Academic Papers and Essays

    In the years before the onset of the First World War, European nations were busily accumulating territories in Africa, and throughout the world. Through colonization, the European powers gained access to precious minerals, building materials, spices, and a steady supply of land and people to exploit. The barbarity of the European powers is now well known, from the British and Portuguese slave trade in West Africa, to the atrocities committed by the Belgians in Zaire, Germans in East Africa, and the French in every remaining corner of the continent (Zins, p. 62). However, at the time of settlement, colonialism was a well defended practice. Advocates claimed that colonization would spur technological innovation and ‘bring the indigenous population into the modern world’ (Settles, p. 6). In truth, there was one overwhelming goal in regards to colonialism, “to provide maximum economic benefit to the colonizing power at the lowest possible price” (Settles, p. 7). There to witness the practice and aftermath of colonization was a Polish-British writer by the name of Joseph Conrad, who presented a very different picture of the effects of colonialism in the 1897 short story “An Outpost of Progress”. In a rare move for a citizen of the British Empire at its height, Conrad took a contradictory stand to the majority opinion of the time, and wrote decidedly anti-colonialist texts (Al-Khaiat , p. 47). Conrad utilizes the depravity of the colonialist mission to effectively critique the European powers, and the practice of colonialism itself.


    Following a brief journey into the Congo in 1890, Conrad discovered the true effects of colonialism in Africa through the savagery of the Belgian occupiers. Belgium, under the rule of Leopold II, practiced neither fair trade, nor a respect for the indigenous populace of Central Africa (Zins, p. 59). The dire colonial situation in the Congo was described by Conrad’s companion, Roger Casement (1864-1916) in the early 20th century as such: “In the lake district things are pretty bad ... whole villages and districts I knew well and visited as flourishing communities in 1887 are today without a human being; others are reduced to a handful of sick and harassed creatures who say of the government: Are the white men never going home; is this to last forever?” (Zins, p. 60). After having witnessed the extent of the barbarity of the colonialist regime in the Congo, as well as the economic effects of African exploitation while living in England, the sympathetic Conrad wrote the deeply ironic “An Outpost of Progress” as an examination of the true effects of the practices of the Europeans in Africa.


    The ostensible protagonist of “An Outpost of Progress” is Kayerts – an inept, overweight, and weak willed man who has declared himself the ‘chief’ of the station. Kayerts is accompanied by his assistant, Carlier – an exceptionally lazy man – and Henry Price. Kayerts and Carlier are men who strongly extol the virtues of civilization, and introducing civilization to the colonies. Expressing his high opinion of both himself and their mission, Conrad has Carlier saying, "In a hundred years, there will be perhaps a town here. Quays, and warehouses, and barracks, and—and—billiard-rooms. Civilization, my boy, and virtue—and all. And then, chaps will read that two good fellows, Kayerts and Carlier, were the first civilized men to live in this very spot!" From the onset of their expedition, Kayerts and Carlier are predicted to be catastrophic failures, much like their predecessor at the post – who allowed the foreign country to overwhelm and destroy them. Upon arrival at the station, the European men are quickly established as being grossly deficient in managing the economics of the region, and instead allowed Henry Price, or Makola “the civilized nigger”, to supervise the station instead. Instead of following a moral code, the Europeans and “the civilized nigger” almost immediately fall prey of the temptation of accumulating easy, and fast, money in the slave trade. This is very similar to the actions of Leopold II in the Congo – who believed that the native populations of the colonies were not human beings, but a source of forced labor (Zins, p. 58). Furthermore, the greed of the European men ruins their ability to form a lasting friendship with the people of Father Gobila’s tribe, and with it the chance to learn from, and teach, the indigenous population.


    The irony present within “An Outpost of Progress” comes from the European’s flawed definition of civilization. While both Kayerts and Carlier view themselves as harbingers of European enlightenment, there is no civilizing end to the mission, only a dehumanization of both colonized and colonizer. This perverted sense of civilization, and progress, is most prominently shown by Henry Price. Despite being known as “the civilized nigger” Price is the first to resort to slaving in order to create revenue in the outpost. While Kayerts and Carlier both profess to find slavery abhorrent, and tepidly condemn Price’s actions, they nonetheless reap the rewards of the practice. Price is the only native that the European men trust to manage their post – this is because Price both shares the values exposed by the colonialists – emphasizing economic gain over all else – and a dogged determination to succeed in the station that he has been presented. Conrad is able to use Price’s apathetic amorality to mirror to the abject horror European colonialism – efficient and unfeeling. It is also then characteristic of the “civility” of the European colonialists that Kayerts and Carlier meet their demise as the result of a petty disagreement over sugar. Conrad is exposing the hypocrisy of European Imperialism with the violent deaths of the supposedly progressive men.


    The European men earnestly believed that they would be the ones to deliver enlightened principles to the natives of the Heart of Africa, and instead created a slave trade at their outpost, died over a petty quarrel, and taught Makola – Henry Price – the true definition of European civility. The unchecked aggression of the European powers in the early 20th century provided Conrad with an ample cultural context to write a critique of the practice, in the form of “An Outpost of Progress. Through the story, Joseph Conrad is able to make the case that the moral failings of Kayerts, Carlier, and Price are not simply limited to the single station, but endemic of the colonialist mission.


*bibliography available upon request*