10. Mar.: Marguerite Blanche-Marie Poradowska (née Gachet de la Fournière, 1848–1937), widow of Aleksander Poradowski, a distant relative of Conrad, was the ‘aunt’ who had used her influence in Brussels in 1890 to help him obtain his post in the Congo. Conrad wrote to her from Matadi on 18 June (Letters, vol. I, pp. 56–7), but if he wrote again on 24 June, this letter, like the others mentioned here, has not survived.
11. People speaking ill of each other: Cf. the account of life at the ‘Central Station’ (Heart of Darkness, 29–30).
12. Harou: Prosper Harou, a Belgian agent of the Société Anonyme du Haut-Congo, had arrived from Europe in the same ship as Conrad.
13. Danes: As Heart of Darkness also indicates, Scandinavians commonly served as officers in the Society’s steamboats.
14. Mosquitos: Spelled in this form throughout the diary.
15. andulating: The ‘beginning “u” in “undulating” is pronounced like the Polish “a’” (Zdzisław Najder, ed., Congo Diary and Other Uncollected Pieces, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978, p. 48).
16. the missionary: Rev. Charles E. Ingham, author of Congo Reading Book, 2 vols. (London: East London Missions Institute, 1890–91).
17. Backongo: Properly ‘Bakongo’, the name of a large tribe inhabiting the coastal regions of the Congo and Angola.
18. Zanzibari: Natives of Zanzibar were often employed by the Congo Free State to act as soldiers or policemen.
19. Palma Christi: The Latin name, meaning ‘the palm of Christ’, for the castor oil plant.
20. cal[a]bashes: Various species of gourd and pumpkin-like fruit.
21. malafu: Palm wine.
22. ressembling: After the French ressemblant.
23. accidented: A Gallicism, from accidenté (‘uneven, hilly’).
24. manioc plantations: The ‘stuff like half-cooked cold dough’ that Marlow sees the Bangala crew eating (Heart of Darkness, 50) is made from the tuberous roots of the manioc.
25. Messrs Heyn & Jaeger: Agents of the Société Anonyme du Haut-Congo. Reginald Heyn, an Englishman, managed a transport base at Manyanga.
26. Stayed here till the 25: Conrad never fully explained the reason for this protracted stay. For a detailed discussion, see Zdzisław Najder, Joseph Conrad: A Chronicle, trans. Halina Carroll-Najder (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 130–31.
27. Nkenghe: William Holman Bentley provides the key to the first two columns of this list, noting: ‘Markets in these parts are held once in every four days; the names of the days being Nsona, Nkandu, Konzo, Nkenge’ (Pioneering in the Congo, London: Religious Tract Society, 1900, vol. I, p. 358). He later elaborates: ‘The Congo week consists of four days…The markets are named after the day of the week and the town near which they are held’ (vol. I, p. 399). Here planning his itinerary for the next two weeks, Conrad converts the seven days of the European week into the four days of the Congo week, presumably to calculate when his journey would coincide with market-day. The places listed in the third column probably represent the camp-sites used on the journey.
28. Mrs Comber: Annie Comber (neé Smith), who had only recently arrived at the mission, would be dead before Conrad returned to Europe. She had come out from England in early 1890 and married Percy Comber, a Baptist missionary, at Matadi in June. After repeated fevers, she died at Banana on 19 December 1890 while waiting for a homeward-bound steamship.
29. Davis: Philip Davis, a Baptist missionary, arrived in the Congo with Percy Comber in 1885. From October 1886 he was stationed at Wathen, where he died in December 1895.
30. Rev. Bentley: The Baptist missionary William Holman Bentley (1855–1905), author of Pioneering in the Congo and several other works on the cultures and languages of the Congo. He and his wife Hendrina (née Kloekers) had gone to Tungwa, near Makuta (Bentley, vol. II, p. 341).
31. much more trees: An unidiomatic phrase, influenced by the Polish wiele więcej drzew.
32. One wrecked: The ship Conrad had expected to command, the Floride, was wrecked on 18 July, but was re-floated and brought back to Kinchasa within five days (Sherry, p. 41). Cf. Heart of Darkness: ‘One of them…informed me with great volubility and many digressions…that my steamer was at the bottom of the river’ (24–5).
33. shimbek: An African term for a few huts occupied by people of the same employment (for example, railway builders).
34. Ipeca: That is, Ipecacuanha, a herbal medicine used to combat dysentery.
35. Row…carriers: Cf. Heart of Darkness: ‘Then he got fever, and had to be carried in a hammock slung under a pole. As he weighed sixteen stone I had no end of rows with the carriers’ (24).
36. speech…understand: Cf. Heart of Darkness: ‘one evening, I made a speech in English with gestures, not one of which was lost to the sixty pairs of eyes before me’ (24).
Glossary of Nautical Terms
This glossary briefly explains all nautical terms used in Heart of Darkness. Admiral W. H. Smyth’s The Sailor’s Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms (1867; rpt. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1991) can be recommended as providing useful detailed description relevant to the period in which Conrad was writing.
bow: the forward part of a ship, from the point at which she begins to curve to the stern
brought up: halted and anchored the vessel
decked scow: a large, flat-bottomed boat with broad, square ends, used for carrying freight
dug-out: a canoe made from a hollowed-out tree-trunk
fairway: navigable part of a river
float: one of the blades of a ship’s paddle-wheel
hard a-starboard: as far as possible to the right
helm: the handle or tiller (in large ships the wheel) by which the rudder is managed; occasionally extended to include the whole steering gear
offing: the more distant part of the sea or river in view
opened the reach more: sailed further round the bend into the open stretch
purchases: leverage equipment for raising or lowering heavy objects
reach: (a) portion of a river that lies between two bends; (b) as much as can be seen in one view
sheered: swerved or changed course
snag: a hazard to navigation, particularly a submerged obstacle
sounding-pole: a pole used to measure the depth of water close to the land
sprits: small spars set diagonally upwards from the mast, on which sails are extended on fore-and-aft rigged vessels
stanchion: upright bar or post serving as a support
trip the anchor: raise clear the ship’s anchor from its bed
trireme: an ancient Greek and Roman warship; a type of galley with three tiers of oars on each side
yawl: two-masted sailing vessel, rigged fore-and-aft, with a large mainmast and a small mizzenmast (rear mast)
Filmography
Adaptations of Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness. Dir. Nicolas Roeg. Perf. Tim Roth and John Malkovich. 1994. VHS. Turner Home Entertainment, 1994.
Apocalypse Now Redux. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. 1979. DVD. Paramount, 2001.
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. Dir. Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola. 1991. DVD. Paramount, 2007.
Adaptations of Other Conrad Works
Lord Jim. Dir. Richard Brooks. Perf. Peter O’Toole and James Mason. 1965. DVD. Sony Pictures, 2004.
The Secret Agent. Dir. Christopher Hampton. Perf. Bob Hoskins and Robin Williams. 1996. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2005.
Victory. Dir. Mark Peploe. Perf. Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill. 1995. DVD. Miramax, 2002.
Swept from the Sea. Dir. Beeban Kidron. Perf. Ian McKellen and Rachel Weisz. Sony Pictures, 1998.
Nostromo. Dir. Alastair Reid. Perf. Colin Firth and Albert Finney. 1996. VHS. Fox Video, 1997.
Films about Africa
Darfur Now (documentary). Dir. Ted Braun. Perf. Don Cheadle. 2007. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2008.
Babel.
Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu. Perf. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. 2006. DVD. Paramount, 2007.
Blood Diamond. Dir. Edward Zwick. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly. 2006. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2007.
The Constant Gardener. Dir. Fernando Meirelles. Perf. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. 2005. DVD. Universal Studios, 2006.
The Last King of Scotland. Dir. Kevin MacDonald. Perf. Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy. 2006. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2007.
Tsotsi. Dir. Gavin Hood. 2005. DVD. Miramax, 2006.
Hotel Rwanda. Dir. Terry George. Perf. Don Cheadle. 2004. DVD. MGM, 2005.
Tears of the Sun. Dir. Antoine Fuqua. Perf. Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci. Sony Pictures, 2003.
Black Hawk Down. Dir. Ridley Scott. Sony Pictures, 2002.
Amistad. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, and Djimon Hounsou. 1997. DVD. Dreamworks Video, 1999.
The Ghost and the Darkness. Dir. Stephen Hopkins. Perf. Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer. 1996. DVD. Paramount, 1998.
Congo. Dir. Frank Marshall. 1995. DVD. Paramount, 1999.
Cry Freedom. Dir. Richard Attenborough. 1987. DVD. Universal Studios, 1999.
Out of Africa. Dir. Sydney Pollack. Perf. Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. 1985. DVD. Universal Studios, 2000.
King Solomon’s Mines. Dir. J. Lee Thompson. Perf. Richard Chamberlain. 1985. DVD. MGM, 2004.
La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers). Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo. 1966. DVD. Criterion, 2004.
Mogambo. Dir. John Ford. Perf. Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly. 1953. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2006.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Dir. Henry King. Perf. Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. 1952. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2007.
The African Queen. Dir. John Huston. Perf. Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. 1952. DVD. Castaway Nw UK, 2006.
King Solomon’s Mines. Dir. Andrew Marton and Compton Bennett. Perf. Deborah Kerr. 1950. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2005.
King Solomon’s Mines. Dir. Robert Stevenson. Perf. Paul Robeson. 1937. DVD. MGM, 2001.
Films about Imperialism
A Passage to India. Dir. David Lean. 1985. DVD. Sony Pictures, 2008.
Lawrence of Arabia. Dir. David Lean. Perf. Peter O’Toole. 1962. DVD. Columbia Tri/Star, 2008.
Gandhi. Dir. Richard Attenborough. Perf. Ben Kingsley. 1982. DVD. Sony Pictures, 2007.
The Man Who Would Be King. Dir. John Huston, Lawrence Tetenbaum, Ed Apfel. Perf. Sean Connery and Michael Caine. 1975. Warner Home Video, 1997.
Telling Africa’s Story Today: Recent Films about Africa
While opinions differ about just how forward-looking Heart of Darkness was in its time—some critics and readers appreciate the work as a bold statement against imperialism, while others think Conrad did not go far enough—it has had a significant impact on portrayals of Africa in fiction and nonfiction alike for more than a century. In this brief essay, I will explore the connections between Conrad’s portrayal of Africa in Heart of Darkness and a number of films released in just the past few years: Hotel Rwanda (2004), The Constant Gardener (2005), Tsotsi (2005), The Last King of Scotland (2006), and Blood Diamond (2006).
In three films featuring major Hollywood stars released within the last three years, the story of Africa has continued to be told through the viewpoint primarily of white characters from the “West.” Each offers a skeptical look at whether change can really occur, often exploring the possibility through distinct portrayals of gender. In The Constant Gardener, a tale primarily of corporate greed in Africa, Ralph Fiennes’s diplomat Justin Quayle at first rejects and then ultimately embraces the forceful efforts of his activist wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) to uncover the exploitation of Africans by a fictional European pharmaceutical company. In The Last King of Scotland, James McAvoy’s Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan is starstruck and largely oblivious to the violent tactics of his employer Idi Amin while his friend Sarah Merrit, a doctor’s wife herself, works diligently and quietly to provide proper care to a small village. And in Blood Diamond, Leonardo DiCaprio’s soldier-turned-diamond-smuggler Danny Archer struggles to overcome his self-interest, urged to more noble aspirations by the Western journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) and African father Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou). These are also each partially fictionalized accounts of Africa, much like Heart of Darkness, that explore and offer similarly ambiguous lessons about whether intervention in Africa—whether to exploit or to save—is a positive thing or not.
In contrast, two other films of the past few years tell stories that are more about Africa than the West. Hotel Rwanda (2004) recounts the tale of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel owner who successfully managed to protect more than a thousand Rwandans from the genocide of 1994. It exposes as absurd the minute differences upon which this genocide was based, pondering the ironies of Africa, but it certainly also aims to expose a Western audience to the fact that the West could have but did not intervene (the question of United Nations intervention in particular is a central feature of the story). But a film released only a year later, Tsotsi, based on a South African novel about an orphan-turned-thug who accidentally kidnaps a baby, offers a tale that could be told in virtually any language or country where classes are divided by wealth and opportunity.
More than a century after Conrad introduced a deeply troubled Africa to the Western world, modern films continue to explore similar questions in often complex ways. But unlike Heart of Darkness, women are now featured prominently and Africans speak for themselves. The answers may still be beyond us, but the countless voices of Africans and those who seek to help Africans can now be heard.
Contemporary Reviews of Heart of Darkness
Edward Garnett
Unsigned Review from Academy and Literature (6 December 1902): 606.
The publication in volume form of Mr. Conrad’s three stories, ‘Youth,’ Heart of Darkness,’ ‘The End of the Tether,’ is one of the events of the literary year. These stories are an achievement in art which will materially advance his growing reputation. Of the stories, ‘Youth’ may be styled a modern English epic of the Sea; ‘The End of the Tether’ is a study of an old sea captain who, at the end of forty years’ trade exploration of the Southern seas, finding himself dispossessed by the perfected routine of the British empire overseas he has helped to build, falls on evil times, and faces ruin calmly, fighting to the last. These two will be more popular than the third, ‘Heart of Darkness,’ a study of ‘the white man in Africa’ which is most amazing, a consummate piece of artistic diablerie. On reading ‘Heart of Darkness’ on its appearance in Blackwood’s Magazine our first impression was that Mr. Conrad had, here and there, lost his way. Now that the story can be read, not in parts, but from the first page to the last at a sitting, we retract this opinion and hold ‘Heart of Darkness’ to be the high-water mark of the author’s talent. It may be well to analyse this story a little so that the intelligent reader, reading it very deliberately, may see better for himself why Mr. Conrad’s book enriches English literature.
‘Heart of Darkness,’ to present its theme bluntly, is an impression, taken from life, of the conquest by the European whites of a certain portion of Africa, an impression in particular of the civilising methods of a certain great European Trading Company face to face with the ‘nigger.’ We say this much because the English reader likes to know where he is going before he takes art seriously, and we add that he will find the human life, black and white, in ‘Heart of Darkness’ an uncommonly and uncannily serious affair. If the ordinary reader, however, insists on taking the subject of a tale very seriously, the artist takes his method of presentation more seriously still, and rightly so. For the art of ‘Heart of Darkness’—as in every psychological masterpiece—lies in the relation of the things of the spirit to the things of the flesh, of the invisible life to the visible, of the sub-conscious life within us, our obscure motives and instincts, to our conscious actions, feelings and outlook. Just as landscape
art implies the artist catching the exact relation of a tree to the earth from which it springs, and of the earth to the sky, so the art of ‘Heart of Darkness’ implies the catching of infinite shades of the white man’s uneasy, disconcerted, and fantastic relations with the exploited barbarism of Africa; it implies the acutest analysis of the deterioration of the white man’s morale, when he is let loose from European restraint, and planted down in the tropics as an ‘emissary of light’ armed to the teeth, to make trade profits out of the ‘subject races.’ The weirdness, the brilliance, the psychological truth of this masterly analysis of two Continents in conflict, of the abysmal gulf between the white man’s system and the black man’s comprehension of its results, is conveyed in a rapidly rushing narrative which calls for close attention on the reader’s part. But the attention once surrendered, the pages of the narrative are as enthralling as the pages of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The stillness of the sombre African forests, the glare of sunshine, the feeling of dawn, of noon, of night on the tropical rivers, the isolation of the unnerved, degenerating whites staring all day and every day at the Heart of Darkness which is alike meaningless and threatening to their own creed and conceptions of life, the helpless bewilderment of the unhappy savages in the grasp of their flabby and rapacious conquerors—all this is a page torn from the life of the Dark Continent—a page which has been hitherto carefully blurred and kept away from European eyes. There is no ‘intention’ in the story, no parti pris, no prejudice one way or the other; it is simply a piece of art, fascinating and remorseless, and the artist is but intent on presenting his sensations in that sequence and arrangement whereby the meaning or the meaninglessness of the white man in uncivilised Africa can be felt in its really significant aspects. If the story is too strong meat for the ordinary reader, let him turn to ‘Youth,’ wherein the song of every man’s youth is indeed sung. […] Mr. Conrad is easily among the first writers of to-day. His special individual gift, as an artist, is of so placing a whole scene before the reader that the air, the landscape, the moving people, the houses on the quays, the ships in the harbour, the sounds, the scents, the voices in the air, all fuse in the perfect and dream-like illusion of an unforgettable reality.