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'Exterminate All the Brutes'
Over twenty years ago, Sven Lindqvist, one of the great pioneers of a new kind of experiential history writing, set out across Central Africa. Obsessed with a single line from Conrad's Heart of Darkness - Kurtz's injunction to "Exterminate all the brutes" - he braided an account of his experiences with a profound historical investigation, revealing to the reader with immediacy and cauterizing force precisely what Europe's imperial powers had exacted from Africa's peoples over the course of the preceding two centuries.
Shocking, humane, crackling with imaginative energies and moral purpose, 'Exterminate All the Brutes' stands as an impassioned, timeless classic. It is essential reading for anybody ready to come to terms with the brutal, racist history on which Europe has built its wealth.
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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10776 people want to read
About the author
Sven Lindqvist
56 books158 followersDr. Sven Lindqvist was a Swedish author of mostly non-fiction.
He held a PhD in History of literature from Stockholm University (his thesis, in 1966, was on Vilhelm Ekelund) and a 1979 honorary doctorate from Uppsala University. In 1960–1961, he worked as cultural attaché at the Swedish embassy in Beijing, China. From 1956–86 he was married to Cecilia Lindqvist, with whom he had two children. He was married to the economist Agneta Stark since 1986. He lived in the Södermalm area of central Stockholm.
He held a PhD in History of literature from Stockholm University (his thesis, in 1966, was on Vilhelm Ekelund) and a 1979 honorary doctorate from Uppsala University. In 1960–1961, he worked as cultural attaché at the Swedish embassy in Beijing, China. From 1956–86 he was married to Cecilia Lindqvist, with whom he had two children. He was married to the economist Agneta Stark since 1986. He lived in the Södermalm area of central Stockholm.
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July 29, 2022
LA REGOLA DELLA TENEBRA
Pieter Bruegle il Vecchio: trionfo della Morte (1562 circa). Museo del prado di Madrid.
Genocidio deriva dal greco geno, che significa ‘razza’ o ‘tribù’, con il derivato latino cidio, dal verbo caedere, che significa ‘uccisione’.
È una parola breve, ed era una parola nuova quando Raphael Lemkin, polacco, ebreo, avvocato esperto di diritto internazionale, studioso di filologia, iniziò a dedicarsi a questo argomento, e avviò una battaglia personale lunga ed estenuante che approdò alla Convenzione di Ginevra del 1948 dove per la prima volta il termine veniva spiegato compiutamente (ciascuno degli atti seguenti, commessi con l’intenzione di distruggere, in tutto o in parte, un gruppo nazionale, etnico, razziale o religioso…, segue l’elenco degli atti).
Congo, all’epoca di Leopoldo II, 1890 circa.
Questo libro di Sven Lindqvist è una sorta di manuale del genocidio, e del razzismo, che sempre si accompagna al primo, ma si differenzia da altre opere sull’argomento (come per esempio il maestoso saggio di Samantha Power Voci dall’inferno) perché va più lontano del Novecento, il secolo che sembra avere inventato il genocidio, e, se non altro, il secolo che iniziò a studiarlo, additarlo e condannarlo.
È davvero quello che dice la copertina, il viaggio di un uomo nel cuore di tenebra alle origine dei genocidi perpetrati dagli europei.
Lindqvist va indietro tanto quanto l’inizio della colonizzazione del mondo da parte degli europei. Sono gli europei nel loro insieme che hanno inventato il genocidio, non i turchi con gli armeni, o i tedeschi con gli ebrei: tutti i paesi europei che si espansero, allargarono il loro ‘spazio vitale’ e colonizzarono.
Si tratta di una sola E che invade e si mangia quattro A: Africa, Asia, America, Australia.
E non ha niente a che vedere col Risiko.
Un gruppo di africani dopo aver conosciuto gli europei. Forse si tratta di Herero dopo la cura tedesca ordinata dal generale Lothar von Trotha, Namibia, 1904-1907.
Tutta la storia europea è imperniata sul genocidio e il razzismo: si è voluto fare dei tedeschi il capro espiatorio dell’idea di sterminio, quando in realtà è patrimonio comune europeo (Spagna, Portogallo, Francia, Inghilterra, Belgio, Olanda, Italia, la stessa Germania, Svezia ecc.).
Razze umane estinte come quelle animali, che però sparivano in tempi lunghissimi.
Probabilmente, in nessun periodo precedente della storia del mondo la distruzione di una qualsiasi razza animale è mai stata così sensazionalmente rapida e così estesa su aree tanto vaste come nel caso dell’uomo selvaggio.
Razze umane come gli herero, e gli ottentotti, i boscimani, gli aborigeni, i maori, e i nativi americani o pellerossa o indiani, gli indios, gli amandabele, i 30 milioni di schiavi neri, 15 morti lungo il viaggio e 15 trasferiti oltre oceano…
Mappa del genocidio armeno, 1915.
L’aria che il piccolo Adolf Hitler e tutti gli altri occidentali avevano respirato nella loro infanzia era permeata dalla convinzione che l’imperialismo fosse un processo biologicamente necessario, che secondo le leggi di natura portava all’inevitabile distruzione delle razze inferiori.
Sven Lindqvist affronta questo smisurato argomento con snellezza, armato di spirito di sintesi e umorismo a volte raggelante (A metà dell’Ottocento, i tedeschi non avevano ancora sterminato alcun popolo e potevano perciò guardare al fenomeno con occhio più critico di altri europei.
E poi, poche pagine più avanti: In Africa sud-occidentale i tedeschi dimostrarono nel 1904 che anche loro padroneggiavano un’arte che americani, inglesi, e altri europei avevano esercitato per tutto l’Ottocento: l’arte di accelerare l’estinzione di popoli “culturalmente" poveri.).
Srebenica, cimitero delle vittime del luglio 1995.
Lo racconta mentre percorre un’altra volta il Sahara, armato di computer e pesante pacco di floppy, quasi che ripercorrere fisicamente le orme dei colonizzatori (sadici e non, ma sempre felicemente e con convinzione sterminatori) stimolasse la sua riflessione.
E anche il racconto del viaggio, della sabbia, del caldo, degli incontri umani, dei luoghi geografici rende quest’opera speciale.
Shalechet , le “foglie cadute”, al Museo ebraico di Berlino.
Il diritto morale di esistere non è automatico, scontato, riconosciuto, come verrebbe da pensare e credere, va guadagnato, meritato: se pensi che siccome esisti hai semplicemente diritto di esistere, ti sbagli di grosso, e non sai cosa rischi.
Il passo da eccidio a genocidio fu compiuto solo quando la tradizione antisemita incontrò la tradizione del genocidio sorta durante l’espansione europea in America, Australia, Africa e Asia.... Auschwitz fu la moderna applicazione industriale di una politica di sterminio sulla quale la dominazione europea del mondo aveva a lungo poggiato.
Una statua che ricorda la tratta degli schiavi dall’Africa. Questa è probabilmente a Zanzibar.
Pieter Bruegle il Vecchio: trionfo della Morte (1562 circa). Museo del prado di Madrid.
Genocidio deriva dal greco geno, che significa ‘razza’ o ‘tribù’, con il derivato latino cidio, dal verbo caedere, che significa ‘uccisione’.
È una parola breve, ed era una parola nuova quando Raphael Lemkin, polacco, ebreo, avvocato esperto di diritto internazionale, studioso di filologia, iniziò a dedicarsi a questo argomento, e avviò una battaglia personale lunga ed estenuante che approdò alla Convenzione di Ginevra del 1948 dove per la prima volta il termine veniva spiegato compiutamente (ciascuno degli atti seguenti, commessi con l’intenzione di distruggere, in tutto o in parte, un gruppo nazionale, etnico, razziale o religioso…, segue l’elenco degli atti).
Congo, all’epoca di Leopoldo II, 1890 circa.
Questo libro di Sven Lindqvist è una sorta di manuale del genocidio, e del razzismo, che sempre si accompagna al primo, ma si differenzia da altre opere sull’argomento (come per esempio il maestoso saggio di Samantha Power Voci dall’inferno) perché va più lontano del Novecento, il secolo che sembra avere inventato il genocidio, e, se non altro, il secolo che iniziò a studiarlo, additarlo e condannarlo.
È davvero quello che dice la copertina, il viaggio di un uomo nel cuore di tenebra alle origine dei genocidi perpetrati dagli europei.
Lindqvist va indietro tanto quanto l’inizio della colonizzazione del mondo da parte degli europei. Sono gli europei nel loro insieme che hanno inventato il genocidio, non i turchi con gli armeni, o i tedeschi con gli ebrei: tutti i paesi europei che si espansero, allargarono il loro ‘spazio vitale’ e colonizzarono.
Si tratta di una sola E che invade e si mangia quattro A: Africa, Asia, America, Australia.
E non ha niente a che vedere col Risiko.
Un gruppo di africani dopo aver conosciuto gli europei. Forse si tratta di Herero dopo la cura tedesca ordinata dal generale Lothar von Trotha, Namibia, 1904-1907.
Tutta la storia europea è imperniata sul genocidio e il razzismo: si è voluto fare dei tedeschi il capro espiatorio dell’idea di sterminio, quando in realtà è patrimonio comune europeo (Spagna, Portogallo, Francia, Inghilterra, Belgio, Olanda, Italia, la stessa Germania, Svezia ecc.).
Razze umane estinte come quelle animali, che però sparivano in tempi lunghissimi.
Probabilmente, in nessun periodo precedente della storia del mondo la distruzione di una qualsiasi razza animale è mai stata così sensazionalmente rapida e così estesa su aree tanto vaste come nel caso dell’uomo selvaggio.
Razze umane come gli herero, e gli ottentotti, i boscimani, gli aborigeni, i maori, e i nativi americani o pellerossa o indiani, gli indios, gli amandabele, i 30 milioni di schiavi neri, 15 morti lungo il viaggio e 15 trasferiti oltre oceano…
Mappa del genocidio armeno, 1915.
L’aria che il piccolo Adolf Hitler e tutti gli altri occidentali avevano respirato nella loro infanzia era permeata dalla convinzione che l’imperialismo fosse un processo biologicamente necessario, che secondo le leggi di natura portava all’inevitabile distruzione delle razze inferiori.
Sven Lindqvist affronta questo smisurato argomento con snellezza, armato di spirito di sintesi e umorismo a volte raggelante (A metà dell’Ottocento, i tedeschi non avevano ancora sterminato alcun popolo e potevano perciò guardare al fenomeno con occhio più critico di altri europei.
E poi, poche pagine più avanti: In Africa sud-occidentale i tedeschi dimostrarono nel 1904 che anche loro padroneggiavano un’arte che americani, inglesi, e altri europei avevano esercitato per tutto l’Ottocento: l’arte di accelerare l’estinzione di popoli “culturalmente" poveri.).
Srebenica, cimitero delle vittime del luglio 1995.
Lo racconta mentre percorre un’altra volta il Sahara, armato di computer e pesante pacco di floppy, quasi che ripercorrere fisicamente le orme dei colonizzatori (sadici e non, ma sempre felicemente e con convinzione sterminatori) stimolasse la sua riflessione.
E anche il racconto del viaggio, della sabbia, del caldo, degli incontri umani, dei luoghi geografici rende quest’opera speciale.
Shalechet , le “foglie cadute”, al Museo ebraico di Berlino.
Il diritto morale di esistere non è automatico, scontato, riconosciuto, come verrebbe da pensare e credere, va guadagnato, meritato: se pensi che siccome esisti hai semplicemente diritto di esistere, ti sbagli di grosso, e non sai cosa rischi.
Il passo da eccidio a genocidio fu compiuto solo quando la tradizione antisemita incontrò la tradizione del genocidio sorta durante l’espansione europea in America, Australia, Africa e Asia.... Auschwitz fu la moderna applicazione industriale di una politica di sterminio sulla quale la dominazione europea del mondo aveva a lungo poggiato.
Una statua che ricorda la tratta degli schiavi dall’Africa. Questa è probabilmente a Zanzibar.
May 20, 2018
I wish this could be included in school canons around the so called western civilization.
August 8, 2025
Loved this book for all the wrong reasons, no different from loving some people, I suppose. Lindqvist is a polemicist, no shame in that, if you've got what it takes to stand sure-footed in slippery sand. The title's namesake is from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, basically Lindqvist's thread across Europe's savage colonial history, which he argues founds a natural climax in the Holocaust. This is not, thank god, yet another book about near-Semitic extermination under Nazi Germany. It is about the intellectual history of genocide in Africa under European colonialism. Conrad's famous line via Kurtz in Heart of Darkness is Lindqvist's crutch as he travels through parts of Africa and through writings emerging from 18th and 19th century European incursions into African heartland, where natives were killed––beyond greed for land, rubber, experimental industrialisation––because they were there and able to be killed.
Formally, it is a travelogue crossing personal memoir with historical voices of explorers, historians, maverick adventurer murders, and missionaries salted with anecdotal passages about contemporary passage through African cities and towns. Lindqvist weaves in and out of Conrad's own travels through Africa that resulted in Heart of Darkness, already forecasting the Holocaust, the 20th century most well-loved genocidal disaster, so widely condemned more because it happened on European soil, unlike the horrors of Africa obscured by distance and even merited by the colour of its victims, than for its humanitarian travesties.
The book uses the format of the sexy rant, if there is such a thing. It's clever and knows it. It uses the shorthand appeal autobiography and the first person to great effect. You're, I was, hooked. I was often in the position wishing I had been with Sven (this is how I gradually came to think of Lindqvist) as he travelled through the Sahara, stayed in that dusty hotel, and people-watched from his hotel room with a vista on the town square. This kind of book needs the authorial shadow. The subject matter and writing Lindqvist cites and examines are neither comfortable nor immediately arresting. They need a curator to parse and select out the juiciest bits, not because the content on the whole does not deserve a thorough examination, but because the travelogue demands peripatetic movement rather than camping out in archival texts. This is a fantastic book. I was grateful for it. It's not often that past history seems relevant to the present, but Lindqvist is very good at jumping into the past and dragging out the parts that make you think hardest. The book reads beautifully in parts and always makes sense, even when the author indulges in dream imagery, never detracts from the principal thesis, and is ever loyal to the foundation of the material in Africa.
Formally, it is a travelogue crossing personal memoir with historical voices of explorers, historians, maverick adventurer murders, and missionaries salted with anecdotal passages about contemporary passage through African cities and towns. Lindqvist weaves in and out of Conrad's own travels through Africa that resulted in Heart of Darkness, already forecasting the Holocaust, the 20th century most well-loved genocidal disaster, so widely condemned more because it happened on European soil, unlike the horrors of Africa obscured by distance and even merited by the colour of its victims, than for its humanitarian travesties.
The book uses the format of the sexy rant, if there is such a thing. It's clever and knows it. It uses the shorthand appeal autobiography and the first person to great effect. You're, I was, hooked. I was often in the position wishing I had been with Sven (this is how I gradually came to think of Lindqvist) as he travelled through the Sahara, stayed in that dusty hotel, and people-watched from his hotel room with a vista on the town square. This kind of book needs the authorial shadow. The subject matter and writing Lindqvist cites and examines are neither comfortable nor immediately arresting. They need a curator to parse and select out the juiciest bits, not because the content on the whole does not deserve a thorough examination, but because the travelogue demands peripatetic movement rather than camping out in archival texts. This is a fantastic book. I was grateful for it. It's not often that past history seems relevant to the present, but Lindqvist is very good at jumping into the past and dragging out the parts that make you think hardest. The book reads beautifully in parts and always makes sense, even when the author indulges in dream imagery, never detracts from the principal thesis, and is ever loyal to the foundation of the material in Africa.
December 3, 2023
Ciężko było mi ocenić tę książkę, głównie dlatego, że spodziewałem się bardziej klasycznej formy reportażu, a to jest bardziej esej, miejscami pełen dygresji i skaczący po tematach, a jednocześnie niezwykle wartościowy i istotny z punktu widzenia historii. Zostawiłbym bez oceny, ale część składająca się na “Terra nullius” przekonała mnie jednak do pięciu gwiazdek.
August 18, 2018
Extremely chilling account of the effects of colonialism in Africa. The best book I've read about the subject.
May 5, 2023
Bez wątpienia rzadko to mówię, ale w tym wypadku absolutnie nie boję się tych słów: musisz to przeczytać. Jedna z najważniejszych książek, jakie kiedykolwiek czytałam. Wbija sztylet w sam środek zadowolonego z siebie, europejskiego "ja" i przypomina, co nosiliśmy na sztandarach jeszcze kilkadziesiąt lat temu.
March 28, 2022
33rd book of 2022.
A short, great and unique book. 'Part travel journal, part literary and cultural history', the book is a meditation on the line from Conrad's Heart of Darkness, 'Exterminate all the brutes' and the dark history of Europe in Africa woven into Lindqvist's journey by bus across the Sahara with his suitcase and word processor. The essential argument of the book is that the Holocaust had its roots in European colonialisation. As Part I ends, 'It was in the British and other western European peoples that he found the models of which the extermination of the Jew is, in Nolte's words, "a distorted copy."' And the book ends with the reflection that all educated people know what is happening in the world, what exterminations continue to take place, but it is not knowledge that we lack, it is the courage to understand.
The book is filled with harrowing examples throughout Europe's history. There are also plenty of chilling lines throughout his musings, like, 'Too many Europeans interpreted military superiority as intellectual and even biological superiority' and 'Genocide began to be regarded as the inevitable byproduct of progress'. Near the middle of the book, during the section on the Battle of Omdurman, there are images involved too. Notably this one,
which is labelled, 'The picture portrays the battle as man-to-man combat—but no Sudanese got closer than three hundred yards from the British positions.' One of the final chapters in the book (the chapters being like vignettes) simply reads,
'Everywhere in the world where knowledge is being suppressed, knowledge that, if it were made known, would shatter our image of the world and force us to question ourselves—everywhere there, Heart of Darkness is being enacted.'
A short, great and unique book. 'Part travel journal, part literary and cultural history', the book is a meditation on the line from Conrad's Heart of Darkness, 'Exterminate all the brutes' and the dark history of Europe in Africa woven into Lindqvist's journey by bus across the Sahara with his suitcase and word processor. The essential argument of the book is that the Holocaust had its roots in European colonialisation. As Part I ends, 'It was in the British and other western European peoples that he found the models of which the extermination of the Jew is, in Nolte's words, "a distorted copy."' And the book ends with the reflection that all educated people know what is happening in the world, what exterminations continue to take place, but it is not knowledge that we lack, it is the courage to understand.
The book is filled with harrowing examples throughout Europe's history. There are also plenty of chilling lines throughout his musings, like, 'Too many Europeans interpreted military superiority as intellectual and even biological superiority' and 'Genocide began to be regarded as the inevitable byproduct of progress'. Near the middle of the book, during the section on the Battle of Omdurman, there are images involved too. Notably this one,
which is labelled, 'The picture portrays the battle as man-to-man combat—but no Sudanese got closer than three hundred yards from the British positions.' One of the final chapters in the book (the chapters being like vignettes) simply reads,
'Everywhere in the world where knowledge is being suppressed, knowledge that, if it were made known, would shatter our image of the world and force us to question ourselves—everywhere there, Heart of Darkness is being enacted.'
March 4, 2025
Towards the end of this superb book Mr. Lindquist quotes the 19th century British Prime Minister who said 'One can roughly divide the nations of the world into the living and the dying.' That white, specifically, Anglo-Saxon races were the living and those of less pallid complexion (everyone else including of course Africans but also the Indians of Asia and North America, all orientals as well as other Semitic peoples, gypsies and more as wishful hope then expected reality troublesome people like the Irish) were the dying. The word genocide had not been coined but it took place and was accepted as the necessary process by which the 'advanced', 'civilized' prospered and why they ruled the world. There was nothing secret about this conviction, it was trumped loudly and extensively. It is we who chose to forget so that when Hitler brought home to Europe what had been practised by imperialist in the colonies for centuries, but most particularly the preceding hundred years, we could claim it as a unique experience and limit the blame to 'failed' or imperfectly formed nation - the Germans.
What Hitler revealed with such clarity is that any country, nation, people or 'race' (I don't like using the phrase because there is no such thing as a 'race' - Google it if you doubt me) can be exterminated - there are no higher or lower people's or nation's - only those with more power. The fact that for a specific period, a very short period in terms of human history, people's with pale skin happened to have more power, or more accurately better means of projecting their power, then others was a transient phase utterly unconnected to any 'scientific' law or moral worthiness. Genocide was not a German creation, it wasn't even European creation (though we happily exercised it on global scale), it was the tool of the powerful against the weak.
Sven Lindquist's book, along with his others, is a masterful demolition of any delusion we may have, that as 'white' people we have any answers to the problems of former colonial nations. We are their problem, historically and currently. Our responsibility is total as is our shame and guilt. Having said that the book is brilliantly readable and fascinating. An exceptionally fine book.
One final word of praise Lindqvist has resurrected a Victorian MP socialist and outspoken opponent and denouncer of the hypocrisy of empire at its height during the 1897 jubilee named Graham R B Cunningham's. Look up and read about him - it's amazing to think he said and published the things he did when he did.
What Hitler revealed with such clarity is that any country, nation, people or 'race' (I don't like using the phrase because there is no such thing as a 'race' - Google it if you doubt me) can be exterminated - there are no higher or lower people's or nation's - only those with more power. The fact that for a specific period, a very short period in terms of human history, people's with pale skin happened to have more power, or more accurately better means of projecting their power, then others was a transient phase utterly unconnected to any 'scientific' law or moral worthiness. Genocide was not a German creation, it wasn't even European creation (though we happily exercised it on global scale), it was the tool of the powerful against the weak.
Sven Lindquist's book, along with his others, is a masterful demolition of any delusion we may have, that as 'white' people we have any answers to the problems of former colonial nations. We are their problem, historically and currently. Our responsibility is total as is our shame and guilt. Having said that the book is brilliantly readable and fascinating. An exceptionally fine book.
One final word of praise Lindqvist has resurrected a Victorian MP socialist and outspoken opponent and denouncer of the hypocrisy of empire at its height during the 1897 jubilee named Graham R B Cunningham's. Look up and read about him - it's amazing to think he said and published the things he did when he did.
March 19, 2024
Przebogata treść toczona dwutorowo, biegle i eseistycznie. W pierwszej autor porządkuje mity leżące u progu zamkniętych na trzy spusty umysłów kolonialnych społeczeństw, w drugiej podróżuje i błądzi po piasku z laptopem. To forma symbolizująca drogę i jej stale oddalający się koniec. Może wybijać z rytmu, ale musi zostawiać ślady. Lektura przerażeń i szeroko otwartych (zamkniętych) oczu - obowiązkowa.
September 24, 2014
The idea that racism can be linked directly to imperialism and genocidal colonial policies...seems kind of obvious to anyone who really cares about the issue at this point. But instead of merely writing it out in some super structured academic style, Lindqvist kind of meanders through examples of colonial cruelty, late 19th century literature, as well as his own sort of vague travelogue of wandering aimlessly through the most utterly forgotten outposts of the Sahara desert.
While I generally love this sort of digressive, wide ranging, almost essayistic examination of the personal as historical (think W.G. Sebald and Bruce Chatwin mixed with Edward Said)...somehow with Lindqvist it comes off as kind of of clunky and not very well tacked together instead of crystalline, brilliant and shattering. And the parts about his travels quickly lose any real sense of focus or purpose when juxtaposed against say, a harrowing report about the slaughter of a bunch of Nigerians by an insane french military commander. I definitely love the idea of what he's trying to do here, I just think the execution is forced and kind of weak.
While I generally love this sort of digressive, wide ranging, almost essayistic examination of the personal as historical (think W.G. Sebald and Bruce Chatwin mixed with Edward Said)...somehow with Lindqvist it comes off as kind of of clunky and not very well tacked together instead of crystalline, brilliant and shattering. And the parts about his travels quickly lose any real sense of focus or purpose when juxtaposed against say, a harrowing report about the slaughter of a bunch of Nigerians by an insane french military commander. I definitely love the idea of what he's trying to do here, I just think the execution is forced and kind of weak.
May 18, 2025
Connects the dots of genocidal impulse from social darwinism to all the colonial empires. It didn't start and end with Hitler.
January 5, 2024
Największą zarazą świata nie jest po prostu człowiek, tylko BIAŁY człowiek. Czy to Susan Sontag powiedziała, że biała rasa jest rakiem na tkance cywilizacji? Ta książka to udowadnia, a właściwie to dwie książki bo w tym tomie znajduje się tytułowe „Wytępić całe to bydło. Historia kolonialnego terroru i ludobójstwa” oraz „Terra nulius. Podróż przez ziemię niczyją”.
Sven Lindqvist w niezwykle oryginalny (dla mnie) sposób prowadzi swoją reporterską narrację o tym jak biały człowiek pod przykrywką misji niesienia cywilizacji (albo misji chrystianizacji ofkors) barbarzyńsko eksterminował, mordował ludzi i przejmował ich ziemię. Holocaust nie był pierwszym ludobójstwem na tak szeroką skalę czy zagładą ze względu na pochodzenie etniczne czy religijne. Nie jest też ostanim.
Koniec XIX wieku niehumanitarny pocisk dum-dum powodujący powstawanie dużych i bolesnych ran jest zakazany przez społeczność międzynarodową, ale można go używać w polowaniach na zwierzynę. I w wojnach kolonialnych przeciwko niebiałym ludziom.
Najeźdźcy przywlekali ze sobą choroby, na które nie byli odporni rdzenni, więc wirusy ich dziesiątkowały. Co na to biały człowiek - to, że umierają tylko utwierdza przekonanie, że tamci przynależą do niższej rasy.
Tasmańczyk zabił osadnika? Trzeba w odwecie zamordować sześćdziesięciu.
Więcej przykładów przytaczać nie będę, po prostu sięgnijcie po tę książkę. Szczególnie, że to nie jest standardowe podejście do reportazu, i jest co prawda dość chaotyczne, ale tylko przez chwilę, bo łatwo w tym rytm nie-rytm wejść. Ach i sporo tu odniesien do literatury, a to przecież zawsze gratka dla bibliofilki.
Sven Lindqvist w niezwykle oryginalny (dla mnie) sposób prowadzi swoją reporterską narrację o tym jak biały człowiek pod przykrywką misji niesienia cywilizacji (albo misji chrystianizacji ofkors) barbarzyńsko eksterminował, mordował ludzi i przejmował ich ziemię. Holocaust nie był pierwszym ludobójstwem na tak szeroką skalę czy zagładą ze względu na pochodzenie etniczne czy religijne. Nie jest też ostanim.
Koniec XIX wieku niehumanitarny pocisk dum-dum powodujący powstawanie dużych i bolesnych ran jest zakazany przez społeczność międzynarodową, ale można go używać w polowaniach na zwierzynę. I w wojnach kolonialnych przeciwko niebiałym ludziom.
Najeźdźcy przywlekali ze sobą choroby, na które nie byli odporni rdzenni, więc wirusy ich dziesiątkowały. Co na to biały człowiek - to, że umierają tylko utwierdza przekonanie, że tamci przynależą do niższej rasy.
Tasmańczyk zabił osadnika? Trzeba w odwecie zamordować sześćdziesięciu.
Więcej przykładów przytaczać nie będę, po prostu sięgnijcie po tę książkę. Szczególnie, że to nie jest standardowe podejście do reportazu, i jest co prawda dość chaotyczne, ale tylko przez chwilę, bo łatwo w tym rytm nie-rytm wejść. Ach i sporo tu odniesien do literatury, a to przecież zawsze gratka dla bibliofilki.
April 6, 2013
“This is a story, not a contribution to historical research,” Swedish author Sven Lindqvist begins his relentlessly readable study of European genocide, “Exterminate All the Brutes.” It’s an accurate statement, as nothing factual in the book is new; but it underestimates Lindqvist’s own achievement, for his “story” is a powerful synthesis of fact and interpretation which leads the reads inexorably to the author’s appalling conclusion: that the Holocaust, far from being a unique event in European history, was nothing more than “the modern industrial application of a policy of extermination on which European world domination had long since rested.”
The book takes the structure of a journey both physical and intellectual. As Lindqvist (or his narrator) meditates on the meaning of European genocide, he travels throughout the Sahara, stopping at arid, sun-drenched villages and discovering for himself a part of Joseph Conrad’s “heart of darkness.” In a kind of emotional crisis, he has come to believe that the key to the Holocaust, and European genocide in general, can be found in the chilling words of Kurtz, Conrad’s character from that tale: “Exterminate all the brutes.”
From these four words, Lindqvist weaves a tapestry of horror. It begins in the late 1600s as William Petty, writing “The Scales of Creatures,” becomes “the first person to divide the abstract human being of medieval theology into several species, some of which were considered to be closer to animals.” By the nineteenth century, the explanation for this separation of species—now “races”—changes from religious to biological, but the implication is there from the beginning. For the betterment of the “superior” strains of humanity, it is necessary to eliminate the inferior: the Indians of Argentina, the Herero of Namibia, the Maori of New Zealand, the Tasmanians, the Native Americans—and, eventually, the Jews of Europe.
Lindqvuist vividly captures the hideous, nearly insane violence of the European masters of the Colonial era, while also noting the willful ignorance of those back home. Describing the 1898 battle in which General Horatio Herbert Kitchener heroically “saved” Sudan, for instance, he observes: “Few [in Europe] wondered how it came about that eleven thousand Sudanese were killed while the British lost only forty-eight men.” The answer, of course, was vastly superior British firepower, which allowed “the entire Sudanese army” to be “annihilated without once having got their enemy within gunshot.” This was a far cry from the dangerous hand-to-hand combat pictured in the English press of the day.
There is a direct link, Lindqvist argues, between the willful ignorance of that time and our own, a deliberate blindness which has allowed, and continues to allow, atrocities of unimaginable magnitude to unfold—atrocities very much a part of a long European tradition. “It is not knowledge we lack,” he concludes. “What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions.” In this emotionally wrenching work, Sven Lindqvist reminds us of what we know and forces us to draw conclusions about our own hearts of darkness.
The book takes the structure of a journey both physical and intellectual. As Lindqvist (or his narrator) meditates on the meaning of European genocide, he travels throughout the Sahara, stopping at arid, sun-drenched villages and discovering for himself a part of Joseph Conrad’s “heart of darkness.” In a kind of emotional crisis, he has come to believe that the key to the Holocaust, and European genocide in general, can be found in the chilling words of Kurtz, Conrad’s character from that tale: “Exterminate all the brutes.”
From these four words, Lindqvist weaves a tapestry of horror. It begins in the late 1600s as William Petty, writing “The Scales of Creatures,” becomes “the first person to divide the abstract human being of medieval theology into several species, some of which were considered to be closer to animals.” By the nineteenth century, the explanation for this separation of species—now “races”—changes from religious to biological, but the implication is there from the beginning. For the betterment of the “superior” strains of humanity, it is necessary to eliminate the inferior: the Indians of Argentina, the Herero of Namibia, the Maori of New Zealand, the Tasmanians, the Native Americans—and, eventually, the Jews of Europe.
Lindqvuist vividly captures the hideous, nearly insane violence of the European masters of the Colonial era, while also noting the willful ignorance of those back home. Describing the 1898 battle in which General Horatio Herbert Kitchener heroically “saved” Sudan, for instance, he observes: “Few [in Europe] wondered how it came about that eleven thousand Sudanese were killed while the British lost only forty-eight men.” The answer, of course, was vastly superior British firepower, which allowed “the entire Sudanese army” to be “annihilated without once having got their enemy within gunshot.” This was a far cry from the dangerous hand-to-hand combat pictured in the English press of the day.
There is a direct link, Lindqvist argues, between the willful ignorance of that time and our own, a deliberate blindness which has allowed, and continues to allow, atrocities of unimaginable magnitude to unfold—atrocities very much a part of a long European tradition. “It is not knowledge we lack,” he concludes. “What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions.” In this emotionally wrenching work, Sven Lindqvist reminds us of what we know and forces us to draw conclusions about our own hearts of darkness.
January 26, 2019
To powinna być lektura w liceum, bo widać jak bardzo zachodni świat nauczył się ignorować historię. Wokół nas brunatna fala, a my zapominamy skąd wzięły się pewne ideologie i pomysły. Wiemy, o kolonializmie, ale nie rozmawiamy o tym głośno, bo lepiej nie rozmawiać o tym co było przed i
Po Hitlerze. Podobała mi się nietypowa forma reportażu. Dobre, mocne nawiązania do Józefa Conrada Korzeniowskiego, odważne, pozbawione lukru wnioski.
Po Hitlerze. Podobała mi się nietypowa forma reportażu. Dobre, mocne nawiązania do Józefa Conrada Korzeniowskiego, odważne, pozbawione lukru wnioski.
October 18, 2024
Trochę to taki chaos narracyjny, mnóstwo wątków, ale w tym jest metoda, bo obraz okrucieństwa i buty kolonialistów pozostaje w głowie i robi wrażenie emocjonalne.
uwaga spojlery do książek Wellsa!
uwaga spojlery do książek Wellsa!
October 27, 2025
Jestem najbardziej naiwną osobą na świecie, bo myślałam, że wydarzenia opisane w „27 śmierciach Toby’ego Obeda” to specyfika Kanady, a nie modus operandi europejskich kolonizatorów.
To taki specyficzny reportaż, trudno mi do czegokolwiek przyrównać. Nazwałabym go zbiorem esejów o kulturze kolonializmu.
To taki specyficzny reportaż, trudno mi do czegokolwiek przyrównać. Nazwałabym go zbiorem esejów o kulturze kolonializmu.
June 14, 2021
Mam mieszane uczucia. Choć wiele tu niezwykle ważnych i ciekawych informacji, to nie podeszła mi forma tego eseju (nie do końca wiem, jak określić tę książkę). Zbyt chaotycznie to wszystko jest przedstawione, nie widziałam też za bardzo związku między analizami takich pojęć jak kolonizacja, imperializm, rasizm, nazizm i ludobójstwo, przeplatana m.in. genezą powstania "Jądra ciemności" Josepha Conrada, z wyskakującymi znienacka wstawkami dotyczącymi podróży autora po Algierii (niektóre są naprawdę dość abstrakcyjne). Owszem, zaznaczyłam wiele fragmentów, ale brnęłam przez tę niewielką w sumie książkę dość długo i mozolnie. Nie ze względu na tematykę, bo ta nie jest mi obca i trochę już się o tym wszystkim naczytałam, tylko z powodu stylu i formy.
Właśnie przeczytałam, że w kwietniu na HBO miał premierę miniserial dokumentalny oparty m.in. na tej książce Lindqvista (i pod tytułem "Exterminate All the Brutes"), może ta forma lepiej by do mnie przemówiła? Muszę sprawdzić.
Właśnie przeczytałam, że w kwietniu na HBO miał premierę miniserial dokumentalny oparty m.in. na tej książce Lindqvista (i pod tytułem "Exterminate All the Brutes"), może ta forma lepiej by do mnie przemówiła? Muszę sprawdzić.
May 23, 2018
To my jesteśmy "barbarzyńcami". My - biali Europejczycy.
3.5. Byłoby 4, za treść, ale nie do końca spodobała mi się forma tego reportażu (czy też eseju).
W każdym razie - powinna to być lektura raczej obowiązkowa.
3.5. Byłoby 4, za treść, ale nie do końca spodobała mi się forma tego reportażu (czy też eseju).
W każdym razie - powinna to być lektura raczej obowiązkowa.
May 9, 2024
Dwa reportaże w jednym - jeden o ludobójstwach przeprowadzanych przez Europejczyków (głównie Brytyjczyków) w Afryce, drugi o ludobójstwach przeprowadzanych przez Brytyjczyków w Australii? Chyba widzę jakiś związek…
Jest to książka szokująca, trudna, ale bardzo dobra. Dla mnie instant top najlepszych reportaży jakie miałem okazję przeczytać. MUST READ.
Jest to książka szokująca, trudna, ale bardzo dobra. Dla mnie instant top najlepszych reportaży jakie miałem okazję przeczytać. MUST READ.
January 24, 2023
In dit boekje ontwikkelt Lindqvist de these dat de ideeëngeschiedenis, cultuur en ideologie(ën) van West-Europa doordesemd zijn met een racisme dat logischerwijze tot genocide moest leiden. Deze racistische ideeën zijn uniek en exceptioneel en kwamen tot volle wasdom in de negentiende eeuw met het verdwijnen of decimeren van inheemse bevolkingen tijdens de koloniale expansieperiode van Europa. Maar ook de Holocaust is een gevolg van het denken in superieure en inferieure rassen.
Wanneer hoofdpersonage Marlow uit de novelle “Heart of Darkness” (1902) van Joseph Conrad op zoek gaat naar beruchte handelsgezant Kurz op zijn ivoorpost aan de Congorivier, vindt hij een theoretisch geschrift van Kurz over de beschavingsmissie in Afrika. Helemaal op het eind van zijn essay heeft Kurz nog snel in de marge toegevoegd: “Exterminate all the Brutes!”. Voorzeker een drastische beschavingsstrategie. En een oproep om alle barbaren uit te roeien.
De koortsige Kurz, fysiek en mentaal overmeesterd door jungleklimaat en de haast vanzefsprekende wreedheid tussen kolonisator en gekoloniseerde maar ook tussen de lokale bevolking onderling, werd in 1979 door Francis Ford Coppola getransponeerd naar de wildernis van de Vietnamoorlog in zijn film “Apocalypse Now”. Daar is het Martin Sheen die de rivier opvaart om de gedegenereerde Marlon Brando te midden zijn feesten van angst en pijn te gaan opzoeken. Voor mij is het sindsdien onmogelijk om het over Heart of Darkness te hebben zonder dat deze beelden in mijn hoofd opduiken.
De woorden ‘Exterminate all the Brutes” van Kurz in “Heart of Darkness” zijn het startpunt van Sven Lindqvist zijn boek om op zoek te gaan naar de betekenis ervan. Hij doet dat geheel binnen de stelling dat Europa zijn rijkdom verworven heeft op de kap van de slachtoffers van een racistisch kolonialisme. Volgens Lindqvist was het 16e-eeuws Europa een achterlijke, verpauperde negorij met kanonnen en schepen. En heeft alles aan te danken aan de roof in de kolonies. Anderen beweren dat Europa toen al -voor de kolonisatie echt op gang kwam- het hoogste BBP per inwoner had in de wereld. Paard en kar. Het kader van Lindqvist is dus dat van een erfschuld-Europa dat moet “conclusies” trekken. Dit boekje van Lindqvist behoort dan ook tot de canon van de beweging die de dekolonisering van onze maatschappij een urgentie vindt.
Lindqvist schetst een heel interessant beeld van het intellectueel-culturele klimaat van voornamelijk de negentiende eeuw waarbinnen de maatschappelijke discussies over de kolonies en de confrontaties met de plaatselijke bevolkingsgroepen plaatshadden. En waarin Conrad zijn “Heart of Darkness” schreef. Dat is interessant voor ons, Belgen, omdat het duidelijk maakt op welke manier de beeldvorming rond Congo past in de bredere periode van het Britse imperium.
Hij heeft het over Darwin en de voor de hand liggende gedachtesprong dat ook volkeren en rassen onderhevig zijn aan de wetten van evolutie: zwakkere, onaangepaste beschavingen verdwijnen, sterkere nemen hun plaats in. Sociaal Darwinisme, soms voorgesteld als verklaring voor wat er is gebeurd, soms als excuus voor halve of hele genocidaire toekomstprojecten.
Er zijn een aantal historische gebeurtenissen die toen brandend actueel waren zoals de strafexpeditie in 1897 van de Britten naar het koninkrijk Benin, een regime waarvan de onnoemelijke wrede praktijken breed uitgesmeerd werden in de Britse pers en die Conrad inspireerden tot de met hoofden op paaltjes afgezoomde toegangsweg tot het huis van Kurz. Of de slag bij Omdurman, Sudan, in 1898 waarbij de Britten 50 soldaten verloren en de Sudanezen 12.000 doden en evenveel gewonden telden. Als dat niet superieur was.
Lindqvist bladert door tal van auteurs, wetenschappelijke én literaire, en toont heel overtuigend aan welke ervaringen en lectuur aan de basis lagen van het werk van Conrad. Daarnaast construeert hij ook een beeld van Europa dat het normaal vond dat bevolkingen van de aardbol verdwenen. Dat lag in de natuur der dingen. Er kan weinig twijfel over bestaan dat zulke denkstromingen inderdaad circuleerden, maar dat ze de essentie uitmaakten van de laatste 500 jaar geschiedenis, daarvoor is het boekje te dun. Er zijn veel dikkere boeken die even overtuigend heel andere cultuurnarratieven brengen.
De essayistische-historische stukken worden afgewisseld met het verslag van een reis die Lindqvist maakt in de Sahara van In Salah in Algerije tot Zinder in Nigeria. Met zijn laptop. Met veel zand, wind, schokkende bussen en twijfelachtige verblijven. Terwijl hij dus dit boek schrijft. Dat procedé draagt niet echt iets bij naar mijn smaak en het lijkt iets te veel alsof hij zelf een beetje Marlow wil spelen.
In elke geval de moeite om te lezen, ook in het licht van de huidige discussie over het koloniaal verleden van België.
Wanneer hoofdpersonage Marlow uit de novelle “Heart of Darkness” (1902) van Joseph Conrad op zoek gaat naar beruchte handelsgezant Kurz op zijn ivoorpost aan de Congorivier, vindt hij een theoretisch geschrift van Kurz over de beschavingsmissie in Afrika. Helemaal op het eind van zijn essay heeft Kurz nog snel in de marge toegevoegd: “Exterminate all the Brutes!”. Voorzeker een drastische beschavingsstrategie. En een oproep om alle barbaren uit te roeien.
De koortsige Kurz, fysiek en mentaal overmeesterd door jungleklimaat en de haast vanzefsprekende wreedheid tussen kolonisator en gekoloniseerde maar ook tussen de lokale bevolking onderling, werd in 1979 door Francis Ford Coppola getransponeerd naar de wildernis van de Vietnamoorlog in zijn film “Apocalypse Now”. Daar is het Martin Sheen die de rivier opvaart om de gedegenereerde Marlon Brando te midden zijn feesten van angst en pijn te gaan opzoeken. Voor mij is het sindsdien onmogelijk om het over Heart of Darkness te hebben zonder dat deze beelden in mijn hoofd opduiken.
De woorden ‘Exterminate all the Brutes” van Kurz in “Heart of Darkness” zijn het startpunt van Sven Lindqvist zijn boek om op zoek te gaan naar de betekenis ervan. Hij doet dat geheel binnen de stelling dat Europa zijn rijkdom verworven heeft op de kap van de slachtoffers van een racistisch kolonialisme. Volgens Lindqvist was het 16e-eeuws Europa een achterlijke, verpauperde negorij met kanonnen en schepen. En heeft alles aan te danken aan de roof in de kolonies. Anderen beweren dat Europa toen al -voor de kolonisatie echt op gang kwam- het hoogste BBP per inwoner had in de wereld. Paard en kar. Het kader van Lindqvist is dus dat van een erfschuld-Europa dat moet “conclusies” trekken. Dit boekje van Lindqvist behoort dan ook tot de canon van de beweging die de dekolonisering van onze maatschappij een urgentie vindt.
Lindqvist schetst een heel interessant beeld van het intellectueel-culturele klimaat van voornamelijk de negentiende eeuw waarbinnen de maatschappelijke discussies over de kolonies en de confrontaties met de plaatselijke bevolkingsgroepen plaatshadden. En waarin Conrad zijn “Heart of Darkness” schreef. Dat is interessant voor ons, Belgen, omdat het duidelijk maakt op welke manier de beeldvorming rond Congo past in de bredere periode van het Britse imperium.
Hij heeft het over Darwin en de voor de hand liggende gedachtesprong dat ook volkeren en rassen onderhevig zijn aan de wetten van evolutie: zwakkere, onaangepaste beschavingen verdwijnen, sterkere nemen hun plaats in. Sociaal Darwinisme, soms voorgesteld als verklaring voor wat er is gebeurd, soms als excuus voor halve of hele genocidaire toekomstprojecten.
Er zijn een aantal historische gebeurtenissen die toen brandend actueel waren zoals de strafexpeditie in 1897 van de Britten naar het koninkrijk Benin, een regime waarvan de onnoemelijke wrede praktijken breed uitgesmeerd werden in de Britse pers en die Conrad inspireerden tot de met hoofden op paaltjes afgezoomde toegangsweg tot het huis van Kurz. Of de slag bij Omdurman, Sudan, in 1898 waarbij de Britten 50 soldaten verloren en de Sudanezen 12.000 doden en evenveel gewonden telden. Als dat niet superieur was.
Lindqvist bladert door tal van auteurs, wetenschappelijke én literaire, en toont heel overtuigend aan welke ervaringen en lectuur aan de basis lagen van het werk van Conrad. Daarnaast construeert hij ook een beeld van Europa dat het normaal vond dat bevolkingen van de aardbol verdwenen. Dat lag in de natuur der dingen. Er kan weinig twijfel over bestaan dat zulke denkstromingen inderdaad circuleerden, maar dat ze de essentie uitmaakten van de laatste 500 jaar geschiedenis, daarvoor is het boekje te dun. Er zijn veel dikkere boeken die even overtuigend heel andere cultuurnarratieven brengen.
De essayistische-historische stukken worden afgewisseld met het verslag van een reis die Lindqvist maakt in de Sahara van In Salah in Algerije tot Zinder in Nigeria. Met zijn laptop. Met veel zand, wind, schokkende bussen en twijfelachtige verblijven. Terwijl hij dus dit boek schrijft. Dat procedé draagt niet echt iets bij naar mijn smaak en het lijkt iets te veel alsof hij zelf een beetje Marlow wil spelen.
In elke geval de moeite om te lezen, ook in het licht van de huidige discussie over het koloniaal verleden van België.
June 21, 2024
Ciężko ocenić taką książkę :/
Uważam że każdy powinien poznać ten okres historii
Uważam że każdy powinien poznać ten okres historii
Read
October 18, 2013The short answer to the question "Why should I read this book?" can be found on p. 315:
The only thing I would add is that what was most startling about reading this book was the fact that these parallels are so little acknowledged even today. (The same goes for the 'thinning out' of the eastern european populations, a point that is made in the book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.) Perfectly obvious, yet overlooked, and to the extent it is not overlooked, it is de-emphasized. I find this quite disturbing, as these actions are integral to understanding the history of 'modernity'.
Arno J. Mayer, in his controversial book Why Did the Heavens not Darken? The 'Final Solution' in History (1988), goes right back to the horrors of the Thirty Years' War, the storming of Magdeburg on May 10, 1631, when thirty thousand men, women and children were murdered, and even further back to the mass murder by the Crusaders of eleven hundred innocent inhabitants of Mainz in 1096, to find equivalents to the mass murders of Jews during World War II.
On the other hand, there is no mention of the European slave trade, which forcibly removed fifteen million Negroes between continents, and killed perhaps just as many. Nor are the nineteenth-century European colonial wars or punitive expeditions mentioned. If Mayer had as much as glanced in that direction, he would have found so many examples of brutal extermination based on clearly racial convictions, that the Thirty Years' War and the Crusades would seem to lie unnecessarily far back.
On my journey through the Sahara alone, I have been in two Mainzes. One is called Zaatcha, where the entire population was wiped out by the French in 1849. The other is Laghouat, where on December 3, 1852, after the storming, the remaining third of the population, mainly women and children, was massacred. In one single well, 256 corpses were found. That was how one mixed with the inferior races. It was not considered good form to talk about it, nor was it anything that needed conceiling. It was established practice.
The only thing I would add is that what was most startling about reading this book was the fact that these parallels are so little acknowledged even today. (The same goes for the 'thinning out' of the eastern european populations, a point that is made in the book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.) Perfectly obvious, yet overlooked, and to the extent it is not overlooked, it is de-emphasized. I find this quite disturbing, as these actions are integral to understanding the history of 'modernity'.
July 18, 2023
Specyficzna ale interesująca, nigdy wcześniej nie spotkałam się z poglądem prezentowanym w tak radykalnej myśli i dosadnym sposobie argumentowania, nieco przewrotnym, nieco ironicznym, nieco groteskowym. Świetne omówienie Jądra Ciemności i Wehikułu czasu. Nie wiem za bardzo po co wstawki ze współczesnej podróży, akurat ten element uważam za zbędny.
February 24, 2012
A masterpiece! Should be a schoolbook all around the world.
November 23, 2023
3.5 ⭐
A meditation on European genocidal racist imperialism, which eventually culminates in the Holocaust. Interesting, very well written, with an appropriately oppressive atmosphere. But I wish it spent less time on Heart of Darkness specifically 😅
A meditation on European genocidal racist imperialism, which eventually culminates in the Holocaust. Interesting, very well written, with an appropriately oppressive atmosphere. But I wish it spent less time on Heart of Darkness specifically 😅
September 7, 2019
“Too many Europeans interpreted military superiority as intellectual and even biological superiority.”
Lindqvist contrasts his personal journey through North Africa with that of European colonialism. This short book is bursting with recounts of European slaughter, many of which I had never heard of before. Though as far as I could see there didn’t seem to be any mention of Portugal or Italy’s role in the wide scale killing. What most people today would recognise as genocide back then was regarded as opening up Africa “to the civilising influences of commercial enterprise.”
There are no shortage of cruel, vindictive white, European men who slaughtered countless people with impunity and often with the full backing of the monarchy, senior religious authorities and the establishment, the likes of Stanley, Kitchener and Churchill from the British Empire and the likes of Carl Peters from the German Empire and many more. Some of the diary entries by the guilty parties are hard to fathom today, particularly the likes of Churchill, whose words read like a self-parody of the British elite at its most pompous and self-entitled.
“The hypocritical British heart beats for all except those their own empire drowns in blood.”
I suppose this is one of those slim books that certain people would regard as a study of or meditation on colonialism, in this case the European colonisation of Africa, in particular the Belgians in the Congo. Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” is heavily referenced as well as some of H.G. Wells’s novels of the Victorian era. Lindqvist refers to a number of Swedish authors from the late 1800s and early 1900s who had visited the Congo and had written about their various experiences.
This is also a tale of lost civilizations. He describes the Canary Islands as “the kindergarten for European imperialism.” This was where the Spaniards wiped out the Guanches in the late 1400s. He also shows the ways in which the British wiped out the native Tasmanians in the 1800s. We get a background into some of the other widely held beliefs and philosophies surrounding eugenics, evolution and racial superiority, all of it long established at the highest levels of “civilised nations”.
Lindqvist explores the progress of the West as they outdid each other in trying to invent the most cost effective way to kill people. Nothing was too cruel or inventive, one of the more notable examples being Dum Dum bullets, (named after the Dum Dum factory outside Calcutta), patented by the Brits in 1897. This was a bullet which was designed to explode on impact, causing maximum damage, to those who survived their wounds wound heal poorly. The use of these bullets between “civilised” states was prohibited.
This is a shocking, fascinating and hugely important read that takes a fearless approach to the many acts of genocide committed by the European and American elite. It reminds us that as appalling Hitler and the Nazis were they certainly weren’t the first people to practise such horrendous large scale killing, he and his men had learned from the other white European nations who had been doing it for centuries killing tens upon tens of millions.
April 5, 2024
You already know that. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions.
I read the author's Terra Nullius: A Journey Through No One's Land years ago. It was shocking, arousing anger and grief.
This book was even more shocking, it rocked to the core.
First of all, it is a must-read for everyone who values human rights, humanity, etc.
Then, it is a must-read for everyone interested in the history.
Also, it is a must-read for everyone who loves literature.
And, lastly, everyone should at least know the message and Sven Lindqvist's understanding of genocides.
To me, it was one of the most impressive and the most important books I have ever read.
It allowed me to better understand Joseph Conrad and his novels (especially Heart of Darkness), and a few other writers, e.g. H.G. Wells.
It showed me the parts of history that most people (with help from some historians) are trying to not remember.
First of all, it put into my head questions that I want now to ask everyone:
Which guilt and debts the new generation should inherit, which not, why and who (and why) decides about it?
Who started the idea of genocide?
How did and does the Western world hide so efficiently the genocides of the XVI-XIX century?
And many others.
In other words, it is one of the books that changes the reader. There is no way to not feel impacted. Even, if (almost impossible) one doesn't agree with Sven Lindqvist.
July 24, 2011
When grasping for the language of absolute evil, many in the West reach for the ideology of Nazism and the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust. Sadly, less is said about 19th century European colonialism—the Belgium Congo, the German genocide of the Herero, the French massacres in the Sudan and the Sahara, and of course the transatlantic slave trade. Lindqvist, a Swedish writer, gives us a sampling of the scientific racism and practical murder behind the millions of lives destroyed by European powers in the 18th and 19th centuries. This short book is part travel narrative, part-aphoristic history of European racism in theory and deed. The book does an excellent job of framing the material in light of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The travel narrative sections are forgettable, but the stories of European cruelty are unforgettable. His thesis in short: “Auschwitz was the modern industrial application of a policy of extermination on which European world domination had long since rested.”
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January 28, 2009"Auschwitz was the modern industrial application of a policy of extermination on which European world domination had long since rested."
This book brilliantly traces the roots of ethnic cleansing in the colonial and imperial policies of Europe and the United States through a compelling use of primary sources.
The rich understanding that results is of a continuous progress of policies and attitudes that undermines an ahistorical view of genocide that seems to pop into the modern mind from nowhere. An important book to understanding our cultural heritage.
This book brilliantly traces the roots of ethnic cleansing in the colonial and imperial policies of Europe and the United States through a compelling use of primary sources.
The rich understanding that results is of a continuous progress of policies and attitudes that undermines an ahistorical view of genocide that seems to pop into the modern mind from nowhere. An important book to understanding our cultural heritage.
September 9, 2013
Forget Theroux and Naipaul. Lindqvist shows that the ‘heart of darkness’ leads straight back to Europe. Read it.
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