Yes, No, Maybe So: Joseph Conrad as a Racist

Scholars of literature have been deliberating a short but very powerful novel for years: Heart of Darkness. The question these scholars and many others have been arguing is whether or not Joseph Conrad, the author, was a racist. It was even banned from shelves and classrooms for the use of the “N” word and graphic violence- and still is in some cases. Even the famous author Chinua Achebe was sucked into this debate that has been going on for decades..
Heart of Darkness follows one white man’s horrific journey into a European colony. Aboard a British ship called the Nellie, three men listen to a man named Marlow recount his voyage in a steam boat as an agent for an ivory trading Company. Marlow says that he witnesses brutality and hate between the white ivory hunters and the native people. Marlow becomes entangled in a power struggle within the Company, and finally learns the truth about the mysterious Kurtz, a mad agent who has become both a god and a prisoner of the natives. After “rescuing” Kurtz from the native people, Marlow watches in horror as Kurtz falls victim to madness, disease, and finally death.

Much of Achebe’s argument stems from the idea that the natives that Marlow and Kurtz encounter are African. However, this is merely an assumption that readers make based on Conrad’s personal experience on the Congo River in Africa. However, it is important to note that the novella does not mention the Congo at all and mentions Africa only once as a place on a map and not as the location of Marlow's journey. If you don’t believe me check this out:

In addition to no concrete location, the place that Conrad describes is synonymous with other British colonies during the 1800s, especially their colonies Southeast Asia, which were also big producers of ivory and have a similar geography.

Nonetheless, I can agree that Conrad’s descriptions of the natives are detestable and derogatory. They are seen as and referred to as savages. The Narrator describes the location and its indigenous people: “It was unearthly and the men were — no, they were not inhuman. Well, you know that was the worst of it — this 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.” The indirectly invective language describing the people carries on throughout the novella, considering them less than human and savage. However, Conrad’s descriptions are aligned with the attitudes of most Europeans in the late 1800s when the novel was written. If anything, these descriptions are a historically accurate testament to how the Europeans looked upon the new lands and people they were going to colonize. They would enter a society and hear new languages which sounded like garbled noise. To most anyone, a foreign language just sounds like a bunch of noises, so can we blame Conrad for such a description of the natives communication? Also, upon entering a new region for colonization, the Europeans recognized the lack of development and rituals and traditions that seemed barbaric by their own standards. Thus, they considered these people as savage and uncivilized.
We, as readers, must also consider who’s opinion we are really receiving. Due to the narrative frame, the opinions of Conrad are blurred. We have a narrator reporting Marlow’s narration of Marlow’s experiences. This is a story inside another story, inside a story. Technically, Heart of Darkness ceases to be Conrad’s tale and therefore if the text is racist, then Conrad is not necessarily racist himself. The novella operates from several points of view. So we can keep asking: who is really the racist here? Achebe believes Marlow speaks for Conrad’s racism because Conrad does “not hint, clearly and adequately at an alternative frame of reference by which we may judge the actions and opinions of his characters.” But, the idea that the narrative frame is so ambiguous seems to mask Conrad’s opinion and the opinions of the characters, so it is only a speculation that the seemingly racist comments are from Conrad’s personal beliefs.
In addition, we must consider the greater purpose of the novella to understand that Conrad is not overtly racist. Ultimately, Conrad reveals the “darkness” within all human beings. We must not forget that the natives are not the only savages - the Europeans are too. The natives and the whites descend to inhumane levels of thought and behavior — like Kurtz and the whole colonial establishment. The language used to describe the natives revealed the effect of the wild on them. Just as the doctor said “the changes take place inside” when you venture into that type of environment, which is why we also see the savage within the white men.

I cannot affirmatively say that Conrad was or was not racist or determine if Heart of Darkness was a racist text because I didn't even know the guy. So if you ask me, I’ll just say “yes, no, maybe so.”