Excerpt from Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness"
Conrad was a Polish-born writer who writes a fictional story about an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment as a ferry-boat captain for a Belgian trading company in the Congo Free State, a private colony of King Leopold II. Conrad drew inspiration for this novel from his own personal experience in the Congo. Eight and half years before writing the novel, he served as a captain for a Congo steamer (boat) .
...They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force—nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to....”
Citation:
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. www.gutenberg.org/files/219/219-h/219-h.htm.
Conrad was a Polish-born writer who writes a fictional story about an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment as a ferry-boat captain for a Belgian trading company in the Congo Free State, a private colony of King Leopold II. Conrad drew inspiration for this novel from his own personal experience in the Congo. Eight and half years before writing the novel, he served as a captain for a Congo steamer (boat) .
...They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force—nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to....”
Citation:
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. www.gutenberg.org/files/219/219-h/219-h.htm.
Letter from King Leopold II of Belgium to Colonial Missionaries, 1883
Reverends, Fathers and Dear Compatriots:
The task that is given to fulfill is very delicate and requires much tact. You will go certainly to evangelize, but your evangelization must inspire above all Belgium interests. Your principal objective in our mission in the Congo is never to teach the niggers* to know God, this they know already. They speak and submit to a Mungu, one Nzambi, one Nzakomba, and what else I don’t know. They know that to kill, to sleep with someone else’s wife, to lie and to insult is bad. Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they know already. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industrials, which means you will go to interpret the gospel in the way it will be the best to protect your interests in that part of the world. For these things, you have to keep watch on disinteresting our savages from the richness that is plenty [in their underground. To avoid that, they get interested in it, and make you murderous] competition and dream one day to overthrow you.
Your knowledge of the gospel will allow you to find texts ordering, and encouraging your followers to love poverty, like “Happier are the poor because they will inherit the heaven” and, “It’s very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” You have to detach from them and make them disrespect everything which gives courage to affront us. I make reference to their Mystic System and their war fetish-warfare protection-which they pretend not to want to abandon, and you must do everything in your power to make it disappear.
Your action will be directed essentially to the younger ones, for they won’t revolt when the recommendation of the priest is contradictory to their parent’s teachings. The children have to learn to obey what the missionary recommends, who is the father of their soul. You must singularly insist on their total submission and obedience, avoid developing the spirit in the schools, teach students to read and not to reason. There, dear patriots, are some of the principles that you must apply. You will find many other books, which will be given to you at the end of this conference. Evangelize the niggers so that they stay forever in submission to the white colonialists, so they never revolt against the restraints they are undergoing. Recite every day-“Happy are those who are weeping because the kingdom of God is for them.”
Convert always the blacks by using the whip. Keep their women in nine months of submission to work freely for us. Force them to pay you in sign of recognition-goats, chicken or eggs-every time you visit their villages. And make sure that niggers never become rich. Sing every day that it’s impossible for the rich to enter heaven. Make them pay tax each week at Sunday mass. Use the money supposed for the poor, to build flourishing business centres. Institute a confessional system, which allows you to be good detectives denouncing any black that has a different consciousness contrary to that of the decision-maker. Teach the niggers to forget their heroes and to adore only ours. Never present a chair to a black that comes to visit you. Don’t give him more than one cigarette. Never invite him for dinner even if he gives you a chicken every time you arrive at his house.
Citation:
“Letter from King Leopold II of Belgium to Colonial Missionaries, 1883.” www.fafich.ufmg.br/~luarnaut/Letter%20Leopold%20II%20to%20Colonial%20Missionaries.pdf.
Reverends, Fathers and Dear Compatriots:
The task that is given to fulfill is very delicate and requires much tact. You will go certainly to evangelize, but your evangelization must inspire above all Belgium interests. Your principal objective in our mission in the Congo is never to teach the niggers* to know God, this they know already. They speak and submit to a Mungu, one Nzambi, one Nzakomba, and what else I don’t know. They know that to kill, to sleep with someone else’s wife, to lie and to insult is bad. Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they know already. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industrials, which means you will go to interpret the gospel in the way it will be the best to protect your interests in that part of the world. For these things, you have to keep watch on disinteresting our savages from the richness that is plenty [in their underground. To avoid that, they get interested in it, and make you murderous] competition and dream one day to overthrow you.
Your knowledge of the gospel will allow you to find texts ordering, and encouraging your followers to love poverty, like “Happier are the poor because they will inherit the heaven” and, “It’s very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” You have to detach from them and make them disrespect everything which gives courage to affront us. I make reference to their Mystic System and their war fetish-warfare protection-which they pretend not to want to abandon, and you must do everything in your power to make it disappear.
Your action will be directed essentially to the younger ones, for they won’t revolt when the recommendation of the priest is contradictory to their parent’s teachings. The children have to learn to obey what the missionary recommends, who is the father of their soul. You must singularly insist on their total submission and obedience, avoid developing the spirit in the schools, teach students to read and not to reason. There, dear patriots, are some of the principles that you must apply. You will find many other books, which will be given to you at the end of this conference. Evangelize the niggers so that they stay forever in submission to the white colonialists, so they never revolt against the restraints they are undergoing. Recite every day-“Happy are those who are weeping because the kingdom of God is for them.”
Convert always the blacks by using the whip. Keep their women in nine months of submission to work freely for us. Force them to pay you in sign of recognition-goats, chicken or eggs-every time you visit their villages. And make sure that niggers never become rich. Sing every day that it’s impossible for the rich to enter heaven. Make them pay tax each week at Sunday mass. Use the money supposed for the poor, to build flourishing business centres. Institute a confessional system, which allows you to be good detectives denouncing any black that has a different consciousness contrary to that of the decision-maker. Teach the niggers to forget their heroes and to adore only ours. Never present a chair to a black that comes to visit you. Don’t give him more than one cigarette. Never invite him for dinner even if he gives you a chicken every time you arrive at his house.
Citation:
“Letter from King Leopold II of Belgium to Colonial Missionaries, 1883.” www.fafich.ufmg.br/~luarnaut/Letter%20Leopold%20II%20to%20Colonial%20Missionaries.pdf.
Excerpt of the poem, “The White Man’s Burden”
By Rudyard Kipling, February 1899 Take up the White Man’s burden-- Send forth the best ye breed-- Go send your sons to exile To serve your captives' need To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild-- Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child Take up the White Man’s burden… Citation: Kipling, Rudyard. “Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden, 1899.” Internet History Sourcebooks, 1997, sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/Kipling.asp. |
This cartoon depicts a representation of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem The White Man's Burden.
Citation: Gillam, Victor. “The White Man's Burden (Apologies to Rudyard Kipling)".” Judge, 1 Apr. 1899. |
Excerpt from a letter from King Lobengula to Queen Victoria of Great Britain formally protesting the Rudd Concession.
King Lobengula was the second and last king of the Northern Ndebele people (historicaly called Matabele in English). The Ndebele are descendants of a faction Zulus who fled north during the reign of Shaka Zulu. They settled in what is now called Matabeleland in Western Zimbabwe. The "document" that Lobengula mentions in the excerpt below is the "Rudd Concession", written concession for exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland and other adjoining territories under Lobengula's rule.
Some time ago a party of men came to my country . . . They asked me for a place to dig for gold, and said they would give me certain things for the right to do so. I told them to bring what they could give and I would show them what I would give. A document was written and presented to me for signature. I asked what it contained, and was told that in it were my words and the words of those men. I put my hand to it. About three months afterwards I heard . . . that I had given by the document the right to all the minerals of my country.
Citation:
Morel, Edmund Dene. “Chapter IV: The Story of Southern Rhodesia.” The Black Man's Burden, National Labour Press, 1920, pp. 34–35, books.google.com/books?id=RygbAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
King Lobengula was the second and last king of the Northern Ndebele people (historicaly called Matabele in English). The Ndebele are descendants of a faction Zulus who fled north during the reign of Shaka Zulu. They settled in what is now called Matabeleland in Western Zimbabwe. The "document" that Lobengula mentions in the excerpt below is the "Rudd Concession", written concession for exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland and other adjoining territories under Lobengula's rule.
Some time ago a party of men came to my country . . . They asked me for a place to dig for gold, and said they would give me certain things for the right to do so. I told them to bring what they could give and I would show them what I would give. A document was written and presented to me for signature. I asked what it contained, and was told that in it were my words and the words of those men. I put my hand to it. About three months afterwards I heard . . . that I had given by the document the right to all the minerals of my country.
Citation:
Morel, Edmund Dene. “Chapter IV: The Story of Southern Rhodesia.” The Black Man's Burden, National Labour Press, 1920, pp. 34–35, books.google.com/books?id=RygbAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Citation:
Cleary, Vern. “King Leopold and the Conquest of the Congo.” webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/modernworldhistorytextbook/imperialism/section_6/kingleopold.html.
Cleary, Vern. “King Leopold and the Conquest of the Congo.” webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/modernworldhistorytextbook/imperialism/section_6/kingleopold.html.
Excerpt from Cecil Rhodes, "Confession of Faith", 1877
“I contend that we are the first race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. I contend that every acre added to our territory provides for the birth of more of the English race, who otherwise would not be brought into existence… I believe it to be my duty to God, my Queen and my country to paint the whole map of Africa red, red from the Cap to Cairo. That is my creed, my dream and my mission.”
Citation:
Meredith, Martin. “Dreams and Fantasies.” Diamonds, Gold, and War: the British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, Public Affairs, 2008, p. 127, books.google.com/books?id=HWjxlzka9xMC&lpg=PA127&ots=hNXPWo69JF&dq=%E2%80%8B%E2%80%9CI%20contend%20that%20we%20are%20the%20first%20race%20in%20the%20world%20and%20that%20the%20more%20of%20the%20world%20we%20inhabit%20the%20better%20it%20is%20for%20the%20human%20race.%20I%20contend%20that%20every%20acre%20added%20to%20our%20territory%20provides%20for%20the%20birth%20of%20more%20of%20the%20English%20race%2C%20who%20otherwise%20would%20not%20be%20brought%20into%20existence%E2%80%A6%20I%20believe%20it%20to%20be%20my%20duty%20to%20God%2C%20my%20Queen%20and%20my%20country%20to%20paint%20the%20whole%20map%20of%20Africa%20red%2C%20red%20from%20the%20Cap%20to%20Cairo.%20That%20is%20my%20creed%2C%20my%20dream%20and%20my%20mission.%E2%80%9D&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q&f=false.
“I contend that we are the first race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. I contend that every acre added to our territory provides for the birth of more of the English race, who otherwise would not be brought into existence… I believe it to be my duty to God, my Queen and my country to paint the whole map of Africa red, red from the Cap to Cairo. That is my creed, my dream and my mission.”
Citation:
Meredith, Martin. “Dreams and Fantasies.” Diamonds, Gold, and War: the British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, Public Affairs, 2008, p. 127, books.google.com/books?id=HWjxlzka9xMC&lpg=PA127&ots=hNXPWo69JF&dq=%E2%80%8B%E2%80%9CI%20contend%20that%20we%20are%20the%20first%20race%20in%20the%20world%20and%20that%20the%20more%20of%20the%20world%20we%20inhabit%20the%20better%20it%20is%20for%20the%20human%20race.%20I%20contend%20that%20every%20acre%20added%20to%20our%20territory%20provides%20for%20the%20birth%20of%20more%20of%20the%20English%20race%2C%20who%20otherwise%20would%20not%20be%20brought%20into%20existence%E2%80%A6%20I%20believe%20it%20to%20be%20my%20duty%20to%20God%2C%20my%20Queen%20and%20my%20country%20to%20paint%20the%20whole%20map%20of%20Africa%20red%2C%20red%20from%20the%20Cap%20to%20Cairo.%20That%20is%20my%20creed%2C%20my%20dream%20and%20my%20mission.%E2%80%9D&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q&f=false.