King Leopold's Ghost - Prologue & Chapter 19

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness author was part of Belgum`s colonialism in the Congo. He was the sailor of King Leopold. In his book he reflected his journey and vision through his ficticioues character, Marlow. King Leopold's Ghost is a book that tells the story of King Leopold`s regime at the Congo. He was harsh  as it is shown in these two books. King Leopold's Ghost also shows how "Many slaves shipped to the Americas" (Hochschild 11). It relates to Heart of Darkness because similar expressions are used when "Europeans had to come from the land of the dead" (Hochschild 16).

However, Conrad wrote the opposite because, "You can see flies, but only if you promise not to write about them" (Hochschild 298). Conrad was there and wrote everything he saw "I beieve -then, pretending not to know anything of my existence" (Conrad 59), nevertheless he everything he saw was through Marlow. The ivory and rubber are big symbols of power, "rubber terror" (Hochschild 300), "The word ivory rang in the air" (Conrad 39). The "power" was controlled by Kurtz and King Leopold and it meant a lot to everyone in these two novels.

During these regime Africans were summited to a time of terror. Conrad and Hochschild show it very clear. Slavery was a major issue because many Africans were maltreated and punished for no reason. This became a reign of terror which was due to colonialism in the 19th century.