Heart Of Darkness: What Did Europeans Think About Africa?

Introduction

Europeans saw Africa as being uncivilized and backwards, but they could become like the West with help. Africa was considered the “dark continent”, Europeans thought that the natives were below them and needed their “help” to become humanized and cultured (Jones). It was an attitude similar to orientalism, Africans had little chance to engage in a dialogue about their culture and heritage. Africa was a different and “other” land that was full of valuable resources to Europeans that the natives did not understand the value of. To the West, and many Europeans, Africa existed as a place full of resources to be taken.

What did Europeans think about Africa?

The general European population had little information about what was happening in Africa before the Western international media coverage began (Jones). Africa was not seen as a group of people or cultures, but as an “other” and a place deprived of the

Marlow tells Kurtz’s wife about his death, but lies about what Kurtz was doing. Europeans did not want to tarnish their ideas of themselves, even though some Europeans were doing terrible things in Africa. During the late 19th century the Africans themselves suffered while Europeans prospered greatly. The European colonies in Africa supported industries in the West with labor and materials, for example “the textile industry of France depended on the cheap cotton supplied by French West African colonies to remain competitive with technologically more advanced manufacturing in Great Britain and the United States” (Goucher). Just as Europeans became dependent on Africa for cheap production, Africans became dependent on Europe for manufactured goods. There was detrimental relationship based on inequality and dependency between the West and Africa and the attitudes of Europe only perpetuated