Humanities Core Course

(Nation and Empire)

Professor Haynes

Week III: Lecture II

Reading Questions for Discussion Section:

The Cost and Consequences of the Making of the Congo Free State

1. Describe the ways in which Conrad discredits Leopold’s Congo Free State in the Heart of Darkness?

2. List the ways in which violence forms an integral feature of daily life in the Congo?

3. To what extend do Africans participate in the operation of the extraction of wealth? Are they all coerced?

4. Although Africans are exploited in one form or another, are there examples of resistance to the extractions of the state and business concessions?

5. Conrad expresses his disgust with what he sees in Africa without providing explicit remedies. Drawing on Conrad critique of imperialism, please speculate on what remedies he would support for “improving” the Congo?