A REVERSE JOSEPH CONRAD JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF WHITENESS : MEDIA REACTION TO KARIMA BROWN (group editor of the Independent group) and VUKANE MDE (analysis editor) ON THE IGBAL SURVÉ AND SEKUNJALO DEAL Of all the platitudinal reactions to Karima Brown and Vukani Mdes article, the following words from a letter to the Cape Argus (Tuesday January 29 2014) by Dr Andrew Siddle distills the real roots of liberal and libertarian invective on the Sekunjalo takeover of the Indendent Newspapers group: I will not be cancelling my subscription of the Cape Argus and the Cape Times. I will continue to read them - not as a source of meaningful news, but rather with the sort of horrified fascination that grips someone about to witness an inevitable and almost terrible disaster. In Joseph Conrads novel The Heart of Darkness the narrator Marlowe tells his story about Kurtz, the ruthless Belgian colonial privateer who undertakes a boat journey down the Congo River into a dark mysterious Africa on a civilizing mission to do business, while troubled by the nuisance of faceless jungle roaming marauding tribes with no interest in the business opportunities yielded by the land they occupy. However, the point of the long conversation between Marlowe and Kurtz, ironically set while sitting on a boat anchored in the Thames River at sunset in colonial Britain, was actually about imperial control of white Europeans over black Africans and their economic resources while civilising their primitive darkness in the process. There is no question about the ideas or ideology which informs their imperial agenda or the presumptuousness of believing that Africans are not capable of managing their own resources, land or selves. The only difference between Kurtz and Marlowe in this conversation is that the former is more directly genocidal in his approach to the natives while the latter is more intellectually aloof and diplomatic in his justifications for European imperialism. Dr Siddles letter starts of like Marlowe, but unfortunately degenerates into Kurtz who defiantly maintains that he will continue to venture into the heart of darkness on his boat down the Congo River to civilise the natives, despite the horror of the the savages who will, in any case, self-destruct into inevitable disaster without the white man. Siddles words, when read in the context of his declaration that he will not be cancelling his Cape Argus and Cape Times subscriptions illustrates the metaphor of Kurtzs civilising mission aptly as follows: At a time when good governance in South Africa is at an all-time low, we need principled, fearless and truly independent journalism, not the bootlicking drivel of the kind spouted by Mde and Brown... My advice to Dr Siddle /Marlowe/ Kurtz, would be to to either stay on the boat firmly anchored on the Thames River as Marlowe while you lament the sun setting on the imperial empire of your political prejudice, or turn Kurtz boat around and reverse the journey into your heart of whiteness. While your are at it, take the opportunity to read Sudanese author Tayib Salihs Season of Migration to the North where he reverses Kurtz journey from Conrads Heart of Darkness by telling the story of an African man who journeys north into white territory. Perhaps then youll understand what Joseph Conrad really meant when he wrote: The conquest of earth, which mostly means the taking of it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it to much.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 08:56:01 +0000
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