Exterminate All the Brutes

"Exterminate All the Brutes" is a unique study of Europes history in Africa written in the form of a travel diary. Sven Lindqvist takes us on a daring intellectual trip to "the heart of the darkness" of the European mind and its attitude toward the "Dark Continent." Like Edward Saids Orientalism Lindqvists book traces the legacy of European explorers missionaries politicians and historians in Africa from the late eighteenth century onward. Lindqvist also examines the roots of European genocide setting Conrads Heart of Darkness in context and helping us to understand the most terrifying of Conrads lines: "Exterminate all the brutes."