Depictions+of+Africans

= Greetings, people. This is the depictions of Africans page - mainly with part 2. Make sure that you a) find examples of descriptions and portrayals of Africans, and b) explain how this is significant. = = = "...a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind-legs." || -This quote basically compares the man to a dog (a stupid animal) doing something it really shouldn't be doing in an almost funny and ridiculous way. It makes it seem that this man is stupid and doing something way beyond what's expected of him || //"niggers", "savages" "pre-historic man", "rudimentary"// || The specific references to the Africans does indeed add an element of racism in the writing. Furthermore, it implies that Marlow is representing the ideologies and thoughts of the eurpopeans of the period. One reference in particular 'pre-historic man' does imply that Marlow believes he is more evolved than the natives, thus his supposed superiority. ||
 * Example ﻿﻿﻿ || Explanation ||
 * - When Marlow talks about the african who kept the boiler burning he describes him as:
 * Marlow describes how the boiler man is supersitious, since he thinks there's an evil spirit inside the boiler who'll get angry if he doesn't keep the fire burning. || ﻿Marlow knows that there probablywasnt an evil spirit in the boiler but 'the fact he portrays the African as being frightened of it comes across as silly or childish. It makes him seem even more primitive because he still bears the supposed yoke of superstition and it seems as if he's scared of modern technology. Implying that the African man can't ||
 * Conrad uses specific words to respresent the indeginous population of Africa which is portrayed in the language of Marlow. Examples of these words are:
 * “It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend." || In this quote, Marlow talks about how he only gets glimpses of the native villages but more often, only hears drums, shouts, etc. In essence, he is only left with his perception to judge the Africans. And with his perception, he talks about how he can feel "kinship" with these people, and classifies them as "inhuman," thus, judging them as primitive versions of real human beings. ||

Conrad, Joseph (2006). Heart of Darkness (pp. 18-19). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition. || When Marlow sees the african's when he is near the station he describes them as shapes and lumps and then animals. the shapes don't move at first and then one an animal that guzzles water at the "watering hole". || Conrad, Joseph (2006). Heart of Darkness (p. 43). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition. || this quotes is talking about the cannibals the are working aboard the steamboat. Marlow mentions their strength but says that they do not have to intelligence to think outside of primal instincts, like eating and hunger. || Conrad, Joseph (2006). Heart of Darkness (pp. 46-47). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition. ||  in this quotation, Marlow describes the actions of an african man aboard the steamboat when they are attacked. however, when he decries him he calls him a fool-niger not just a fool or a man. it is as if there is a vast and obvious inference between a fool and a fool-niger. || =﻿=
 * Example || Explanation ||
 * “Everything else in the station was in a muddle – heads, things, buildings. Strings of dusty niggers with splay feet arrived and departed; a stream of manufactured goods, rubbishy cottons, beads…” || Conrad is describing objects here; and the objects are displayed as rusty, old and antiquated. In the middle of this, the Africans are described as “dusty niggers” thus creating an effect of them being compared to objects which are useless and trashy. ||
 * || He does not refer to the Congolese people as Africans, instead he refers to them as "natives", "niggers", "savages" ||
 * "Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara. well, don't you see, he had done something, he had steered; for months I had him at my back -- a help -- an instrument." || Here we see the significance of the Congolese to the white man: "grain in a black Sahara." Additionally they are objectified as being instruments at the white mans disposal to abuse. ||
 * "..<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">but these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the sea. All their meagre breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages." || Conrad describes the Congolese as being criminals, who have been imprisoned by the imperialists who came overseas. Their eyes staring 'stonily' could suggest that life has been taken from them and are now merely a tool for the white man to use. ||
 * "It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks -- these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast." || In this quotation the Congolese are referred to as wild; suggesting that they are more primal than the white man. "grotesque mask" could suggest that Marlow finds them monstrous and unsightly yet of great use. ||
 * <span style="color: #a30505; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up. One, with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner: his brother phantom rested its forehead, as if overcome with a great weariness; and all about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink. He lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in front of him, and after a time let his woolly head fall on his breastbone."
 * <span style="color: #a30505; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">They were big powerful men, with not much capacity to weigh the consequences..."
 * <span style="color: #a30505; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The fool-nigger had dropped everything, to throw the shutter open and let off that Martini-Henry."
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Marlow combines the ideas that Africans are indistinguishable, savage, and primitive and reflects this image in the representation of Africa. || <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">As he is saying that Africans are indistinguished, savage and primitive, I think that he also is saying that the entire continent (Africa) is indistinguishable. ||
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">'... it was impossible to tell what could control such a man. || <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Saying that all africans have no self control which is why they are savages as they have no respect for society and civilisation. Ruled by their emotions. ||
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> Heart of Darkness illustrates the European notions that all Africans are the same: savage, primitive, and inhuman. || <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">During the victorian time, the europeans thought that the Africans were a seperate species. They may have two legs, two arms, a head, nose, eyes, lips, and ears but they weren't human. ||