Title: European Colonisation of Europe Versus European Colonisation of Africa and Other Continents, A Textual and Juxtapositional Study of Heart of Darkness
Abstract: This paper is an afro-centric reading of Joseph Conrad's colonial masterpiece novella Heart of Darkness published in 1899 and 1902 making it a child of two worlds: the Victorian and the modern. Using New Historicism as a theoretical framework, this paper contends that European colonization of Europe was different from their colonization of Africa and other parts of the world. The first was motivated by the military might whereas the second was economically and racially motivated; the former was accidental and the latter was well planned and executed although hypocritically hidden in a civilizing mission. The paper reveals that the European colonization of Europe was simply as conquerors to show their military might, as they were no colonists and racialists in Europe, but European colonization of Africa in particular and the other parts of the world was not to show their military might but to establish colonies whichwere essentially economic and to conquer those who had non-white color and "flatter noses" as opposed to their straight noses and white color.Flatter noses and "different complexion" denote inferiority complex, whereas straight noses and white complexion connote superiority.Maybe that is why Chinua Achebe denounced the novel as thoroughly racist.