrad's Heart of Darkness: the Critique of Imperialism and the Post-Colonial Reader. Université de Passau. L'Epoque Conradienne.1992
 3. Harris, N.T. 'Conrad Short Stories: A Critical Commentary'. Note, on Choeu English Texts. ed, Norman. T. Carrington. James Brodie LTD.
.   Humphries, Reynold.Restraint, Cannibalism and the « Unspeakable Rites »in Heart of Darkness.      Université de LILLE III. L'Epoque Conradienne. 1990..
 4. 
 5. Maes-Jelinek, Hena. 'Joseph Conrad Heart of darkness' York Notes eds: A.N. Jeffares and Suheil Bushrui. Longman York Press. 1995.
 6. Said, Edward. 'Culture and Imperialism'. 1993. Vintage Books. 1994. New York.
 7. Sherry, Norman 'Conrad's Western World'. Cambridge University press. 1971 Paper back   edition 1980.
 8. Stape, J.H. 'The Cambridge Companian to Joseph Conrad'. Cambridge University Press 1996.
 9. Stewart, J.I.M. 'Eight modern Writers'. Oxford University Press 1963. Oxford University Press Paper Back 1973.

Website Pages:

 1. Alvarez, Antonia Maria. 'Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness A Jorney in Quest of self'. Distance University of Madrid.
 2. Berry, Robert. 'First Descents In to The Inferno: Parallel Ideology And Experience In conrad's Heart of Darkness And Dostoevsky's Notes From the House of The Dead'. Deep South, New Zealand. 1996.
 3. Berry, Robert. 'Gothicism in Conrad and Dostoevsky'. Deep South. New Zealand. 1996.
 4. Bradely, Candice: 'Africa end Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness'. A Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture. 1996. Heart of Darkness Comment Page. Harvard University.
 5. Bruke, Coleen. 'Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness A Metaphor of Junpian Psychology'. A Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture. 1996. Heart of Darkness Comment Page. Harvard University.
 6. Chabal, Patrick. 'Apocalypse Now? A Postcolonial Journey into Africa'. Inaugural Lecture. 12 March 1977. King's College London.
 7. Dintenfass, Mark. 'Heart of Darkness' A Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture. 1996. Heart of Darkness Comment Page. Harvard University.
 8. Hitton, N. 'Lexis Complexes'. 8. Hypograms, Hypocrits and Hippos: Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness Comment Page. Harvard University.
 9. Richard, Yatezck. 'Marlow Lie'. A Lawrence university Freshman Studies Lecture Heart of Darkness Comment Page. Harvard University. 1993.

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A note of thanks
One wishes to be a life long reader of Heart of Darkness. On its attentive reader the novel holds a magic spell tying him into a unique way of reading, observing and thus taking his own way into this world of ours.To confess it all, I felt like Marlow "transported back to the earliest beginnings of time". For a long while during which this study took I found it very difficult, almost impossible to separate between Marlow's experience in the up-river Congo and the comparative applicability of his experience upon our time and place. This difficulty, not to say, darkness itself was eased only by the constant and motherly help from my two tutors to whom my thanks and admiration go. Here I mean Dr. Bekkat and Mrs. Aouni, though working in fragmented times, so much so they could hardly be considered as real tutors, yet they both proved to be of much help. My thunderstruck admiration goes principally to Hugh Epstein from Joseph Conrad Society of  London. I very much consider him my third tutor for he unhesitantly went  through the hard task of correcting this paper in its latest drafts. His linguisic and thematic comments together with the articles and the book he sent me are not to be forgotten.  I owe him heart-felt thanks for showing me where my paper fell short and also where and how it should be developed. Again I thank my English Literature and British Civilisation teachers, respectively, Mrs. Meha Ben Abdellaziz and Mrs. Dalila Brakni for their clearing up of some of the above-mentioned difficulty and darkness. They were both reason and rationality personified. In the same line, I am grateful to Karen McLean from the University of Otago postgraduate online journal Deep South, New Zealand who on granted me permission to use some of the articles. I could not forget in this occasion my fellow friends and students, particularly Yacine Kais and Hichem M. Araibi for the hot, thought-provoking and fruitful debates we used to raise in our university study-rooms and campus; they were unforgettable friends at unforgettable days. In front of all this help, encouragement and love I find myself really confined within that very English saying: "He who taught me a word I am his slave". I and my work are both in prayer for the ladies and gentlemen stated above.

Dedications
To my parents. To Siham, the dearest sister that ever walked on two legs. To her, who in her tragedy unknowingly taught me what is Kurtz? Why it is Kurtz? And how it is Kurtz? Unredeembly this Kurtz holds her breath and makes the mystery of her breakdown the ugliest thing one has to withstand and comprehend. To Ali, my uncle, who with his kindness, open mindedness and support gave me the hope no less than a possibility for an anti-Kurtzian ideology. To all these above and to Fodil Ferhat, my first teacher of English, I dedicate this work.

Comments, remarks or counter arguments on this paper are very much welcomed at:
Fouadmami@hotmail.com
Or:
Fouad MAMI
Rue des freres boukertbi
Medea, 26000
ALGERIA.
 

(c) Fouad Mami.  All Rights Reserved.