Cursing the Darkness
By Tarty Teh

Before I wrote the article, I had the benefit of some empirical data at least regarding the material disposition of the demons the four women met in ‘‘Heading for Darkness.’’ My father had already observed that the ghosts had left the women’s belongings behind, and I inferred that they ‘‘never thought it necessary to take [them].’’ Your conclusion that ‘‘the ghosts were perhaps not interested in the packages’’ is, therefore, pretty much taken directly from the evidence gathered. My father supplied that information, and it formed the basis of some of my own conclusions.

About Joseph Conrad’s book, ‘‘Heart of Darkness,’’ I read it in college well over 25 years ago. But I do remember that the author essentially indicted the white people who sailed up and down the Congo River burning African villages and raiding them for ivories which African hunters were hoarding for European market.

In 1982 I had an encounter with some editors of the Newsweek magazine, and it was about the use of the title ‘‘Heart of Darkness’’ in a feature article that had nothing to do with the heart or darkness. The Newsweek staff tried to dismiss me quickly with thoughtless assertions when I called from Washington, D.C., to their offices in New York City. I found that their logic reached barely the feeble minimal in any sustainable debate. They were not ignorance; prejudice had simply robbed them of needed preparation.

They soon learned that I had a fairly good idea what I was talking about. Even so, the lady the editors put forward to address my concerns still harbored some doubts that talking with me was worth her time. And so when I asked her what the caption ‘‘Heart of Darkness’’ had to do with an article that was essentially an assessment of the People’s Redemption Council’s first year as rulers of Liberia, she replied that if I wanted an answer to that question I needed to speak with a man named Nicholas Profitt who had filed the story from Nairobi, Kenya. She then proceeded to read me Mr. Profitt’s phone number, but I stopped her before she finished.

I told her that in all likelihood Mr. Profitt had sent the story in the form of a telex (remember this was before e-mail). I was therefore interested in talking with the graphic and caption editors who agreed to use the title ‘‘Heart of Darkness.’’ This slowed her down somewhat.

I was promised a letter of apology and an opportunity to write a letter to the editor in the Newsweek magazine. But that was not the end for me. I contacted the editors of the Columbia Journalism Review magazine at Columbia University in New York City. I was a fan of one of their professors, William Woods, who had a radio network program ‘‘Report on the Press.’’

I learned that Dr. Woods was now professor emeritus and resided somewhere in Georgia from where he filed his weekly feature ‘‘Report on the Press.’’ I got Dr. Woods on the phone and simply asked him to promise me that he would read page 19 of one of the February issues of the Newsweek magazine (I forget the exact date), and that I would be calling back the next day to learn his impression about the story on Liberia.

When I called back Dr. Woods wanted to know what the big deal was. ‘‘This is typical Newsweek magazine treatment’’ of Third World subjects. He said he didn’t like it, but it was not out of the ordinary, and as a student of journalism I should have known the Newsweek’s slant by then. That was when I directed his attention to the caption ‘‘Heart of Darkness’’ which was simply stampped on the map of Africa on which Liberia had been delineated. He shouted ‘‘Holy cow!’’ He called the caption a ‘‘gratuitous insult.’’ He said if the Newsweek thought Liberia was the worst place on earth, they had the freedom to maintain that view, but they had to do so editorially, not through a caption that had no bearing on their editorial contents.

That week, Dr. Woods’ ‘‘Report on the Press’’ dealt with the subject of Newsweek’s editorial bias which the publication tried to hide in its graphics on the subject of Liberia.

However, my use of the word ‘‘darkness’’ in ‘‘Heading for Darkness’’ is a bit more literal than it is in either Joseph Conrad’s ‘’Heart of Darkness’’ or Newsweek’s suggestion of ‘‘Darkness’’ in its caption. The four women who went past the village of Borti were literally headed for darkness that was almost upon them before they left town. I would not, however, disallow the intimation that the spread of African continental darkness is an alternative reading of our seemingly growing ignorance and our knack for reaching wrong conclusions about our persistent problems in Africa. – Tarty Teh