****Now part of the eponymous HBO docuseries written and directed by
Raoul Peck, "Exterminate All the Brutes" is a brilliant intellectual
history of Europe's genocidal colonization of Africa--and the terrible
myths and lies that it spawned
"A book of stunning range and near genius. . . . The catastrophic
consequences of European imperialism are made palpable in the personal
progress of the author, a late-twentieth-century pilgrim in Africa.
Lindqvist's astonishing connections across time and cultures, combined
with a marvelous economy of prose, leave the reader appalled,
reflective, and grateful." --David Levering Lewis
"Exterminate All the Brutes," Sven Lindqvist's widely acclaimed
masterpiece, is a searching examination of Europe's dark history in
Africa and the origins of genocide. Using Joseph Conrad's Heart of
Darkness as his point of departure, the award-winning Swedish author
takes us on a haunting tour through the colonial past, interwoven with a
modern-day travelogue. Retracing the steps of European explorers,
missionaries, politicians, and historians in Africa from the late
eighteenth century onward, "Exterminate All the Brutes" exposes the
roots of genocide in Africa through Lindqvist's own journey through the
Saharan desert. As he shows, fantasies not merely of white superiority
but of actual extermination--"cleansing" the earth of the so-called
lesser races--deeply informed the colonialism and racist ideology that
ultimately culminated in Europe's own Holocaust.****
Conquerors' stories are the ones that inform the self-mythology of the
West--whereas the lives and stories of those displaced, enslaved, or
killed are too often ignored and forgotten. "Exterminate All the
Brutes" forces a crucial reckoning with a past that still echoes in our
collective psyche--a reckoning that compels us to acknowledge the
exploitation and brutality at the heart of our modern, globalized
society. As Adam Hochschild has written, "Lindqvist's work leaves you
changed."
