Did Conrad’s brief but intense experience in Africa in 1890 open his eyes to Europe’s crimes, or did he visit and return with the same blinders worn by others during his time? Your answer should include mention of Belgium’s role in the so-called Congo Free Republic.

It is safe to say that Conrad was horrified by what he witnessed in Congo. While Heart of Darkness has been criticized by Chinua Achebe as racist because Conrad depicts the Congolese as subhuman or savage, the real source of Conrad’s disgust was the whites he encountered in the Congo Free State under Belgian King Leopold II’s repressive and exploitative regime. The Congo was ruled by Leopold essentially as his private property, and, while he was able to gain control of Congo by promising the European powers that he would bring civilization and Christian values to the jungle, his purpose was to extract as much money from the country (in the form of raw materials) as he could. This took the form of ivory at first, but after the invention of the pneumatic tire, the prime commodity was rubber. Leopold formally confiscated all the land in the Congo and imposed a tax on locals in the form of rubber, essentially converting the entire country into a forced labor camp. What Conrad took from his Congo experience was that the colonizers were nothing more than looters. No doubt this is why after signing up to work in the Congo for three years, he quit after only one.