Revisionism: the colonial lies
REVISIONISM
Main reasons behind revisionism
- ideological influence:history shapes the national identity
- political influence: revisionism can be used to cultivate 'political myths' and advance one political agenda over another
- Historical revisionism is either the legitimate re-examination of existing knowledge or the distortion of events which,if it constitutes the denial of historical crimes,it's also called NEGATIONISM
Achebe's point of view on 'Heart of darkness'
The postcolonial writer Achebe accuses Conrad of being racist because of the fact that he portrays Africa as 'the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization'. For Achebe,in Conrad's novella,even 'the very humanity of black people is called in question'.
In his opinion 'Heart of Darkness' continues to perpetuate the damaging stereotypes of the Africans and the myth of a colonization whose purpose was civilization.
THE COLONIAL LIES
The case of Britain
The case of Belgium
Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of darkness'
The Mau Mau revolt
Caroline Elkins' 'Britain's gulag'
The novella is inspired by the author's journey to Congo during which he got to face the reality of Belgian colonialism. Heart of darkness can be read as the condamn and the denunciation of the hypocrisy of the colonial system that emerges as deeply corrupted throughout the whole novel.
People are unaware of Britain's colonial atrocities. It was propagated the myth of a benign imperialism and the british governament sistematically destroyed all the documents detailing the mistreatment of the colonial subjects.
Mau Mau was a nationalist african movement that originated in Kenya and advocated violent resistance to British domination.
African international association was a FRONT organization established by the guest at the Brussels Geographic Conference, an event hosted by king Leopold II. Originally, the stated goal of the association was to "discover" the largely unexplored Congo and 'civilize' its natives. Although is political and economical intents, Leopold succeeded in his goal of convincing the Belgian people and the major powers of Europe that his interest in Africa was purely altruistic.
Mrs. Elkins in her researches finds out that british government lied about the suppression of the Kikuyu's Mau Mau revolt. Almost the entire population was detained in fortified camps and there thousands died because of the sanitary condition or the widespread of tortures. British imperialism emerges as even worse than the colonialism practised by other nations.