Views of Imperialism in Kipling, Conrad, and Achebe
Although Rudyard Kipling was not the first Englishman to use the phrase: 'carrying the white man's burden," Kipling was one of the most eloquent British spokesmen in defense of the British Empire. Kipling is now regarded an apologist for the British Empire. He advocated the idea that colonization was a benefit to the "new-caught, sullen peoples, /Half-devil and half-child" of Africa and Asia. Kipling stated in no uncertain terms that the West was a civilizing influence upon backward, inferior cultures that would be locked in previous stages of human development, were it not for imperialism. The West would "veil the threat of terror" of savage native leaders through its benevolent governing, selflessly fight "savage wars of peace" against oppressive native rulers, and finally "fill full the mouth of Famine/And bid the sickness cease."According to Kipling, the act of colonialization was not primarily done for the benefit of the colonizers (the fact that they would economically benefit from the
Achebe saw the sickness of colonialization as Christianity, which destroyed native culture. Rather than rehabilitating the souls of the African tribes, Kurtz only sinks to the native populace's 'level' of civilization. The whites impose their culture upon the culture of the Ibo, eradicating the original culture of the tribe. ivory trade or creating markets for surplus goods to exports goes unnoticed in the poem), hence the idea of the burden to bring civilization to the non-white peoples of the world. Joseph Conrad took a far more negative view of the impact of colonization upon the colonizing nation in his novel The Heart of Darkness. Colonization was supposed to be democratic, to heal the sick, and to bring morality to the natives. He abandons his pure, chaste white "intended" back home and takes up residence with a native woman. His hero, Oknowko, is patriarchal and often cruel, and kills a member of another tribe who calls him father simply because he does not wish to look weak. Although Kipling's poem strikes the reader as profoundly distasteful today, it is interesting to note how Kipling defined the terms of how colonization was to be judged by later authors such as Achebe and Conrad. Conrad argued that colonization made Britons less democratic when they were abroad, introduced them to new native diseases from which they were not immune (an interesting reversal of the real history of disease in colonized lands), and morally sickened them. He does not bring white cures of native diseases and science, but becomes diseased himself by the laws and the ailments of the jungle. A man whose "wives can hear him breathe" when he sleeps at night becomes a shadow of his former, powerful self (Achebe 3). Conrad takes a similarly negative view of the ability of native peoples to govern their own lands, echoing Kipling's ideas. Rather, colonization would benefit the colonized, even more than the colonizer. Chinua Achebe gives the perspective of the colonized rather than the colonizer in his novel Things Fall Apart.
Common topics in this essay:
Fall Apart,
Mother Country,
Asia Kipling,
Darkness Conrad,
Conrad Colonization,
According Kipling,
True African,
British Empire,
Kipling Englishman,
Joseph Conrad,
negative view,
native diseases,
colonized colonizer,
perspective colonized,
colonization benefit,
man's burden,
white man's,
british empire,
native culture,
white man's burden,
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Acceptance Essays
