Two Sets of Natives

Though Douglas Kerr’s article focuses more on comparing the main characters of Waiting for the Barbarians and The Heart of Darkness, I believe the more intriguing comparison is between the natives of the two stories. Both Conrad and Coetzee’s natives are feared, demeaned, and despised. However, they do in fact serve as the unifying link between the two novels’ protagonists, Marlow and the Magistrate. Both of these characters are set apart from the rest of the non-natives in their respective stories because they view the natives as, if not equals, at least not enemies whose only purpose in their lives is to evoke fear. In fact, both sets of natives serve far larger purposes even than the protagonists, as they simultaneously emphasize society’s racism and fear of the unknown.
In such a role, both the natives of Africa of The Heart of Darkness and the nomads and fisher-people of Waiting for the Barbarians portray a number of similar traits. For example, they are both far more primitive than the invaders who now control their land, leading society as a whole to look down on them. However, both sets of natives have cultures of their own which have been crushed by the people who conquered them. Additionally, both sets of natives have been seriously misunderstood (whether deliberately or not), which led to violence in both cases. The fisher-people, barbarians, and cannibals all have ways of life that are vastly different from those of their urban conquerors, and they are persecuted because of this. Additionally, they are far more adaptable than their conquerors believe them to be. From the fisher-people’s bartering to the African cannibal’s serving as Marlowe’s helmsman, native people were able to bring themselves up to speed with modern customs, as long as they were given opportunities and training rather than simply tossed into army barracks as prisoners.
The major difference between the two novels’ natives, though, and what makes the contrast between them so severe is their resilience. While by the end of The Heart of Darkness, Africa is just as suffocated by the European presence as it was in the beginning, the barbarians are portrayed as the victors in Waiting for the Barbarians. Even if that belief has no credence, both the fisher-people, in rebuilding their huts just one day after the soldiers of the Empire tear them down, and the nomadic barbarians, who refuse to succumb to the vast armies, show that they are willing to do whatever it takes to preserve their ways. All in all, though the natives are treated similarly in these two novels, the manner in which they react is totally different, creating two very different outcomes. Though the Empire has not fallen any more than the Company has given up on Africa, I as a reader felt that Coetzee’s natives had a far better chance of preservation that Conrad’s simply because of the resiliency of their actions and their innate ability to persevere.