ABSTRACT

In order to understand the initial colonial mindset, particularly during late nineteenth century, this requires to an entire reading of Joseph Conrad’s early colonial fiction which is as an embodiment of the Malay territories that were kept under the British and Dutch colonialism. This paper focuses on the commercial and lucrative enterprises during the presence of the British and Dutch powers in the Malay Archipelago, and tests those colonial projects in terms of their limitations and successes. This paper also presents the major factors that led to the end of their rules. Further, it deals with some elements that operate as supportive to the existence of colonialism, particularly in the Eastern part of the world, such as natives’ insistence and constituency on longing for success and fame even when it is at the cost of their homeland’s dignity and honour. In addition, this paper seeks to present a critique of Almayer’s illusions and obsessions of achieving his dreams on a land foreign to him, and how he represents the downfall of European Imperialism and domination on abroad territories. The whole paper attempts to answer the question of whether the colonial schemes were successful or failed ones.

Keywords:
Almayer’s Folly; Colonialism; Post-colonialism; Domination; Lucrative Enterprises; Illusions, Deceptions; Eastern World.

And don’t you kick because you’re white! . . . None of that with me! Nobody will see the colour of your wife’s skin. The dollars are too thick for that, I tell you! And mind you, they will be thicker yet before you die. There will be millions, Kasper! Millions I say! And all for her—and for you, if you do what you are told” (AF 11)[i].

Human agonies and crises of misrepresentation have reached the zenith during colonialism era; therefore, portraying them by writers took precedence over any other ongoing matters of that time. However, the most conflicting powers at that time are the British and the Dutch who kept many parts of the East under their control. The principal idea behind setting colonial schemes and establishing colonies overseas is that, colonists invariably aspire for more successful and lucrative enterprises which are usually placed under the agents (the guardians) of an empire to ensure a tremendous overflow of profits and dividends into their homeland. In addition, exploration and expedition to many different and diversified geographies and lands was also amongst the reasons to take over territories, not to mention other motives which tend to be religious, ethnocentric and political. However, as far as the Malay Archipelago is concerned,^[ii]  it was seen a fertile locality for trade, culture, and economy. The most dominating and conflicting major powers at that time were the Netherlands and Great Britain. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) came to dominate over the region since the early 17^th century which went through many conflicts and wars; the VOC strives to maintain authority and hegemony over other forces and challenges, namely the British East India Company (EIC), as the former’s main rival throughout the period of domination. Sea was the medium into which these powers used to ship tonnages abroad, wage war, and make profits out of a place loaded with challenges like piracy, disease and high competition between foreign traders and local ones. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) depicted those commercial rivalries and displayed how they began to develop, and set out colonising enterprises which had eventually been thwarted and crumpled due to a number of severe confrontations between invaders and indigenous people. Almayer’s Folly 1895 is considered one of Conrad’s Malay novels which clearly portray the relation between colonial traders and entrepreneurs like Almayer, Tom Lingard and the Orang Blanda against their Malay and Arab rivals. The major objective of this paper is to probe and investigate whether the colonial enterprising system was after all a profit-making for the colonizers or a failed one, and examine the factors that led to their bankruptcy and deterioration, particularly in the course of the 17^th century until the close of first half of the 20^th century. Furthermore, this study aims at analysing Almayer’s Folly from a postcolonial perspective, and draw out the consequences of commercial schemes set during the British and Dutch control. The opening passage of Conrad’s first novel Almayer’s Folly 1895 is set on the east coast of Borneo Island, and particularly on the River Pantai.^[iii]  Almayer’s Folly truly depicts the awaiting future of a Dutch trader, well-known as Kaspar Almayer whose “thoughts were often busy with gold” (AF 7). Almayer is an alien protagonist living in a society replete with adversaries, conspiracies and intrigues during rapid colonial expansions in the Far East. Almayer aspires to obtain the “gold mount” and become rich and escape along with his only daughter Nina to Amsterdam, but soon this aspiration is exasperated and doomed to failure. Almayer exerts himself to “secure” gold through “his own honest exertions” unlike others who usually secure it (gold) “dishonestly” (AF 7).

According to Edward W. Said (1994), colonial empires were not only attracted to overseas territories because of “profit and hope of further profit [which] were obviously tremendously important, as the attractions of spices, sugar, slaves, rubber, cotton, opium, tin, gold and silver,” but due to the “inertia,” (i.e. the state of unemployment) and “the investment in already-going enterprises, tradition” (9—10). In this case, one should say that a colonial power abroad was not a well-established as a permanent entity on the account of its “tremendously risky physical disparity between a small number of Europeans at a very great distance from the much large number of natives on their home territory” (ibid). Supporters of the colonial system endorse the idea that advocates the expansion of colonising countries for exploiting resources and set commercial schemes abroad, namely Rudyard Kipling’s “Recessional” and “The White Man’s Burden.” Kipling praises the white man’s supremacy over  other races.^[iv] However some literary works by Europeans depict the white missionaries’ projects as sometimes unprofitable and visionless as the case of Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly. Conrad focuses on a number of central personages, and through the filter of an ^[v] omniscient narrator recounts to us the development of an unsuccessful European trader residing on one of the banks of the River Pantai which streams into the Celebes Sea in the eastern seashore of Borneo (Lester 341). It is said that “Almayer had left his home with a light heart and a lighter pocket, speaking English well, and strong in arithmetic; ready to conquer the world” (8).

Before the close of the nineteenth-century, Conrad as a mariner took part in a number of voyages which began as Norman Sherry noted from 1883-1888 to visit some parts of the Malay Archipelago like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore (1). After his return from the East, John Lester writes: “He began the novel [AF] in Bessborough Gardens, London, in September 1889 and finished it in nearby Gillingham Street . . . in April 1894 at, Conrad claimed, ‘3 o’clock in the morning’” (VII). Conrad declares to Marguerite Pordowska^[vi] 

who is considered as one of Conrad’s closest relatives with whom Conrad conveys the progress of the writing process of Almayer’s Folly (V), thus Conrad writes: “It’s finished! A scratching of the pen writing the final word, and suddenly this entire company of people who have spoken into my ear, gesticulated before my eyes, lived with me for so many years, becomes a band of phantoms who retreat, fade, and dissolve–are made pallid and indistinct by the sunlight of this brilliant and sombre day” (Frederich R. Karl, Lawrence Davies; Vol.1 153).

In his autobiographical report Conrad recalls the major factors that inspires and contributes to the writing of this piece Ian Watt, as one of the most eminent literary critics of the twentieth century, wrote Conrad in the Nineteenth Century 1979, which documents and traces the literary production of Conrad, especially in fin-de-siècle of the 19^th century. Watt remarks that Conrad in 1889 “did not dawdle after breakfast as usual but summons the landlady’s daughter to clear the table,” at this especial moment the author’s literary career begins (34). Watt clearly narrates how Conrad’s first work of fiction came into existence through referring to Conrad’s biography A Personal Record 1908, in which Conrad did not have the least impetus to write Almayer’s Folly, albeit whose journey after “the Vidar’s routine stops at an isolated settlement some thirty miles up the Berau River in Eastern Borneo.” Thereafter, his meeting with “a half-caste trader from Java called Charles Olmeijer,” (34) where Conrad asserts that “if [he] had not got to know Almayer pretty well it is almost certain there would never have been a line of [him] in print” (A Personal Record, IV 269). However, Watt disagrees with Conrad’s narrative with regard to how he had become an author, and says that “preposterous exaggeration is characteristic of Conrad,” and that is due to two reasons. First, “because he [Conrad] often attributed the initial impetus for a novel to a passing glimpse of someone or to a casual encounter,” which is unreasonable. Second, as Conrad wants “to maintain that he had become an author by pure accident” (34). 

During Tom Lingard’s trading adventures, plenty of colonial interests were to explore resources like: “gutta-percha,” which stands for raw rubber “rattans, pearl shells and birds ‘nests, wax, and gum-dammar” (AF10). Evidently, British colonisers in the Malay Archipelago appear in “the establishment of the British company[s]” which was influenced due to “the sluggish flow of the Pantai life” (27). Almayer was “with youth’s natural craving for change” (11). Here, we are reminded of Almayer’s passions to conquer and possess new and immaterialized objects. The youth aspires for an entire “change” to his lifestyle even though if it goes against the current of his time (Almayer had unrealised dreams which were unachievable). Lingard operates as an instigating tool against Almayer’s inclination and induce him to marry off his adopted daughter who was captured as a fighting slave against the pirates. Ironically, these “millions” (especially when Lingard told Almayer “And mind you, they will be millions, Kasper! Milions I say” (11) were an unending source of conflict, despair and frustration to Almayer. Lingard endeavours to win the admiration of his partner by dragging him to the awaiting unrealistic “dollars” which eventually bring about the end of Almayer. This type of propaganda was employed by the ruling powers in the ancient time, and it is re-employed even to-day through different mediums or tools of exploitation. It is worth remarking that the role of media today used by the most dominating powers such as US, UK, France. In effect, they dictate what is right and wrong, truth and untruth, moral and immoral which ultimately contribute tremendously to hegemonise and spoil the minds of the rising generations. Similarly, Lingard applies the same tactic against his fellow Europeans at Sambir settlement.     

Almayer observes eagerly the “shining guilders,” in order to “[realise] all the possibilities of an opulent existence” (ibid). He imagines the possibility of being elevated to a prestigious status in his society; it is evident that Almayer develops an illusion, for the most part when he was acquainted to Lingard. However, a disagreeable sensation grows with Almayer, since “he [is] a white man.” He becomes “mad [of an] exultation at the thought of that fortune [inheriting the gold of Lingard] thrown into his hands” (12). Almayer provokes his daughter’s attention towards the contemptuous state of life in Sambir, which is an indication to depart from the island and embrace their ancestors white civilisation in Europe, then he has this to say “I am almost happy tonight, Nina. I can see the end of a long road, and it leads us away from this miserable swamp. We shall soon get away from here, I and you, my dear little girl . . . And then . . . we shall be happy, you and I. Live rich and respected far from here . . . We shall live a–a glorious life. You shall see” (16–17).  Almayer holds that capturing gold is the only way that establishes his future on the forefathers’ civilisation.  

It is significant to notice the fact that Lingard is a true example of the British colonial rule traders and administrators. He owns the Flash which represents as F. A. Inamadar (1971) writes “. . . an image of Lingard’s fortune. Significantly it initiates his failures, a fact of which he seems to be fully aware,” while as far as Almayer and Nina are concerned, it (the Flash) signifies a ruinous “image” of their fortune (8)[vii]. Throughout the novel, the only enemy for Almayer and Lingard is Lakamba who “exersied [almost] all his influence towards the help of the white man’s [Almayer] enemies, plotting against the old Rajah and Almayer with a certainty of combination, pointing clearly to a profound knowledge of their most secret affairs” (AF 21).

As an explicit example of natives’ denial of the white civilisation’s interference and hegemony on the eastern part of the world is Mrs Almayer who impulsively sets fire on the “furniture” of her husband’s Folly (Almayer’s house) . Thus, as Almayer notices that “she was burning the furniture, and tearing down the pretty curtains in her unreasoning hate of those signs of civilisation” (26). In addition, Nina refuses to accept the teachings of the white civilisation, and remains indifferent to the ravage state of the house, especially after returning from the boarding-school in Singapore,; therefore, “She accepted without question or apparent disgust the neglect, the decay, the poverty of the household, the absence of furniture,” (ibid) though this denial is disagreeable with her father’s inclinations and dreams, it corresponds with her mother’s beliefs. However, Lingard reportedly intends to go “to Europe to raise money for the great enterprise” (23). Yet, what kind of enterprise Lingard intends to establish?

The entire Borneo Island went for the first time under the grip of the Portuguese colonial powers whose foundations were laid on the Malay Peninsula and south East Asia, capturing Malacca in 1511 followed by the Dutch in 1641. The eastern world in general and the Pantai River in particular, were as suggested “abandoned, leaving the Pantai River under the nominal power of Holland” (AF 28). 

Colonists’ Domestic Endeavour and Resistance for Maintaining Identity 

Almayer impedes Nina and Mrs Almayer from meeting newcomers to his house which primarily indicates his will to maintain Nina until he will get hold of Lingard’s concealed goldmine. He even insists on distancing his wife from his daughter. Almayer insults his daughter when she appears while Dain is at their home by saying “what is that to you, to her [Mrs Almayer], to anybody? . . . He will come tomorrow. I want you to keep away from the house, and let me attend my business in peace” (44). Almayer endeavours to take hold of the Rajah Laut’s pocketbook, since he resolves to inspect the location of the goldmine, and “for that place where he had only to stoop to gather up an immense fortune and realise the dreams of his young days” (47). Though the tensions between Almayer and Lakamba, Almayer insists on being close with his enemy because “with Lakamba’s aid success seemed assured” (5).

Conrad delineates the profession of a writer and what is required from him as an artist who insists on reaching maximum number of readers; therefore, in his most famous preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus 1897 he writes: “My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel–it is, before all, to make you see,” (Preface) which practically works when our minds are concentrated on Almayer at the moment  “his imagination soar up the tree tops into the great white clouds away to the westward, where the paradise of Europe was awaiting the future Eastern millionaire” (AF 48). Thereafter, we came to visualize how Almayer’s illusions and fantasies have crumpled and gone asunder. 

It is noteworthy to bring up that colonialism does not exist in a vacuum; it prevails not only of the fact that the colonisers obtain a tremendous state of economy, mass media, highly-advanced equipments and militaries, but sometimes, as Stephen Hendon (2013), argues that colonialism exists due to some natives’ disgraceful behaviour in respect of their homeland. This, Hendon claims, happens whilst the former (the natives) seek success even though when it is at the cost of their dignity and honour, which consequently leads to their “self-enslavement” (3). To understand this more closely, one should highlight Lakamba’s incident where the Dutch exist to raid the natives’ boats. Then, Dain has this to say about the Dutch massive violence against him and his fellow men: “I have escaped . . . when I saw the Dutch ship I ran the brig inside the reefs and put her ashore. . . . they sent the boats . . . the ship dropped fireballs at us, and killed many of my men . . . The Dutch are coming here. They are seeking for me.” Upon this incident he flees terrifyingly to Lakamba because Dain thinks that he will shelter him, on the contrary Lakamba refuses the offer and replies sarcastically: “You came here because of the white’s man’s daughter . . . your refuge was with your father, the Rajah of Bali . . . himself. What am I to protect great princes? Only yesterday I planted rice in a burnt clearing, today you say I hold your life in my hand” (59). Not only this but Lakamba also instigated his easily-provoked servant Babalatchi to kill Almayer in order to conceal the secret of the goldmine. Thus, he asserts to his slave that “Almayer must die, . . . to make our secret safe. He must die quietly Babalatchi. You must do it,” and Babalatchi eventually obeys (64).  He refused to rescue Dain from the hands of the Dutch Orang Blanda, and retorts angrily: “You came here first as a trader with sweet words and great promising, asking me to look the other way while you worked your will on the white man [Almayer] there. And I did. What do you want now? When I was young I fought. Now I am old, and want peace. It is easier for me have you killed than to fight the Dutch. It is better for me” (59).  

Unlikely, Almayer lately experiences a very depressive state of mind, even though when it is at the expense of his dignity, he behaves as a lowly human being. For instance, he returns to his slave wife for support though he disregards her from the beginning. This kind of mental state drives him to implore the mercy of his wife. Hence, he “caught [himself] longing even for the usually unwelcome sound of his wife in order to break the oppressive stillness which seemed, to his frightened fancy, to portend the advent of some new misfortune” (67). What augments the subject of goldmine is the drowning dead body Mahmat Banjer has found which symbolises the collapse of Almayer’s hopes and dreams. In addition, the yarn of the drowned body makes the Rajah and his statesman Babalatchi horrified in view of their disgraceful conduct, especially when Dain fled the Dutch an inescapable capture. Abdulla doubts the coming of the white colonisers who come to a decision to reveal the enigma of the goldmine, unlike the rajah of the settlement who blindly believes in the Dutch pirates ability to help him find the gold, thus Abdulla replies to Reshid: “The white men rewards are long in coming . . . white men are quick in anger and slow in gratitude” (80).

What indicates that the colonial schemes in the far East are unsuccessful is presence of high rivalry between natives and British traders (Sherry 109). Gradually, the Dutch and British traders began to lose control over their trading posts;^[viii] they could not manage exports to their ruling Empire. Norman Sherry (1971) clearly explains how the empire representatives have lost their sailing ships, steamers and become bankrupt such as the case of Tom Lingard the fictional figure who lost his steamers known as the Rajah Laut and Flash. While William Lingard, the non-fictional, had lost his steamer The West Indian throughout his trading journeys to Singapore, Berau and Bulungan as a consequence of the high “competition from the Arabs,” (109) then he attempts “to sell The West Indian” which “indicates a growing realisation on Lingard’s part that the hey-day of Borneo trading was coming to an end” (ibid). Sherry cites another stage of the Lingard’s failure which lies in “the failure of his bankers,” which evidently shows “The old man’s banker; Hudig of Maccasar, failed, and with this went the whole available capital” (AF 22). Nevertheless, as Conrad suggested that Lingard lost his money, Sherry makes use of the fact that “in 1884 an important and well-established bank [The Oriental Bank] in Singapore did fail” (ibid). Thus, sherry reveals that “If there is any basis in fact for Conrad suggestion that the Fictional Lingard lost money through the failure of a bank, it must be the Oriental Bank he [Conrad] had in mind. . . . that resulted in Lingard ceasing to act as a trader” (111).  

In retrospect, during the British and the Dutch control of the Malay Archipelago, their enterprises undoubtedly were profitable and highly rewarding. However, owing to some great challenges like wars, disease, piracy and massive encounters with native traders those powers could not maintain a stamina in exploiting more resources and setting more trading posts. In addition, as  Said (1994) concludes that Western empires were fading due to the decreasing numbers of the invaders in comparison to the rising numbers of the indigenous people, and the massive space of the region, all these factors eventually led to ‘a dying colonialism.’

After all, Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly is similar to An Outcast of the Islands 1897 and Lord Jim 1900 discusses the experiences and stages of the developments of imperialism and colonialism, and embodies that in a carefully selected figures like Almayer who leads an unsuccessful lifestyle, and lays trust on illusions and dreams which invariably contributed to his downfall while Lingrad reaches bankruptcy and lost his properties. Such figures reflect Conrad’s personal acquaintances with Western traders and businessmen who sought success in an area replete with dangers and challenges. After surveying the colonial enterprises, one can conclude that they were partially successful throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries; thereafter, many of the Malay countries regained freedom and independence which denotes a striking example of the end of colonialism.

Works Cited

Conrad, Joseph. Almayer's Folly & the Rover. Wordsworth, 2011.

---. The Mirror of the Sea & A Personal Record. Wordsworth Editions, 2008.

---. "Preface." The Nigger of the Narcissus, Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd., 2012.

Hendon, Stephen. "'Slaves of the Successful Century'? Ideas of Identity in Joseph Conrad and Alun Lewis Search." Google, ProQuest LLC 2013, orca.cf.ac.uk/54366/1/U584467.pdf.   Accessed 22 Nov. 2018.

Inamdar, F. A. "Almayer's Folly and an Outcast of the Islands." Image and Symbol in Joseph Conrad's Novels, 1st ed., 1979.

Karl, Frederich R., and Laurence Davies. The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, Vol.1Google Books, Cambridge UP, 1983.

Lester, John. "Introduction & Notes John Lester." Almayer's Folly & The Rover, Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2011, pp. V-XVII.

Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. Vintage, 1994.

Sherry, Norman. "'LORD JIM', the second part; 'ALMAYER'S FOLLY'; 'AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS'." Conrad's Eastern World, Cambridge UP, 1971, pp. 89-119.

---. "ALMAYER’S FOLLY 29 April 1895." Conrad: The Critical Heritage, Routledge, 1973, pp. 37-47.

---. "INTRODUCTION & 'Lord Jim', the second part; 'ALMAYER'S FOLLY'; 'AN OUTCAST OF THE ILANDS." Conrad's Eastern World, Cambridge UP, 1971, pp. 1-15; 87-170.

Watt, Ian. "Almayer's Folly: introduction." Essays on Conrad, Cambridge UP, 2000, pp. 20-63.

---. "Almayer's Folly." Conrad in the Nineteenth Century, Chatto & Windus Ltd, 1980

Footnotes

[i] Almayer’s Folly from now onwards shall be referred to with a short form initials AF.

[ii] Malay Archipelago includes Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, East Malaysia, the Philippines and East Timor. This region was named with different designations during the European colonial era. At one time Alfred Wallace a British naturalist and explorer who, during the ruling era of Sir James Brooke as Rajah of Sarawak 1841-1868, was invited to attend the region. Wallace called the Malay Archipelago the Indian Archipelago. Sometimes it was called East Indies.   

[iii] There was a disagreement about the real entitlement of the river. In Conrad’s Eastern World, Norman Sherry proves that Conrad is quite accurate in using ‘Pantai River,’ because on one of a Singaporean recored entitled Singapore and Traits Directory 1887 which shows that the river was called Pantai. Sherry stresses that Conrad did not modulate the river from Berau to Pantia for narrative intentions as J. D. Gordan’s Joseph Conrad: The Making of a Novelist. Gordan is one of Conrad’s famous biographers. 

[iv] See Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden,” in which he shows how the white race is superior to other races and he strongly endorses that colonialists have right of self-determination. 

[v] 

[vi] Marguerite Poradowska is “the beautiful 46-year-old widow of the refugee first cousin of Conrad’s maternal grandmother”. Watt confirms that she was the first author Conrad knew personally (27).  

[vii] Conrad purposefully employed this epithet to describe the fastness of Tom Lingrad’s cruising boat thus he often used The Flash.

[viii] See Sherry’s report of how Captain William’s trading post has come to an end due to the high competition between him and his rivals of the Arab traders, Dykes and pirates.