LITR / CRCL 5734:
Colonial & Postcolonial Literature
Sample Student Midterm 2003
Lisa C. James
LITR 5734
Midterm
June 10, 2003
The Role of Ideologies in the Colonization of Africa
I came into this class with a few apprehensions. Coming from a Cross-Cultural Studies background, my grasp on literature was limited to a class taken a few years ago at a community college. My only consolation was that I had read some of the books assigned in class earlier and had some vague recollection as to the lessons to be learned from the novels. In reading the novels again for this class, I could see how my Cross Cultural Studies background would give me new perspective in how these texts were analyzed in relation to one another.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe are the two novels that we first looked at as a class. I had read both of these books earlier but never in dialogue with each other. After reading both again and listening to class discussions I realized not only do they seem to be similar in terms of the African context, they also seem to speak and reply to each other. These novels, as well as some of the other materials in class, help define the colonial and postcolonial attitudes that were prevalent at the time. We see that the European ideology on human differences expressed in Conrad’s novel justified and encouraged colonization while another ideology of differences in Achebe’s Ibo society promoted tolerance. These two factors played a key role in European colonization of Africa.
European ideology, at the height of colonialism, was primarily based on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The idea that humanity progressed through stages of development placed different races at different points on a scale of linear progression. Rationale and logic were deemed to be universals and those who had not discovered solutions to problems such as the Europeans had were not at the same level of progress but lower. These “primitive” people were not seen as exactly incapable of such ability but that they simply lagged far behind the more “civilized” of the world i.e., the Europeans. Richard Perry, in his book From Time Immemorial, says the “savage” was seen as representing “what Europeans had been like in the distant past” (Perry 31). They were different because they had not advanced far enough. Perry goes on to say that the other side of this idea was the sense that “savage races” were “children of nature and could someday advance in rationality, even if that might mean a loss of innocence” (Perry 30). The “savage races”, thus, lived in an idyllic world undisturbed for eons. Progress would eventually come but it was a change, an inevitable loss of innocence, that was something to be mourned.
In much of European literature of the colonial period, the evolutionary ideology presents itself in plots involving the main character shipping off to distant, “exotic” locations where “savage” people live in an untamed, uncharted Paradise of sorts. European preoccupation with the notion that they are the “discoverers” is very well portrayed in such works. The evolutionary idea of civilization’s duty to bring enlightenment to the dark corners of the world is evident.
In the novel Heart of Darkness, we see the idea of Africa as an untouched land that had yet to see the light of civilization. Marlow, the narrator, describes Africa as a large impenetrable mass of darkness. Africa, both the continent and the idea, is like going back in time. While England at one time was also a dark place on the earth, Africa had yet to be tamed and conquered. Traveling up the river in Africa, Marlow says, “’Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world’” (54). He goes on to describe how they were “wanderers on prehistoric earth” ( 56). In other words, Marlow, sees Africa as civilization’s past. As Sawsan Sanjak in a 2001 class presentation states, “the colonizer is back in time for a view of prehistory”.
However, this idea of linear progression is not limited to just the geographical area of Africa but to the people in Africa. Marlow says, when he sees a group of natives shouting, “The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us – who could tell” (56). The Europeans could not understand because “we were too far and could not remember” (57). In other words, Europeans were so far advanced that they could not remember how it was to be “primitive”. Marlow describes one of the natives as being an “improved specimen” and full of “improving knowledge” because he had learned some of the European ways. Once again, this shows how non-Europeans were seen as needing “improvement” to progress to “civilization”. The idea that the “savage” is childlike is also found in Marlow’s description of an abandoned village: “There’s something pathetically childish in the ruins of grass walls”(Conrad 36). Thus, savages needed to be taught the ways of “civilization” and in Kurtz’s words, because “whites, from the point of development [they] had arrived at” could exert their will for unbounded good through colonization and suppression of “savage” customs.
While Heart of Darkness seems to explain European ideology during the colonization, the impact of such ideology can be felt in works of postcolonial writers. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism says, “Postcolonial writing is the slow, painful, and highly complex means of fighting one’s way into European made history, in other words, a process of dialogue and necessary correction” (582). In trying to understand their own postcolonial situation, many postcolonial writers allude to the ideology that colonizers used as justification and the awareness of its impact on colonized peoples. In the poem, “A Far Cry From Africa” Derek Walcott presents the evolutionary ideology in the line “The gorilla wrestles with the superman” (17). The idea of evolution has become so ingrained in our minds that we know at once that the gorilla is the “savage” African while the superman is the “civilized” European.” Another postcolonial writer, Chinua Achebe, in an essay entitled, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” recognizes the role of Africa in European eyes as something left behind: “Europe, advancing in civilization could cast a backward glance periodically at Africa trapped in primodial barbarity” (261).
Postcolonial writers, like Chinua Achebe, recognize the ideology used to justify colonization and how a colonized group’s own ideology played a role in colonization. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe describes the Ibo society before and during colonization. The Ibo society contained all that was required of being called a “civilized” society including laws, productive use of the land, social structure, etc. However, their perception of differences was not based on an evolutionary or even linear scale. They differentiated themselves from other groups based on depth of knowledge and the adherence to traditional cultural behaviors.
In Things Fall Apart, the Ibo society is represented as upholding, and having a reverence for, traditions of the ancestors. However, one’s place in life was not ascribed and there was some degree of social mobility. Among the Ibo, “a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father” ( 8). The character of Okonkwo is a perfect example of how a man of a poor background could gain titles and make a name for himself. Thus, people in Ibo society are seen as individuals with agency and not as a mindless mass seen in Conrad’s novel. Ibo society also seems to be tolerant of the beliefs of other people. Differences in custom are attributed to a lack of understanding. In speaking of a custom in Obodoani, Ogubuefi Ezuedu says, “It is a bad custom which these people observe because they lack understanding” (73). There also seems to be some sort of inherent understanding of cultural differences as seen in the statement made by Obierka’s eldest brother: “…what is good in one place is bad in another place” (73). Uchendu, Okwonko’s Uncle, echoes the same sentiments when he says, “The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others” (141).
It may be argued that the only other groups known to the Ibo before colonization were other Africans and, more specifically, nearby tribes. They did not know radically different cultures. However, after meeting the white men, they still considered them “men.” The white man appeared to be crazy with his religion but he was nevertheless just as human as them with the same ability to reason. The white man is even welcome in their midst as long as he does not cause problems. The white missionary is told, “ You can stay with us if you like our ways. It is good that a man should worship the gods and the spirits of his fathers” (190). This statement alone shows that the Ibo are understanding and tolerant of the ways of others. What they can’t understand is lack of tolerance from the white man. He wants to convert everyone to his religion and wants everyone to follow his way of life.
Ideology played a key role in colonization and its impact. The idea of a linear scale of progression of mankind, as well as religious ideology, helped colonizers justify the acquisition of territory and peoples. It was their duty, as the most advanced culture, to teach their way, their religion, and their way of understanding to the world. This idea soon became racialized and essentially became the “white man’s burden”. One could say that the people who were colonized were in a way more “advanced” because they actually understood that there were differences between cultures but also how everyone was essentially human underneath. However, for the Ibo and other groups in Africa, this tolerance appears to have become a downfall in the face of colonialism.