Outpost of Progress

Notes for the Teachers

26

Joseph Conrad: An Outpost of Progress

One Language – Many Voices

Cultural and historical background

The colonization of Central Africa did not set in until the very end of the 19th century, when ‘the scramble for Africa’ – the race of European powers to divide the continent among themselves – got under way: In 1870 European countries owned only 10% of Africa, by 1900 it was 90%. For a long time access to the huge territories in the Congo River basin was considered impossible due to the impenetrable forests and the impassable rapids of the river itself, which served as a barrier to European exploitation. The adventurer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley gained the interest and support of the Belgian King Leopold II for his expeditions into the Congo basin ‘to prove that the Congo natives were susceptible of civilization and that the Congo basin was rich enough to repay exploitation’. In the name of Leopold II he appropriated land and labour for the king’s newly founded ‘Association Internationale du Congo’. Leopold’s claim to the Congo was recognized at the International Africa Conference in Berlin in 1884–1885, presided over by Bismarck. The Congo Free State, as it was ironically called, was confirmed as the private property of King Leopold II in return for guarantees of neutrality, free trade and opposition to slavery.

The Congo Free State, 1900

Ivory and rubber were the main sources of income for King Leopold’s company and its agents: they and their African auxiliaries seized all the ivory that could be found, buying tusks from villages for a pittance, or simply confiscating them. They were working on a lucrative commission structure imposed by the King in 1890, of which the African elephant hunters received

next to nothing, apart from small amounts of cloth, beads or brass rods.

The rubber boom started in the mid-1890s due to the increasing industrial demand from Europe. While the rubber trade made a fortune for Leopold II, it led to the extreme brutalization of the local population. Under Leopold’s ownership approximately 10 million Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and disease. To enforce the rubber quotas, the Force Publique (FP) was called in. The FP was an army, but its aim was not to defend the country, but to terrorize the population, which it did by cutting off the limbs of the natives; this practice was disturbingly widespread. When news of these atrocities reached Europe, there was a public outcry; the British parliament asked Roger Casement to make an inquiry into the situation in the country. The result of his enquiry was the famous Congo Report (1904). Casement had been a British diplomat in the Congo, where he met Conrad and whose Heart of Darkness (1899) had deeply influenced him. In 1903 Conrad wrote to Casement saying, ‘there exists in Africa a Congo State, created by the act of European powers, where ruthless, systematic cruelty towards the blacks is the basis of the administration’. Conrad’s novel also contributed to a widespread knowledge of the colonial abuses and crimes taking place in

Africa. In 1908 Leopold II was forced to sell

the Congo Free State to the Belgian government, which annexed it as a Belgian colony until its independence in 1960, when it was named Zaire. Its history since then has not been much happier. Following the secessionist Katanga Civil War, the country was brutalized under the dictatorship of President Mobutu. In 1997, when Mobutu was overthrown by the rebel leader Laurent Kabila, the country was renamed The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Torn between ethnic strife and civil wars, involving refugees from Rwanda and Burundi and displacements from Sudan, the country is still unstable.

Biographical aspects

As captain of a steamship, Joseph Conrad travelled up the Congo River to Central Africa and the heart of the Congo in 1890, and then went on an overland track to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). As we know from his diaries and letters, which he

wrote in English, he was deeply concerned with the greed of Belgian (and other European) merchants, the abuses of colonial powers and atrocities committed by white managers and their black auxiliaries, always in the name of a missionary and progressive spirit to ‘enlighten the dark continent’. But he also met with what he thought to be cannibalism, and was confused

INfO-BOx

Notes for the Teachers Conrad: An Outpost of Progress

27

Summary

Kayerts and Carlier are put in charge of a remote and unpromising trading station on a river. Its previous agent died of fever and his grave, marked by a cross, forms part of the outpost. The director of the trading company, who predicts their failure, leaves them with enough provisions to last for the six months until his envisaged return. Makola, ‘a civilized nigger’ who lives with his family on the outpost, is responsible for the acquisition and storage of ivory and is in charge of the ten black men working (not very effectively) at the post. The other group of natives, ‘Father’ Gobila’s people, are friendly and provide the station with local supplies. When a group of fierce-looking black strangers appears in the compound, Makola behaves very strangely and makes clandestine arrangements to sell the ten station men to the strangers in return for six beautiful tusks that are deposited in the yard. It gradually dawns on Kayerts and Carlier that they have become involved in a terrible crime, but after discarding their initial pangs of guilt are comforted by the thought of lucrative commissions on the ivory. The steamer is late, their provisions are running low and the physical and mental state of the two white men deteriorates rapidly. Demoralized by a quarrel over the last lumps of sugar, they begin to fight, and Kayerts shoots the unarmed Carlier in what he believes to be self-defence. When the steamer finally arrives, the director discovers Kayerts’s body hanging from the cross with his tongue disrespectfully stuck out at him.

Setting

Even without explicit evidence from the text the reader with some knowledge of European history can infer from the remark about Carlier as a former member of ‘an army guaranteed from harm by several European Powers’ (p. 11, ll. 45–46) that the events are located in ‘The Congo Free State’. The names Kayerts and Carlier, representing both the Flemish and the Walloon elements of the Belgian nation, are further indicators that the setting is Belgian

Congo. Moreover, the French language is the medium of communication: when asked about the strange behaviour of the visitors, Makola ‘seemed to have forgotten French’ (p. 21, ll. 43–44).

It may be that Conrad was deliberately vague about the setting of ‘An Outpost of Progress’, so he could include all the European powers in his indictment of the colonial mindset. These indistinct geo-political outlines correspond to the void around the actual outpost, seemingly a no-man’s land. The immediate setting of the inner space of the outpost, however, takes on a much clearer shape with its three buildings, the jetty and the grave with the cross very ‘much out of the perpendicular’ (p. 10, l. 18). By relating this ‘dwelling place’ where ‘the man who had seen the beginning of all this’ (ll. 18–19) slept to the house of the two white men built neatly of reeds, with ‘a veranda on all the four sides’ (l. 9) the author sensitizes the reader to the transitory nature of human constructions. Significantly, the veranda becomes the place of the last scene of death in the story.

The other place of action and of significance in the story is the courtyard of the compound, a meeting and trading place where different groups of natives and the white men meet and exchange their goods, and where different views on religion, race and culture encounter each other and often clash. We find similar compounds in some of the other stories (cf. Glossary, TM, p. 178). It is in this space that Makola pursues his inscrutable machinations, where the six splendid tusks are laid down, where the beautiful, naked natives from the villages would squat ‘while their chiefs bargained for hours with Makola over an elephant tusk’ (p. 16, ll. 1–2). The ignorant superiority of the white man becomes evident in Kayerts’s position: ‘[he] sat on his chair and looked down on the proceedings, understanding nothing’ (ll. 2–3).

The area beyond the outpost contrasts sharply with the fairly realistic description of the outpost. The only link to the outer world (civilization), the river, is occupied by dangerous animals, ‘hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side’ (p. 16, l. 30), and it seems neither to come from

Interpretation

by the natives’ drums and ‘wild savagery’. His decision to resign from his post as captain was as much caused by his ill health as by his desire to become a writer. It has been said that ‘Africa killed Conrad the sailor and strengthened Conrad the writer’1 In his extensive writings (over 40 works of fiction of various length) the themes of travel and the pursuit of material and idealistic goals as well as isolation, ambition and failure can be said to be drawn from his own experiences.

His deep-rooted scepticism of imperialism can be linked to his Polish background: born into a nation which had vanished from the map after being annexed by Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1795, and into a family which had opposed Russian oppression and been exiled to Ukraine, Conrad had good reason to question the right of stronger powers to impose their wills on smaller nations.

1 Jean-Aubry, Georges. Joseph Conrad in the Congo. New York: Haskell, 1973.

Notes for the Teachers One Language – Many Voices

28

nor to go anywhere. The jungle beyond the post acquires unreal, distorted and haunting dimensions, which are conveyed in the expressionistic language of moods and sensations rather than external realistic details: ‘immense forests, hiding fateful complications of fantastic life, lay in the eloquent silence of mute greatness’ (p. 16, ll. 32–34). This forest or wilderness (allegory) even becomes actively involved in the process of demasking and annihilating the two whites: ‘its very hopelessness and savagery seemed to approach them nearer, to draw them gently, to look upon them, to envelop them with a solicitude irresistible, familiar, and disgusting’ (p. 28, ll. 34–37). The atmosphere becomes increasingly unreal and nightmarish, reinforced by expressive and symbolic language foreshadowing Conrad’s haunting descriptions of the jungle in Heart of Darkness. The final view on the scene reinforces the impenetrability of this unknowable world: ‘the mist penetrating, enveloping, and silent; the morning mist of tropical lands; the mist that clings and kills; the mist white and deadly, immaculate and poisonous’ (p. 35, ll. 59–61).

Characters

Kayerts and CarlierWith Kayerts and Carlier clearly carved out as the two main characters of the story in the opening sentence (‘There were two white men’) the reader may well ask how convincingly ‘real’ these two figures become in the course of the story, or – in literary terms – do they acquire the qualities attributed to ‘round characters’ such as development, diversification and individuality. It may be argued that Conrad himself had conceived them in order to exemplify his ideas on the role of society (‘the crowd’) and how it determines people’s mind and actions: ‘Society, not from any tenderness, but because of its strange needs, had taken care of those two men, forbidding them all independent thought, all initiative, all departure from routine; and forbidding it under pain of death. They could only live on condition of being machines’ (p. 14, ll. 5–9). In denying both men any mental independence the author reduces them to machines, to lifelong prisoners, mere simulacra of human beings, devoid of any genuine feelings. [This gloomy view of human nature was not untypical of the time; teachers could compare Conrad’s views to those of H. G. Wells, as similar views are expressed in The War of the Worlds (1898), Berlin: Cornelsen; Best.-Nr. 50297; cf. pp. 166–167.]

It is therefore interesting to trace the process of their spiritual (de-)formation. Just as Flaubert, who Conrad greatly admired (indeed, traces of Flaubert’s Buvard et Pecuchet can be found in Conrad’s short story), has his Emma Bovary read sentimental novels that she eventually comes to confuse with reality, so Kayerts and Carlier are moved to tears or ‘scandalized’ by literary creations of imaginary worlds, whereas their own involvement in the

slave trade does not seem to bother them either morally or emotionally. The only sentiment (apart from mortal fear at the end) they are capable of is not a genuine one: ‘And in time they came to feel something resembling affection for one another’ (p. 15, ll. 41–42).

Besides fiction, their reading list comprises old newspaper articles like the one on ‘Our Colonial Expansion’, which immediately causes the two eager readers to project their own ‘important’ roles in a futuristic scene of a booming town: ‘chaps will read that two good fellows, Kayerts and Carlier, were the first civilized men to live in this very spot!’ (p. 18, ll. 7–8). Obviously Conrad is aiming at similar celebrations of imperialist fervour in the British press, and by making Kayerts and Carlier easy prey to this ideology and questioning their ‘civilizing mission’, they become the vehicles for his satirical criticism of colonialism.

How much individuality does each of the two characters really possess? At the beginning they can hardly be distinguished from one another, walking arm in arm, assenting to the other’s arguments (p. 12, ll. 35 ff.). They are mostly addressed as ‘they’ or ‘the two men’ or by the director of the company as ‘those two imbeciles’ (p. 11, l. 55). Even when their criminal deal becomes obvious they are united as tacit accomplices in the crime. However, each has his own history of failure (in the military and in administration respectively) and his own sad reasons for becoming engaged in the colonial enterprise – both not untypical of careers in colonial services (cf. TM, pp. 14–15). The fact that Kayerts is the one in charge of the outpost and Carlier his assistant does not impinge on their loyal friendship, born out of loneliness and total dependence on each other. The change which gradually affects their physical and mental condition affects them both simultaneously: ‘an inarticulate feeling that something from within them was gone, something that had worked for their safety, and had kept the wilderness from interfering with their hearts’ (p. 28, ll. 28–30). In the final scenes, however, the point of view is entirely limited to Kayerts. Even before Carlier’s death we watch and listen to the ongoing events with Kayert’s senses (p. 32, ll. 8 ff.). Still, the two figures may justly be called ‘two sides of the same coin’, mirroring each other in their distorted, exaggerated features.

Whatever differences there are between the two, they are only of degree, Kayerts being the more submissive and loyal, but also the more anxious of the two, whereas Carlier has less scruples about their slave deal and is ready to make profits at any cost. He is the one who openly rebels against his superior, insults him and starts the row that will cost him his life.

In the end, however, Kayerts’ portrait gains a new moral dimension in the face of his companion’s death when some new wisdom dawns upon him, revealing to him his true nature as ‘a believer in a lot of nonsense like the rest of mankind’ (p. 35, l. 45). His suicide is only consistent with this insight


29

into his true role in the deadly game: ‘a man who, waking from a trance, finds himself immured forever in a tomb’ (p. 35, ll. 62–63).

MakolaMakola is a much more complex and controversial figure. As the one in charge of the storehouse and its native staff he is the efficient agent of the colonial enterprise and proves to be better at his job than the two Europeans, because of his excellent skills in bookkeeping, writing (‘a beautiful hand’) and his fluency in several languages – skills that were essential if the colonial enterprise was to be a success.

What is more, he is an expert in colonial doublespeak, twisting and giving away only so much information to Kayerts and Carlier as to keep them satisfied with the results of the trade. ‘No regular trade … They brought the ivory and gave it to me. I told them to take what they most wanted in the station […] No station can show such tusks. Those traders wanted carriers badly, and our own men were no good here. No trade, no entry in books, all correct.’ (p. 25, ll. 51–55).

His dual identity becomes manifest in his two names: Henry Price, by his own preference, focussing on the quality that most determines his existence, and the other, Makola, indicating his participation in native African culture. With the operational rules of both cultural systems at his disposal, he becomes the ideal cross-cultural negotiator, ruthlessly exploiting both systems for his own benefit, but also alienated from both. When the narrator calls him ‘a civilized nigger’ (p. 24, l. 27), he seemingly relates Makola’s cleanliness (as opposed to the Europeans’ untidiness, p. 10, ll. 13–16) to the civilizatory achievements of Western culture, but within the larger context being ‘civilized’ only refers to the thin layer of superficial and hypocritical behaviour which lacks deeper moral values or insight.

Makola’s adherence to African culture is restricted to the ‘worship of evil spirits’ (p. 10, l. 1) that might even encompass human sacrifices. ‘Perhaps he had propitigated him [the Evil Spirit] by a promise of more white men to play with’ (p. 10, ll. 27–28). Here, African culture is clearly associated with primitive savagery and superstition. Yet Makola’s family life (p. 26, ll. 19–22) seems to point towards the deeper quality of African civilization.

Whether Makola’s corrupt and amoral behaviour of trading the members of other African tribes as slaves can be mainly attributed to his African primitivism and savagery or to the corrupting influence of European imperialism will be discussed in the wider context of Conrad’s concept of civilization.

Narrative structure

Two parts of uneven length form this complex short story – one of the most complex in the anthology – each beginning with a similar lead-in, establishing a detached omniscient point of view on a scene that appears like a long static camera shot zooming in on the protagonists: Part 1 ‘There were two white men …’ (p. 9, l. 1) and Part 2 ‘There were ten station men …’ (p. 22, l. 10). Such parallel constructions are obviously Conrad’s concession to his publisher’s demand for serialization: the short story appeared in the June and July editions of Cosmopolis, as it was far too long for one edition. In one of his letters, he complains about the effect that this serial division would have on ‘the unity of effect’:

I told the unspeakable idiots that the thing halved would be as ineffective as a dead scorpion. There will be a part without a sting – and the part with a sting – and being separated they will both be harmless and disgusting.

(Frederick R. Karl and Laurence Davies [ed.], Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, Cambridge, 1988)

Indeed, apart from introductory descriptions of the setting and the characters and some ironic reflections on civilization, Part I contains only the preliminaries of a plot outline with rising tension that begin with: ‘Then, one morning […] a knot of armed men came out of the forest’ (p. 19, ll. 58–60). Further elements of suspense are achieved through the outward appearance of the strangers, their mysterious language and obscure doings, and Part I ends on a note of impending disaster: ‘Keep all our men together in case of some trouble’ (p. 22, ll. 8–9).

The beginning of Part II (‘There were ten station men’) recalls the unemotional detachment of the first line of Part I, followed by a kind of anthropological description of these men. The story takes on momentum when the dark secrets of trading ivory for human beings are gradually revealed, until it dawns upon Carlier and Kayerts that, by tacit complicity, they have possibly become involved in a terrible crime. The catastrophe and dramatic climax is reserved for the very last pages as a kind of proof of the theory developed earlier in the text that men are reduced to their brute animal natures, to complete insignificance, once the ‘high organization of civilized crowds’ (p. 12, l. 18) ‘the courage, the composure, the confidence; the emotions and principles’ (ll. 21–22) are withdrawn from them.

The whole story covers a period of more than eight months (p. 30, ll. 12–13), with the events of the last day and night taking about one fourth of the whole. From a consistently omniscient point of view the unfolding events are viewed with a shifting focus: on the one hand, a detached, rather factual picture (from the outside) of the people and their proceedings at the outpost, often


30

interspersed with satirical comments or comparisons by the author: ‘And now, dull as they were to the subtle influences of surroundings, they felt themselves very much alone, when suddenly left unassisted to face the wilderness’ (p. 12, ll. 12–14). On the other hand, we move inside a character’s mind: ‘The idea that he would, perhaps, have to bury Carlier and remain alone, gave him an inward shiver. He felt suddenly that this Carlier was more precious to him here, in the centre of Africa, than a brother could be anywhere else’ (p. 13, ll. 48–51). Only a few lines on, the same thoughts are being formed in Carlier’s mind: ‘That poor Kayerts; he is so fat and unhealthy. It would be awful if I had to bury him here. He is a man I respect.’ (ll. 57–58). Another example of moving into somebody’s mind would be Gobila (p. 18, ll. 28–36).

Language and Imagery

A variety of alternating modes of expression characterize the language of ‘An Outpost of Progress’ without endangering the unity of the story, for example: – Descriptive passages which aim at detached objectivity

(like the first presentation of the outpost, p. 10, ll. 7 ff.).

– Philosophical and speculative passages on the nature of society and civilization (p. 12, ll. 19–34).

When characterizing the two Europeans, Conrad uses irony to reveal the hollowness of their speech and thoughts and the ineffectuality of their action. This is evident in:– Dialogue: ‘in a hundred years, there will be perhaps a town

here […] Civilization, my boy, and virtue – and all’ (p. 18, ll. 4–6). The irony is the fact that the reader knows that these two men will not be the instruments to bring that form of civilization to the jungle.On p. 23, ll. 38 ff. Kayerts allows his observation and questioning about the burning villages to be subverted by Makola’s conversation about ivory, thereby exposing Kayerts’s banality of thought and stupidity of behaviour by ignoring the approaching threat in favour of considering profits (which shows he is trying to fit into the imperial mindset of making profits).

– Indirect speech: Carlier ‘talked about the necessity of exterminating all the niggers before the country could be made habitable’ (p. 29, ll. 52–54). Here the racist imperial rhetoric brings to light the ineffectuality of the two men.

– Direct characterization: ‘The two men understood nothing, cared for nothing’ (p. 16, l. 34)

As the whole story is a satirical representation of the ineffectiveness of the European imperial project, much emphasis should be laid on Conrad’s methods of characterization.

Examples of figurative language can be found in the use of:– Contrast: ‘the eloquent silence of mute greatness’ of the

forests (p. 16, ll. 33–34).– Onomatopoeia: ‘yells that resembled snatches of songs from

a madhouse darted shrill and high in discordant jets of sound’ (p. 21, ll. 56–57).

– Similes and metaphors: ‘a shriek […] pierced like a sharp dart the white shroud of that land of sorrow’ (p. 35, ll. 65–66).

Noticeably much of the figurative language is used to describe the unknowable ‘other’, i.e. the alien landscape and the people.

There is one very important symbol that should not be overlooked: the cross on the grave is a powerful symbol which effectively structures the meaning of the story by marking off its beginning and its end. At first the cross which is ‘much out of the perpendicular’ is indicative of the outpost’s decay and failure (p. 10, ll. 16-25) and it foreshadows a similar fate for the new inhabitants (cf. p. 20, l. 26). When Carlier replants the cross firmly, upright and properly (p. 18, ll. 10–15), he does so to re-establish order and to define their place in the ‘civilizing’, yet doomed, process. Kayerts’s suicide by hanging himself from the very arm that Carlier had hung from to check its strength reinforces the idea that Europeans will not be able to fulfill their mission, and yet by his swollen tongue sticking out at his Director, Kayerts is made to show the foolishness of the imperial project; the tongue indicates both insubordination and silence.

Another recurring motif is that of fever: Makola readily offers to disguise Carlier’s killing as fever (p. 34, ll. 21–23), casting doubts on the death of the first chief who ‘Makola had watched … die of fever’ (p. 10, ll. 23–24). Makola also says Kayerts may die of fever when the latter threatens to have him dismissed (p. 25, ll. 62–67). On the other hand, fever also becomes cause and source of affection: ‘Now and then one of them had a bout of fever, and the other nursed him with gentle devotion’ (p. 19, ll. 49–50).


31

What We Learn about …

… Colonial Views of the Natives

Although the narrative emphasis of the story is primarily on the portraits of the two Europeans and their fate, the descriptions of several groups of natives serve as a contrast and offer interesting insights into the dominant racial concepts of the times.

The first group of Africans we encounter are Gobila’s people from the neighbouring villages. The author takes care to distinguish the detached, omniscient point of view from that of Kayerts and Carlier: whereas the first impression is one of fascination and uneasiness (p. 15, ll. 52 ff.), Kayerts and Carlier pass a rather devastating judgement on them: in their eyes, they are funny brutes that stink unbearably and whose legs do not meet the standards of European cavalry men. Ignorance, disgust and greed inform the attitude of Europeans towards natives: this makes them incapable of admiring the beauty of the indigenous people.

The second portrayal of Africans is placed prominently at the beginning of the second part, which serves to re-introduce the readers to the African context (p. 22, ll. 10–37). With their story Conrad epitomizes the fate of millions of displaced and uprooted Africans at the arbitrary mercy of colonial interests. Not only are they denied their freedom (‘they did not run away’; p. 22, l. 15) and their social and cultural ties, but also their physical health has been ruined by malnutrition caused by their employment by the company. Uprooted, exploited and destroyed, these men are merely shadows of their former selves, clinging to memories of a life including all the clichés of primitivism prevailing at the time: warriors, sorceries, human sacrifices, etc.

When we encounter the last group of Africans, we are quite prepared for yet another variation of human depravity caused by colonial powers: their frightening aspect (percussion muskets, scornful glances, bloodshot eyes) is a mixture of African savagery and European equipment.

The images of blacks evoked in this story range from the ‘noble savage’ type (cf. Glossary, TM, p. 181) of animal beauty in the first encounter to the physically and morally corrupted figures alienated from their ‘natural’ surroundings. When comparing the different passages it becomes clear that Conrad, notwithstanding his sceptical attitude towards colonialism, is unable to break free from the prevailing notions of blacks as primitive savages, not (yet) civilized and denied any form of cultural expression other than an ‘uncouth babbling noise’ (p. 15, l. 54). To denounce Conrad as a ‘thoroughgoing racist’ as Achebe

did (cf. Worksheet 6, TM, p. 47) may be perfectly legitimate and justified from the point of view of a black writer who is concerned with a ‘dehumanized’ image of the African – an attitude that he sees fostered by Western literary preoccupation with Conrad – but fails to take the mental framework of the time into consideration.

… Civilization and Progress

What makes a closer look at these two terms both difficult and rewarding is the use of satirical devices, of stating the exact opposite of what is really meant or exaggerating and distorting the traits depicting these notions. The title ‘An Outpost of Progress’ is already a case in point, as it is revealed as a place of ruin and disaster masquerading behind the 19th century imperialist rhetoric of ‘progress’. Later on the two Europeans of the outpost are described as ‘the two pioneers of trade and progress’ only to be immediately contrasted with their unpromising outlook on their ‘empty courtyard in the vibrating brilliance of vertical sunshine’ (p. 16, ll. 26–28).

At one point the reader is directly confronted with an example of imperialist rhetoric, when Kayerts and Carlier find an old newspaper print: ‘It spoke much of the rights and duties of civilization, of the sacredness of the civilizing work, and extolled the merits of those who went about bringing light, and faith and commerce to the dark places of the earth’ (p. 17, ll. 53 ff.). King Leopold II of Belgium had declared in 1876:

To open to civilization the sole part of the globe which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which envelops the entire population: this, I venture to say, is a crusade worthy of this century of progress […].Our only programme […] is the work of moral and material regeneration, and we must do this among a population whose degeneration in its inherited conditions is difficult to measure […] Our progress will soon introduce into the vast regions of the Congo all the blessings of Christian civilization.

Progress in the guise of an allegorical figure appears at the very end as the voice of the steamer: ‘Progress was calling to Kayerts from the river. Progress and civilization and all the virtues’ (p. 36, ll. 3–4).

Whereas ‘Progress’, associated with trade and commerce, is exclusively rendered in satirical terms, the concept of ‘civilization’ developed in the story is more complex. It is opposed to ‘savagery’, ‘primitive nature’ and ‘wilderness’, referring to the ‘original’ state of man from which he has developed to become ‘civilized’. This evolutionary concept implies a hierarchical social and cultural structure under the supremacy of European


32

culture and society. But the way Conrad confronts his readers with this ‘civilization’ is ambivalent: on the one hand it is a stabilizing force that enables weak incapable characters like Kayerts and Carlier to lead and structure their insignificant lives, by belonging to highly structured systems like the military and the civil service. Yet this civilization envelops man with only a thin veneer of civilizatory safety, easily worn off when exposed to loneliness, to the ‘unusual, […] things vague, uncontrollable, and repulsive’ (p. 12, l. 31). The protective function of civilization for Kayerts and Carlier is gradually worn away until the two men are reduced to a state of animal savagery fighting over a lump of sugar.

For Makola, the ‘civilized nigger’, civilization has yet another connotation: it provides him with the skills of an imperial agent, but he is deficient in those moral and ethic principles which prevent the barbaric practices of slave trading.

Conrad’s pessimistic view on civilization and its impact on man offers little hope for change. What (apart from the arrival of the steamer) could have saved those two Europeans, or at least helped them to survive in

Africa? Kayerts and Carlier are described as ‘dull […] to the subtle influences of surroundings’ (p. 12, ll. 12–13) and they were left unassisted to face the wilderness. The reader is left to speculate as to the nature of that assistance, but open-mindedness, curiosity and information on the nature of their new homes (instead of romantic or heroic literature) might have been helpful. The colonialist’s confrontation with loneliness is a theme that is also encountered in the other stories of ‘Colonial Encounters’.

Part of the blame for the failure might also be pinned on the Company (for mismanagement), as the Director predicted the failure right from the start (p. 11, ll. 55 ff.). The grotesque scene at the end with the dead Kayerts disrespectfully insulting the colonial institution appears as one final moment of truth, revealing the destructive and degenerating force of colonial power that has made Kayerts its victim. Hanging himself on the cross is a further ironic allusion to the failure of the missionary spirit, which had become too closely intertwined with the notions of commerce and progress.


33

Teaching Suggestions

Whether ‘An Outpost of Progress’ is the first story of the whole collection to be dealt with or the beginning of a separate unit on ‘Colonial Encounters’, students will undoubtedly need more time to deal with this story, as it is one of the longest and most complex stories in the collection and on the whole it contains relatively difficult lexic; between eight and ten lessons should be planned to discuss its various messages and layers of meaning.

Getting focused

The Congo

In order to comprehend the uncomfortable message of this story for the readers of the time and to make students of today aware of the author’s account of the colonial situation in the Congo Free State and of European ‘empire building’ and colonial interests, as well as the role of colonizers and colonists (cf. TM, p. 14), an overview of the historic and cultural background is essential (cf. TM, p. 26). Of course these pieces of information can also be dealt with while reading the corresponding passages in the story itself.

➡ In small groups do research on the Congo (especially when it was a possession of King Leopold II of Belgium). Each group should give a presentation about the Congo to the class.

➡ Then in class collect reasons why a European might go to the Congo in the 1890s.

➤➤ Possible answers:

Adventure, exploring unknown territory, making money on ivory and rubber, escaping narrow European conditions, bringing ‘civilization’ and Christianity to the black Africans in the ‘dark continent’.

➤➤

Civilization and Progress

➡ As the two terms ‘civilization’ and ‘progress’ are crucial for understanding the story’s subtle meanings and ironies, a brainstorming activity on both terms may lead students to a deeper understanding of the context. Assign one term each for two groups. The group(s) working with the word ‘progress’ could do a pyramiding activity, in which groups of 2, then 4, and finally 8 students have to agree on three sentences of the same structure.


Progress is opening up new resources for man on the moon teaching every child to read and write being able to travel freely constructing new state of the art buildings

➤➤

Those working with ‘civilization’ could collect synonyms or words and phrases related to or defining ‘civilization’ or a ‘civilized’ person:


Civilization: state of human society education and culture development and organization of society

A civilized person is highly educated has good manners and is well-behaved

➤➤

The students from the two groups present their findings, and then discuss the positive and negative aspects of both terms. This activity should sensitize the students to the irony in the title of the short story.


34

Working with the text

Guided Analysis

As the text is not that easy, it would be wise to ensure that students have fully understood the text. This can be done by guiding the students’ attention to crucial moments of the story. To facilitate the students’ reading, the text has been divided into five segments. On ➤ Worksheet 1: ‘Comprehension Questions’ (cf. TM, p. 40) a list of comprehension questions has been drawn up according to the following segments, which make up convenient reading chunks.

1. Arrival at the Outpost (up to p. 15, l. 42)2. Encounters with the Natives (up to p. 19, l. 57)3. Dark Forebodings (up to p. 22, l. 9)4. The Deal (up to p. 30, l. 30)5. The Disaster (to the end)

1. Arrival at the Outpost

➡ Setting: The area of the ‘cleared ground’ of the outpost is clearly described in the story. Students individually or in pairs should collect information about the setting from p. 10, ll. 4–25. A student who is good at drawing could depict on the board what the other students call out to him or her.

large building • built of reeds • veranda on all four sides • three rooms the storehouse • small building made of clay • dried grass roof – contains all sorts of goods Makola’s hut • low shed-like grave • tall cross out of the perpendicular forest • wilderness river

It might look something like this:


35

➡ Kayerts and Carlier: Students should begin to collect quotes and information about ‘the two white men’ as a pair, and also as individuals. More information on the two characters should be added as the students read the other segments. They could also be given ➤ Worksheet 2 a: ‘Kayerts and Carlier’ (cf. TM, pp. 41–42) to fill in.


1 Narrator; Kayerts and Carlier; criticism of civilization, as it does not make individuals better or more self-sufficient

2 Director; Kayerts and Carlier; harsh judgement on their imbecility and uselessness

3 Narrator; Kayerts and Carlier; shows how human individuals lack vision

4 Carlier; about making money in the Congo; he is the greedier of the two

5 Narrator; Kayerts and Carlier; indicates that the two men have no real strength of character

6 Narrator; Makola; he is intellectually and emotionally superior to the two white men

7 Carlier; Kayerts; he is afraid to be left alone in the jungle

8 Gobila; white men; tolerant of all humans, but has a mystical attitude towards non-Africans

9 Carlier; on the prospect of the outpost becoming a thriving town; shows how Europeans believed they were the bringers of civilization

10 Narrator; Kayerts and Carlier; foreshadowing deterioration of their physical condition

11 Kayerts; about his status; playing out ironically his superior position

12 Narrator; on his status; his sentimentality foreshadows his inability to deal with reality

13 Narrator; Kayerts and Carlier; reveals how they need someone to order them around

14 Narrator; Kayerts and Carlier and their attitude to work; idleness leads to dependency

15 Narrator; Kayerts; reveals how he can only deal with the mundane things of life and the organized life of an bureaucrat

16 Kayerts; on repairing the cross; foreshadowing of death (all the white men hang themselves from the cross)

17 Gobila; interpreting the ways of the white men; shows the incomprehension of one culture for another

18 Narrator; Carlier; reveals his character as a military man, as someone whose life consists of following orders and using his free time for trivial diversion

19 Narrator; Kayerts and Carlier; critical comment on the mental framework of the two men through the use of comparison

20 Narrator; Kayerts and Carlier; observations on the arrival of the strangers and the inability of the Europeans to know how to deal with this new experience

➤➤

Using the information from Worksheet 2 a, students can then fill in ➤ Worksheet 2 b: ‘Kayerts and Carlier’ (cf. TM, p. 43).


As others see them: – they are despised by Makola who is aware of their incompetence and stupidity – the director thinks they are useless and wants to get rid of them – Gobila respects their strange ways and is tolerant of the fact that they are different and strange

As they see themselves: – as bearers of civilization and progress – as effective colonizers (making money on ivory)


36

– enjoying a leisurely life – looking back on their former lives with regret

Kayerts: – he is the chief, the boss, but he relies heavily on the companionship of Carlier – more anxious – he has worked in the Administration, has a daughter and wants to marry her off – submissive and more loyal to the company

Carlier: – Kayerts’ assistant, minor career in the cavalry, – in desperate need of money (had to rely on his family for support) – (segment 4) has less scruples about the slave deal – (segment 5 )in the end openly rebels against his superior

What they have in common: – insignificant, incapable individuals, unable to perceive the general aspect of things – physically and morally unfit for the struggle of colonial life – missing their comfortable life back home – blind men, like prisoners, machines dependent on the support from outer society – they are second-class agents, but want to make money – physically, morally, emotionally and intellectually unfit for the struggle of colonial life – missing their comfortable life back home – blind men, like prisoners, machines dependent on the support from outer society – they are second-class agents, but want to make money

As products of the crowd – they exist only with the protection and support of civilization and social institutions – they believe in the safety of their surroundings – exposed to ‘savagery ‘ and primitivism’ they become destabilized, out of control – they cannot bear to be alone – they are blind, they function like machines without any initiative of their own – they fail to realize the impact of their surroundings

➤➤

➡ Makola: The ambiguous character of the African can be explored in various ways. With the help of ➤ Worksheet 3: Henry Price / Makola (cf. TM, p. 44) Makola’s character can be examined in detail. Alternatively, this work could be done as a chart on the board (cf. below), which is completed through the students’ contribution.

➡ Write Kayerts’ first letter home to his daughter Melie giving her some first impressions about life on the outpost. Include details on the place and the people around you.

The dual identity of Makola/Henry Price

Makola ↔ ‘Henry Price’

He despises the two white men

African identity: a perfect imperial agent: believing in Evil Spirits writing a beautiful hand taciturn and impenetrable understands bookkeeping married to negress from Loanda speaks several languages


37

2. Encounters with the Natives

➡ Perspective: A close analysis of the passages on ➤ Worksheet 4: ‘Views on the Natives’ (cf. TM, p. 45) will allow students to become aware of how a certain perspective influences the perception of the reader. This is particularly important to understand European perceptions of Africans at the time. To complete the worksheet, segments 3 and 4 must also be read.


description of features and traits emphasis, effect point of view

1 men with spears (Gobila’s people)

p. 15, l. 50 – p. 16, l. 2

They were naked, glossy black, ornamented with snowy shells and glistening brass wire, perfect of limbAn uncouth babbling noise … moved in a stately manner … quick, wild glances

Natural beauty, exotic, love of decoration, exhibiting pride in their movements;savage and wild noises, no communication possible

omniscient narrator: seemingly objective and detachedpoint of view: European perspective

p. 16, ll. 2–25 Fine animals … fine arms, but legs no good below the kneeDon’t they stink! … Take that herd …

Model of ‘noble savage’‘haughty indulgence’not considered human but animal, judged accordingly

Kayerts and Carlier:the European attitude of disgust and materialism

2 Gobilap. 18, l. 27 – p. 19

Grey-headed savagepaternal manner … He seemed to really love all white men.Belief in the immortality of the whites

Primitive childlike behaviour, not to be taken seriously by the whites; superstitious, cannot understand white ways and manners

omniscient narrator: describes G in a way that reveals his superstitionsK. + C had a liking for that old and incomprehensible creaturedo not consider him human or worthy of respect

3 the strangersp. 19, l. 58 – p. 20, l. 36

tall, slight, draped classically from neck to heel in blue fringed cloths and carried percussion muskets over their bare right shoulders.Bloodshot eyesReminiscent of the speech of civilized menMrs Makola can speak with them

dangerous, fierce-lookingcontact with European powersAfrican slave dealers (not only Europeans)

Omniscient narrator:standard European clichés of primitivism and savagery prevailing at the time (Africans nearly but not quite civilized)

4 the station menp. 22, l. 10 – p. 23, l. 37

A tribe from a very distant part of the land of darkness and sorrowNot happy, regretting the festive incantation…of their own landThe food of the company did not agree with themA warlike tribe with filed teeth ... had lost their splendid physique

Pity, compassion and sympathy,memories of former life as warriorsalienated from their familiar surroundings

Omniscient narrator:critical view on the fate of displaced and uprooted Africans, exploited by colonial powers;A view rather critical of colonialism for that time

➤➤

➡ Write Kayerts’ second letter home to his daughter Melie giving her some more impressions after a few months at the trading station.

3. Dark Forebodings & 4. The Deal

➡ ➤ Worksheet 5: ‘Ivory Gathering’ (cf. TM, p. 46). The second task on the worksheet could be done as a written assignment or as a group discussion, with students collecting information from the text on the board.


1 The students should become aware of the corrupting influence of the ‘crime’ on the two Europeans whereas the African (Makola) seems to be untouched by the event.

Makola: Kayerts and Carlier:

becomes taciturn and strangepraises the value of the ivoryis busy with his family

slow to grasp the full truth, they become accomplices in a crimecall Makola bad names to ease their consciencethey rationalize and justify the deal: it had to be donethey feel more lonely; gradual moral disintegration


38

2 Kayerts and Carlier are the agents, but it seems that there is a trading company that they are employed by. Obviously they take a commission, but it is not clear how much. In contrast to the agents described in the text, Kayerts and Carlier seem incapable of organizing the delivery of ivory. The only ivory they see are the tusks brought in by the Africans. They are unable to negotiate or threaten the Africans. So the text reveals a very efficient and brutal ivory trade, in which the Europeans exploit and abuse the Africans, while in the short story, it is the Africans with the tusks who abuse the other Africans, while Kayerts and Carlier do nothing, due to their stupidity.

➤➤

➡ Write Kayerts’ final letter home to his daughter Melie. How might the episode of the slaves and the tusks be conveyed – or might it indeed not be conveyed.

5. The Disaster

➡ The students could act out the fight between Kayerts and Carlier over the lump of sugar. They first read p. 30, l. 32 – p. 32, l. 7. Then they work in groups of four or five, with one student playing Kayerts, another Carlier, while the others give advice about staging, dialogue, setting, etc. The idea is to get the students to read the text intensively, write out the dialogue and then try to express the stupidity and the absurdity of the situation without having it get out of control.

➡ The students should list six reasons in order of importance as you see them as to why Kayerts hanged himself . As a number of reasons can be found, students could discuss them in pyramids (groups of 2, then 4 and then 8), then be asked to agree on three main reasons and discard the others. Each larger group has to present and justify their reasons.


– he killed an unarmed subordinate in a fight and is afraid of being taken to court– he is guilty of slave-trading which was officially forbidden– he cannot face his daughter ‘Melie’ with his guilt and economic failure– he has lost his companion and cannot continue life without him– he has discovered the truth about the colonial system of exploitation– he refuses to save himself by yet another lie (Carlier died of fever)– his veneer of civilization has been wiped away, and he has no psychological support system to keep him

afloat– he realizes that human life has no meaning– he realizes that he has become victim of the white man’s ideology on which his whole life was grounded

➤➤

➡ Discuss the meaning of Kayerts’s death: did he die in vain?


As Kayerts’s death will certainly have no effect on the activities of the Great Trading Company, it can be seen as an expression of the absurdity of a godless universe. The hanging from a cross further supports the idea of the failure of the Christian ethic.

➤➤

Rounding off

➡ Conrad and Racism: As the story is part of a collection dealing with post-colonialism, it is appropriate to explore the accusation of racism that has been laid at Conrad’s door. This can be done by working with ➤ Worksheet 6: ‘Racism in Conrad’s Works’ (cf. TM, p. 47). The text by Chinua Achebe (author of ‘Dead Men’s Path’, cf. SB, p. 109) claims that Joseph Conrad was a ‘thoroughgoing racist’. This may sound surprising to some, as it is obvious that Conrad’s intention is more to ridicule Europeans and their inability to handle and come to terms with the ‘Dark Continent’. This is precisely what Achebe uses to support his criticism: Conrad does ridicule the Europeans, but at the expense of the Africans.


39


Achebe’s position: – Conrad sees the natives not as human beings – He describes their physical appearance with emphasis on beauty, animality and savagery – Language and religion are presented as primitive and childlike – Africa is used only as the background to the portayal of stupid Europeans

What students of Conrad claim: – Conrad didn’t know any better; there was no way of getting more intimate knowledge about Africans – He was only concerned with the corrupting impact of European colonisation – He made fun of Kayerts’ and Carlier’s way of looking at them

➤➤

When the assignments have been completed, the students’ findings can be dealt with in a fishbowl discussion: Seven chairs are placed in a circle. One chair is for the chairperson, whose job it is to keep the discussion going but he or she should remain neutral.One member of each of the teams also takes a seat.

The two remaining chairs are for anyone in the audience who wishes to add an extra argument (i.e. to feed the fish in the fishbowl). Once they have delivered their argument they must go back to their place, thus vacating the chair for other participants.

The teacher should emphasize that the audience must not just sit back and enjoy themselves but make an active contribution to the discussion. This activity also has the extra benefit of providing students with the opportunity to refresh their knowledge of the whole story, while considering the attitudes of a white man living at the turn of the 20th century. Classes (and teachers) with the necessary experience might instead prefer to hold a formal debate.

Finally, the students should be asked for their own personal opinion, which could be given as a written comment:

➡ Give your personal opinion on whether you think Conrad is a ‘racist’ or not.

Topics for essays

➡ Analyse how Conrad criticizes colonialism in the story ‘An Outpost of Progress’.(You might look at the characters, their dealings, the role of natives, the mode of presentation, etc.)

➡ Analyse the symbolic meaning(s) of the cross in Conrad’s short story.

Creative writing tasks

➡ Once you have finished Kayerts’s letters to Melie, give your letters to another classmate After reading them, the student makes a list of important elements of the story that are missing from Kayerts’s letters, and discusses why they are missing with the student who wrote the original letters.

➡ Write the report of the Director to his company on his findings at the outpost. What conclusions might he draw from the incident?

Mediation

➡ ➤ Worksheet 7: ‘Kindlerhändler in Nigeria gefasst’ (cf. TM, p. 48). Summarizing a text in another language is a skill that is becoming increasingly popular in the English-language classroom, as it goes beyond the traditional word-for-word translation exercise and demands a particular skill that is in demand in the work world: the ability to understand a document in one language and to ‘mediate’ the contents to a person who does not speak the original language.

40 Conrad: An Outpost of Progress

© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

The Story of Rachel and Leah

Segment 1 (up to p. 15, l. 42)

1. Where do Makola and his wife originally come from?2. How many buildings are there on the outpost and what are their respective functions?3. Who was the first chief of the station?4. What money do Kayerts and Carlier earn?5. What were their previous posts and why did they give them up?6. When is the steamer supposed to return?7. How do they feel about their former life?8. How do the two men get along with each other?9. How do we know from which country they come?10. What does their dwelling place look like?


1. Why did Carlier say that he couldn’t make cavalry men of the natives?2. Why did they like the books of their predecessor?3. How does Carlier imagine the outpost in a hundred years?4. How do they communicate with Gobila?5. What food do they eat?


1. How do the strangers differ from Gobila’s people?2. Why could Mrs Price understand them?3. In what way does Makola behave strangely?4. What noises could be heard during the night?5. How did Carlier pass the following day?

Segement 4 (up to p. 30, l. 30)

1. Why are the ten station men in such a poor physical condition?2. How does Makola prepare his two chiefs for the ensuing deal?3. What did Makola do on the morning after the station men had disappeared?4. What price did they have to pay for the six beautiful tusks?5. Why does Kayerts turn his back on the others when he notes the weights of the tusks?6. What do Kayerts and Carlier miss most in the trading station?

Segment 5 (to the end)

1. What do the two men quarrel about?2. What names do they call each other?3. What decision has Kayerts come to before they actually collide again?4. What does Kayerts see when he turns around the corner of the veranda?5. Why does Maola say: ‘He died of fever.’6. Why does Makola ring the bell?7. What impression does Kayerts’s dead body convey to the director?

Comprehension Questions➤ Worksheet 1 Kayerts and Carlier

The Story of Rachel and Leah


➤ Copymaster 3

© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

Identify the quotes on this worksheet. Say who says them, and about who or what.

Quotes Who says them, and about what/who?

1 They were two perfectly insignificant and incapable individuals, whose existence is only rendered possible through the high organization of civilised crowds.

2 They won’t know how to begin. I always thought the station on this river useless, and they just fit the station.

3 They lived like blind men in a large room, aware only of what came in contact with them (and of that only imperfectly), but unable to see the general aspect of things.

4 If there were commissions to get, so much the better …‘We shall see very soon’.

5 No two beings could have been more unfitted for such a struggle.

6 He despised the two white men.

7 He’s so fat and unhealthy. It would be awful if I had to bury him here. He’s a man I respect.

8 They all appeared to him very young, indistinguishably alike (except for stature), and he knew that they were all brothers, and also immortal.

9 And then, chaps will read that the two good fellows, Kayerts and Carlier, were the first civilised men to live in this very spot!

10 But being constantly together, they did not notice the change that took place gradually in their appearance, and also in their dispositions.

11 ‘I’m chief here, and my orders are that you should not expose yourself to the sun.’

Kayerts and Carlier➤ Worksheet 2 a

➤ Copymaster 2


© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

Quotes Who says them, and about what/who?

12 Kayerts was moved almost to tears by his director’s kindness. He would… by doing his best, try to justify the flattering confidence.

13 They could only live on conditions of being machines.

14 But the two men got on well together in the fellowship of their stupidity and laziness. Together they did nothing, absolutely nothing … And in time they came to feel something resembling affection for one another.

15 He regretted all the gossip, the small enmities, the mild venom, and the little jokes of government offices.

16 ‘I suspended myself with both hands to the cross-piece. Not a move. Oh, I did that properly.’

17 In short, they behaved just like that other white creature that had hidden itself in a hole in the ground.

18 He regretted the clink of sabre and spurs on a fine afternoon, the barrackroom witticisms, the girls of the garrison towns.

19 They were like those lifelong prisoners who liberated after many years do not know what use to make of their freedom.

20 They both, for the first time, became aware that they lived in conditions where the unusual may be dangerous, and that there was no power on earth outside of themselves to stand between them and the unusual.

Kayerts and Carlier➤ Worksheet 2 a Kayerts and Carlier as social creatures


➤ Copymaster 3

© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

Kayerts and Carlier Kayerts and Carlier as social creatures➤ Worksheet 2 b

as others see them:

as they see themselves:

as products of the crowd (p. 12, ll. 16–34; p. 14, ll. 4–15)

Kayerts what they have Carlier in common:

➤ Copymaster 2


© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

Find character traits which are more in keeping with Henry Price, and others which are more in keeping with Makola. Collect your findings on this mind map.

Henry Price / Makola➤ Worksheet 3

Makola Henry Price

Views on the Natives


➤ Copymaster 3

© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

Henry Price / Makola

TASKS 1 Fill in the chart below so that you can see from what point of view the natives are described and the effect of the description.

2 Try to think what is left out, what is not said, about the black natives. What aspects might a black writer have put forward?

description of features and traits

emphasis, effect point of view

1 men with spears (Gobila’s people)

p. 15, l. 50 – p. 16, l. 2

p. 16, ll. 2–25

2 Gobilap. 18, l. 27 – p. 19

3 the strangersp. 19, l. 58 – p. 20, l. 36

4 the station menp. 22, l. 10 – p. 23, l. 37

Views on the Natives➤ Worksheet 4

➤ Copymaster 2


© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

Congo peoples had been hunting elephants for centuries, but now they were forbidden to

sell or deliver ivory to anyone other than an agent of Leopold. A draconian refinement of

the ivory-gathering method, which set the pattern for much that was to come, was a

commission structure the king imposed in 1890, whereby his agents in the field got a cut

of the ivory’s market value – but on a sliding scale. For ivory purchased in Africa at eight

francs per kilo, an agent received 6 percent of the vastly higher European market price.

But the commission climbed, in stages, to 10 percent for ivory bought at four francs per

kilo. The European agents thus had a powerful incentive to force Africans – if necessary,

at gunpoint – to accept extremely low prices.

The commands were above all for labour. At the beginning, the state most wanted

porters. Like Stanley, any official who ventured away from the river system and into the

bush – to collect ivory, set up new posts, put down a rebellion – needed long columns of

porters to carry everything from machine-gun ammunition to all that red wine and food.

These tens of thousands of porters were usually paid for their work, if only sometimes the

food necessary to keep them going, but most of them were conscripts. Even children were

put to work: one observer noted seven- to nine-year-olds each carrying a load of twenty-

two pounds.

(From: Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost. A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa.

London: Macmillan, 1999)

2 draconian: extremely cruel and severe 2 refinement: Überarbeitung 4 cut: Anteil 11 venture: move

TASKS 1 What impact did the trading of ivory for slaves have on the inhabitants of the outpost?

2 Collect information from ‘An Outpost of Progress’ about the ivory trade and compare it to the text above.

5

10

15

5

10

15

Ivory Gathering➤ Worksheet 5

The point of my observations should be quite clear by now, namely that Joseph Conrad

was a thoroughgoing racist. That this simple truth is glossed over in criticisms of his work

is due to the fact that white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its

manifestations go completely unremarked. Students of Heart of Darkness will often tell

you that Conrad is concerned not so much with Africa as with the deterioration of one

European mind caused by solitude and sickness. They will point out to you that Conrad

is, if anything, less charitable to the Europeans in the story than he is to the natives, that

the point of the story is to ridicule Europe’s civilizing mission in Africa … Which is partly

the point. Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human factor.

Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the

wandering European enters at his peril. Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse

arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty

European mind? But that is not even the point. The real question is the dehumanization

of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in

the world. …

I am talking about a book which parades in the most vulgar fashion prejudices and

insults from which a section of humanity has suffered untold agonies and atrocities in the

past and continues to do so in many ways and places today. I am talking about a story in

which the very humanity of black people is called in question….

(From: Chinua Achebe, ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’, Massachusetts Review

vol. 18, 1977; Reprinted by permission of the Emma Sweeney Agency)

2 gloss over sth.: avoid talking about sth. unpleasant 9 backdrop: Kulisse 10 metaphysical: referring to the branch of philosophy which deals with the nature of existence 11 at his peril: at his own risk 11 preposterous: ridiculous 12 props: Requisiten

TASKS 1 Use two different coloured markers to underline a) the key words and expressions in the text above that refer to reasons why ‘students of Conrad’ claim he should not be considered a ‘thoroughgoing racist’ and b) those that refer to Achebe’s caims that he is. Check with a partner, compare and discuss what you have underlined.

2 Form 4 teams, A, B, C and D. Teams A and C find evidence in ‘An Outpost of Progress’ to prove what ‘students of Conrad’ claim. Teams B and D find evidence to prove that Achebe’s arguments are relevant.

5

10

15

5

10

15

Racism in Conrad’s works


➤ Copymaster 3

© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

Ivory Gathering

The point of my observations should be quite clear by now, namely that Joseph Conrad

was a thoroughgoing racist. That this simple truth is glossed over in criticisms of his work

is due to the fact that white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its

manifestations go completely unremarked. Students of Heart of Darkness will often tell

you that Conrad is concerned not so much with Africa as with the deterioration of one

European mind caused by solitude and sickness. They will point out to you that Conrad

is, if anything, less charitable to the Europeans in the story than he is to the natives, that

the point of the story is to ridicule Europe’s civilizing mission in Africa … Which is partly

the point. Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human factor.

Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the

wandering European enters at his peril. Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse

arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty

European mind? But that is not even the point. The real question is the dehumanization

of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in

the world. …

I am talking about a book which parades in the most vulgar fashion prejudices and

insults from which a section of humanity has suffered untold agonies and atrocities in the

past and continues to do so in many ways and places today. I am talking about a story in

which the very humanity of black people is called in question….

(From: Chinua Achebe, ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’, Massachusetts Review

vol. 18, 1977; Reprinted by permission of the Emma Sweeney Agency)

2 gloss over sth.: avoid talking about sth. unpleasant 9 backdrop: Kulisse 10 metaphysical: referring to the branch of philosophy which deals with the nature of existence 11 at his peril: at his own risk 11 preposterous: ridiculous 12 props: Requisiten

TASKS 1 Use two different coloured markers to underline a) the key words and expressions in the text above that refer to reasons why ‘students of Conrad’ claim he should not be considered a ‘thoroughgoing racist’ and b) those that refer to Achebe’s caims that he is. Check with a partner, compare and discuss what you have underlined.

2 Form 4 teams, A, B, C and D. Teams A and C find evidence in ‘An Outpost of Progress’ to prove what ‘students of Conrad’ claim. Teams B and D find evidence to prove that Achebe’s arguments are relevant.

5

10

15

5

10

15

Racism in Conrad’s works➤ Worksheet 6

Names in the Novel➤ Copymaster 2


© C

orne

lsen

Ver

lag

2006

A

lle R

echt

e vo

rbeh

alte

n.

Der nigerianischen Polizei ist offenbar ein bedeutender Schlag gegen den organisierten

Kinderhandel gelungen. Bei verschiedenen Durchsuchungen am Wochenende wurden 21

Personen festgenommen, die des Handels mit Menschen verdächtigt werden, sowie knapp

130 ihrer mutmaßlichen Opfer befreit. In der Wirtschaftsmetropole Lagos stoppten die

Ermittler einen Lastwagen mit 62 Kindern im Alter zwischen fünf und sieben Jahren. Die

Kinder waren in einem üblicherweise für den Transport von Fisch benutzten Container

eingesperrt und seien nach einer 24 Stunden dauernden Fahrt am Ende ihrer Kräfte

gewesen, sagte ein Polizeisprecher. Sie stammen vermutlich aus dem Norden Nigerias

und sollten in Lagos als Haushaltsgehilfen verkauft werden. Eine festgenommene

Verdächtige behauptete, die Kinder mit dem Einverständnis ihrer Eltern nach Lagos

gebracht zu haben.[…]

Der spektakulärste Coup aber gelang in Okota, einem Vorort von Lagos, wo ein offiziell

registriertes und zugelassenes Waisenhaus ausgehoben wurde, das nach den Ermittlungen

als Durchgangsstation für Kinderhändler diente. Zudem wurden in dem Gebäude

medizinische Instrumente gefunden, die bei Geburten zum Einsatz kommen, was die

Polizei annehmen läßt, das Waisenhaus habe auch als „Handelsstation“ für Ungeborene

gedient. Auf dem Gelände wurden Knochenreste gefunden, die möglicherweise

menschlichen Ursprungs sein könnten […] Kinderhandel und der Handel mit

menschlichen Organen für Voodoo-Rituale sind ein in Westafrika weitverbreitetes

Phänomen.

(From: ‘Kinderhändler in Nigeria gefasst’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 March 2005)

• Sum up this news story from a German newspaper in English in about 100 words.

• Compare the findings in this report to the situation Conrad wrote over a hundred years earlier.

5

10

15

20

5

10

15

20

Kinderhändler in Nigeria gefasst➤ Worksheet 7

Outpost of Progress

Documents

Transcript of Outpost of Progress