The Heart of Darkness

I read the novella ‘The Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad two weeks ago. Written in 1899, it is not difficult to get offended by the author’s description of the Belgian Congo and its native people. The words ‘primitive’, ‘savage’, and ‘cannibals’ are liberally sprinkled across the short book.For all its racism, it was fascinating for themes that still have some relevance in the Democratic Republic of Congo like the cruel and inhuman treatment of the Congolese, rapacious exploitation [in the book it was timber and ivory rather than minerals], intrigue among those that claim to be a civilizing influence and a man, Mr. Kurtz, who embodies all previous themes and dies with the book’s famous cry, ‘The horror! The horror!’My point of interest was in how familiar the tale in the book seemed [once all the offensive-ness is filtered out] given events in the East of Congo. Of recent, Rwanda has come in for a lot of fire for allegedly supporting a group of mutineering Congolese army soldiers who go by the name M23 [doesn’t it sound like a deadly assault rifle?]. The methodical rebuttals and outrage at these allegations by the Government of Rwanda were based on how ridiculous the supporting evidence was. My personal favourite is the account of an unnamed source who claimed to have undergone training at the Amahoro Stadium on July 1, this year.How he and his phantom compatriots did it during the 50th anniversary of independence celebrations with a 30,000 live audience and countless others watching the event on TV is not made clear in the report.The Ghost Brigade trained invisibly but could not use their invisibility to elude the most incompetent of armies, the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo [FARDC].In the meantime, the predator rebel groups in the East of the Congo are having the time of their lives. Everyone has forgotten about them most notably the UN mission, MONUSCO, that was sent there to disarm them.The Congolese government has managed to blame its failure to maintain discipline within its armed forces on Rwanda. To hear it, the FARDC was a paragon of discipline and cohesion that has only been destroyed recently by Rwanda.The fact that it is a war between the Congolese Army, supported by MONUSCO, and its own mutineers based largely on the Congolese government’s failure to provide effective government in the region and its previous support for genocidal groups like FDLR and FNL is not made known.The silence of the authorities in Kinshasa, and the ever quick to judge International Community, on the matter of deadly messages being aired on Congolese media calling for the extermination of Rwandophone Congolese citizens is equally not being made known.Then there is the matter of the alleged M23 and RDF defectors being interviewed by the Group of Experts for their reports and addendums. Despite the obvious violations of the 3rd Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War [torture, communication, registration with Red Cross and their right not to reveal information beyond name and rank], nowhere does the Group of Experts voice any condemnation or show concern for the treatment of the 31 prisoners of the FARDC whose testimony they used.All the while Congolese living in the Kivus are displaced and turned into refugees, their property pillaged, their women raped and whatever socio-economic progress that was being made has come to a screeching halt.Written in more politically correct language, a 19th century book could be a terrifying allegory for today’s Congo. The readers will just have to decide for themselves who is best represented by Mr. Kurtz.