'Apartheid in death' for Black and Asian troops

Conrad's text has been read as a searing early critique of colonialismThis refers not only to the material realities of colonial rule, but also to the mindset of the colonising powers and their ways of justifying empire. Most Europeans believed that empire was a moral good, because it imparted 'civilisation' to 'primitive' cultures and so helped them to develop.. Central to the novel is the notion that there is no inherent difference between the "civilised people" come to reform Africa and its native "savages" - except that the former is somewhat more savage. This stands in direct contradiction to the European colonists' view of the natives as inherently "other": subordinateA person under someone else's authority who is considered less important., brutal, amoral and infantile.

Kurtz embodies colonialism seen for what it truly is - not a benevolentWell-meaning and kind. force of good attempting to bring light to the unenlightened masses, but an act of criminality and greed. He is even writing a tract for the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs; in which he details his theories about the inferior intelligence of African natives and claims that they see White people as benign supernatural beings. Marlow is influenced by these ideas and quickly also comes to call Africans "creatures", "cannibals" and "savages". Conrad writes that "All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz", symbolising that his cynical exploitation of the local population is by no means anomalousDifferent from what is normal or expected..

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The British sailor Charles Marlow sets off for Africa with a romantic view of the West's humanitarian mission - bringing civilisation and new technology to a world of darkness and thereby raising its inhabitants' standard of living. However, when he arrives, he realises he has been fooled by a lie of vast proportions. He is horrified by imperialism's ferocity and by the exploitation of the native people for their ivory. From the first second of his arrival he notices the contrast between White colonisers' luxurious and idle lives in Africa, and the impoverished, hungry people forced to serve them, and it becomes impossible to deny the harrowingVery upsetting. A harrow is a piece of machinery used by farmers to break up the soil.  truth of the colonial mission.

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Some believe that racism is merely a theme in the text, whilst others see the book itself as fundamentally racist. On the one hand, Conrad explicitly critiques pseudo-scientific theories about an inherent biological superiority of white Europeans over black Africans, positioning it as a progressiveIn a political context, the belief that society can be transformed in the interests of ordinary people. It is normally associated with the politics of the left. text. On the other hand, the African characters are depicted as infantile, primitive and barbaric. Nigerian novelist Chinua Acheve asserted that Heart of Darkness is an "offensive and deplorableDisgraceful or shameful. book" which contributes to the dehumanisation of Africans and uncritically accepts the notion that Africa had no civilisation of its own before European intervention. Others claim that such interpretations, which have arisen often, fail to distinguish between the writer and his narrator, alleging that Conrad's narrator is deliberately written as prejudiced to highlight the flaws of imperialists.

Calls for Britain to face up to past mistakes

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Heart of Darkness suggests that civilisation as a concept is a myth created by the European superiority complex. The characters see Africa as lacking in civilisation and consumed by savagery, but the European invaders are far more violent and savage. And likewise, the "civilised white man" who finds his way into Africa is never a civilising force, but a catalystA substance able to increase the rate of a chemical reaction without itself being consumed or changed by the reacting chemicals.  for yet more violence.

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In the Congo, Marlow witnesses "unspeakable" horror, much of which has been inflicted by the ruthless profiteer Kurtz. The native people have been chained up, starved, beaten, forced to undertake crushing labour, and generally dehumanised. Kurtz's reign of terror also involves building a row of severed human heads impaled on posts outside his cabin. Violence is the means by which power is acquired, Conrad implies, and it is on violence that imperialism rests.

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