An outpost of progress

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An outpost of progress (Engl. Title at Outpost of Progress ) is a short story by Joseph Conrad in 1896.

The story is set at a trading post in a Central African country that is believed to be the Belgian Congo. The protagonists of the story are the Europeans Kayerts and Carlier, who are responsible for the station and who prove to be incapable of understanding their surroundings and African culture. The resulting catastrophic events culminate in the death of both protagonists.

Similar to Conrad's Heart of Darkness , the story thematizes the failure of the attempt to bring civilization and progress to Africa. However, in the short story the factors of incompetence and ignorance play a central role in contrast to Heart of Darkness .

action

The narrative begins with Kayerts and Carlier arriving by river steamer taking their place at an outpost in the Congo . While Kayerts is used as head of the station, Carlier only receives the post of assistant. Next to the station lives the "civilized nigger" Henry Price from Sierra Leone , who is only called Makola by everyone, with his wife from Luanda .

At the beginning, both Europeans are still full of zest for action, which manifests itself in the fact that both are trying to renovate the station. Over time, however, they give up this project and limit themselves to buying ivory from the surrounding indigenous tribes, with Makola doing the main work, while the two whites limit themselves to observing the processes and cracking jokes about the appearance of the natives.

Furthermore, the reader learns in the course of the story that the station is supplied with food by a neighboring indigenous tribe, whose head Gobila considers the white Europeans to be god-like beings.

The story takes a decisive turn when slave traders emerge from the coast with a large amount of ivory for sale. Through Makola's mediation, Kayerts and Carlier finally get involved in a deal with the strangers, without knowing what the price for the ivory is.

The night the ivory is brought into the camp by the strangers, Kayerts and Carlier hear a commotion in the station, followed by a shot. But when they want to see that everything is okay, Makola urges them to go back to their hut. It wasn't until the next morning that they both realized that the slave traders had kidnapped all the indigenous workers at the station as the price for the ivory, in order to sell them as slaves. They also discover that Gobila's village has been devastated by the strangers.

These events ultimately lead to the station no longer being supplied by Gobila's tribe, which is why Kayerts and Carlier run out of supplies over time. When the steamship, which is supposed to call the station regularly, is delayed, a dispute over the last sugar reserves escalates, in the course of which Kayerts shoots Carlier in affect . The former hangs himself out of desperation the next day. At this very moment the steamer with the long-awaited supplies and the director of the trading company on board reaches the trading post. He finally finds the bodies of his two employees.

Subject

In the narrative, Joseph Conrad addresses the failure of the civilizing mission to which both protagonists have committed. So at the beginning of the story the idea is expressed that progress follows trade. But in the course of the plot it is shown that this idea of ​​reality is taken ad absurdum. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that neither Kayerts nor Carlier try to fulfill this civilizing mission. On the other hand, both seem incapable of understanding African culture, which is partly expressed in the arrogant behavior towards the natives.

Added to this is the greed for ivory , which in the end becomes the undoing of both protagonists. In the end it becomes clear that trade does not contribute to the spread of progress, but rather leads to new barbarism, which makes the irony of the entire story clear.

This impression is reinforced by the fact that at the end of the dispute over the last sugar supplies, the protagonists display barbaric behavior, which makes the thought that these people should establish civilization and progress seem ridiculous.

Expenses (selection)

  • Echoes of the Empire - The Mixed Voices of a Colonial Past: 20th Century English Short Story . Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 978-3140412247
  • An outpost of progress . Ashgrove House Publishing, London 2011, ISBN 978-1908268051
  • Outpost of Progress . Travelman Publishing, Plymouth 2003, ISBN 978-1860920431