Heart Of Darkness And King Leopold’s Ghost: The Strongest Will Reign

I have always wondered how the natives reacted to the first colonizers to step on their land. I have always thought of a violent reaction since humans tend to react aggressively in hostile and uncomfortable situations. Imagine seeing many figures descend from strange vessels. These figures difference greatly from what you are accustomed to see. They dress strangely and their skin's color is different. If they come and start to invade your space without permission, they will most likely be attacked by yourself and your compatriots. The arrival of the Portuguese to the Congo is described as: "The Manikongo who was then on the throne greeted the Portuguese warmly. His enthusiasm was probably due less to the Savior his unexpected guests told him about than to the help their magical fire-spouting weapons promised in suppressing a troublesome provincial rebellion" (Hochschild, 9). I can easily imagine myself as the Manikongo and seeing these strange creatures that had the ability to kill people without touching them directly. If they promised me this power, fascination would overcome me and have welcomed them warmly.

The power of technology clearly shows itself in the colonization period. Whoever had the upper hand in technology dominated the other civilization. Conrad shows this clear idea when he expresses how the colonizers enslaved the natives and were able to exploit their ivory. The colonizers had clearly the upper hand with guns. This reminds me of a movie titled Guns, Germs, And Steel, which showed how the Europeans had a clear advantage over the civilizations they were colonizing. Through the ability to have long range kills, constructions with a stronger material, and the killing of millions through diseases that the Europeans were already immune to, they managed to eradicate these civilizations and exploit their land. I thought this barbarian act of the strongest person abusing of the weaker person and exploiting his resources had been eradicated. I came to find out the opposite in King Leopold's Ghost when it says, "Consider Mobutu again. Aside from the color of his skin, there were few ways in which he did not resemble the monarch who governed the same territory a hundred years earlier" (Hochschild, 304). Mobutu's dictatorship didn't differentiate greatly from King Leopold's monarchy. Both profited greatly from the abuse of the Congolese, extracted all the money from the land, and used all this money for their personal benefits and use. Mobutu's exploitation shocks me greatly since he is taking the money away from his own land and his own people. Yet again, money has the power to corrupt everyone, even if it means hurting your own race.