Selection of Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad:

“I missed my late helmsman awfully— I missed him even while his body was still lying in the pilothouse. Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara. Well, don’t you see, he had done something, he had steered; for months I had him at my back— a help—an instrument. It was a kind of partnership. He steered for me—I had to look after him, I worried about his deficiencies, and thus a subtle bond had been created, of which I only became aware when it was suddenly broken. And the intimate profundity of that look he gave me when he received his hurt remains to this day in my memory— like a claim of distant kinship affirmed in a supreme moment” (128-129).

In this passage, Marlow elaborates on the bond he shared with the helmsman of his steamboat, who was killed by a spear during a native attack. Marlow mentions that his listeners may not understand this connection, because “you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage.” He mentions several times that the helmsman was second-rate at best, and sometimes totally incompetent. The inclusion of “ who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara,” allows Conrad to use the rhetorical technique of understatement. He sets up the merit of the man as next to worthless, and then follows to explain why his life mattered.

Marlow begins by refuting the helmsman’s lack of merit: “he had done something, he had steered; for months I had him at my back.” He implies that the man was loyal, and that he could rely on him during the many months they spent sailing up the river: “It was a kind of partnership.” To a degree, this passage contradicts Chinua Achebe’s comments that no African in the novel is depicted as fully human. After all, a work relationship is only a “partnership” if the two people involved are equal, at least regarding their respective jobs. Marlow discusses the bond that developed between them because of his helmsman’s “deficiencies”: “I had to look after him...and thus a subtle bond had been created, of which I only became aware when it was suddenly broken.” The world “subtle” hear does soften the shock, for readers of the time, of a white man admitting to a bond with a black man, but the effect is startling all the same. And the final line continues this, by affirming a human connection with the man, but softening the admission with the phrase, “a claim of distant kinship.” The look the man gave him when he received his mortal wound remains in Marlow’s memory, and seems to provide evidence for him that the helmsman was more than a worthless savage. The helmsman had an effect on him to be sure, but Marlow cannot quite accept that the man is fully equal to himself. But, when analyzed, the passage as a whole suggests and accepts the fact that white men and black men can bond and even form a partnership.