History repeats itself. This maxim is played out when, in the last years of the twentieth century, Sven Lindqvist braves the Sahara desert and Africa with nothing but his old laptop, a mini research library conveniently placed in airtight-packed discs, and a sense that following Joseph Conrad’s footsteps in Africa will give him insights into the rationalization behind Hitler’s Holocaust. The ultimate product of his journey is his travel diary, Exterminate All the Brutes: One Man’s Odyssey into the Heart of Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide, in which he claims that the ‘Final Solution’ Hitler envisioned in World War II was merely the logical extension of the prevailing notions and attitudes of his times.
The Industrial Revolution produced major changes in agriculture, transportation and manufacturing processes. Human labour
was exchanged for machine labour, which meant that work could be done more quickly and efficiently. Scientists and early observers thought machines would eventually free humans from rural labour, thereby giving them more time for leisure, education, or other activities. In some ways, and in some social circles, their ideas became reality. For others, especially for the so-called lower stratums of society, rural labour was replaced by factory labour, and the fact that machines could accelerate production became an incentive for people to intensify their own machine-aided labour. In more privileged circles, the effectiveness of machine and human production created new needs and demands from an increasingly consumerist population, which opened up new markets and accelerated the hunt for resources that would fill these demands, or vice versa.
While Europeans have been exploring other parts of the world for centuries, their advances in agriculture, transportation and manufacturing came hand in hand with advances in military weaponry, and they suddenly found themselves able to overpower groups of people they often avoided, or appeased for political, social and economic reasons. Darwin’s theory of evolution, though initially rejected by the masses, became conveniently adopted for imperialist goals. After all, the idea that superior species can displace inferior species gave Europeans the rationale for wholesale slaughter in the New World, and in the Asian and African continents. This mentality is most pronounced when observing the dichotomous behaviour of European soldiers when faced with other European enemies, who they saw more as rivals, and with non-Europeans. For example, when balloons became popular, as part of the response to overhead bombing threats, the 1899 Hague Convention on the laws of war banned projectiles from being thrown from aloft, since hitting targets from above was considered dishonourable and unfair.
However, since European administrators and missionaries believed in their own intellectual and biological superiority, and saw themselves as benefactors to the people of “decadent” Asia and “savage” Africa, and as bringers of moral revolution, these restrictions were removed when it came to using balloons against non-European enemies. Another European technology, the dum dum bullet, which mushroomed in the victim’s body upon impact, was considered to be so cruel that the “civilized” nations agreed not to use it on each other, but using it on uncivilized, less than human creatures was okay. During the battle of Omdurman in Sudan, Lord Kitchener faced an army of 40,000 men. The battle only lasted five hours, with an incomparable casualty count between the British and the Dervishes; it was more a massacre than a battle. European soldiers attributed their victories to moral difference, but it was really about an arms gap. The colonial wars created a false sense of omnipotence, and technology helped Europeans define themselves collectively. It was into this miasma of thought that Hitler was born.
This book is written in short pieces or chapters. It is also a travel diary. Even though his work is fragmented, the book echoes how history really is. History is a mix of many histories put together to form a cohesive picture. Sven Lindqvist cheats a bit at the beginning, in his preface, where he basically tells his audience the overarching theme of his narrative, but despite this fact, it is worthwhile to go through his thought processes and how his journey through Africa allowed him to place himself within both Conrad’s Africa and the heart of what was happening during the age of imperialism. His examination includes an analysis of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, as well as H.G. Wells’ novels. Literature written in specific time periods reveals a lot about what happened, and what was important to the authors. Conrad and Wells were both critics of Western imperialism, and questioned how Western technology allowed Europeans to kill from a distance, and how Western progress often “presupposes genocide” (88).
Dispersed throughout the book are recollections of the author’s memories—his personal history when facing domestic violence. These reflections show that the author believes history cannot be written without biases; one’s own story is important because it can affect how one writes history. In particular, when Lindqvist was describing the domestic violence in his home, he was showing how easy it is for people to succumb to a heart of darkness, to violence and cruelty, and to become unknown faces even to the ones they love.This book is fiercely moral, and asks questions that are relevant even today. Sven Lindqvist’s point is that the Holocaust was not distinct in its number of casualties, or even in the methodology and psychology behind some of the actions taken by Hitler and the Nazis. However, it is also an examination of human nature, and the ease with which humans can rationalize genocide in a world obsessed with technology and progress. It is a world where people still fall prey to attitudes and mentalities that fall behind technology’s rapid acceleration.
