Polish writer Joseph Conrad's seminal text, Heart of Darkness, would help to confirm contemporary society's fears about the dark continent. Written in 1899 the book is an account of the journey of an explorer named Marlow, into the Congo – a place considered the most central and fearful heart of Africa.

The African's portrayed in Conrad's story were savage, ugly, uninhibited, beasts who invoked fear both in their physical difference and darkness, but also in their likeness as a human beings. Conrad's Africa promoted a literal fear of the dark, intensified by cavernous spaces, tropical heat and the unrestrained bodies of black Africans.

European culture would feed off such stereotypes perpetuated about black people, and these products of colonial expansion and slavery are probably the most potent historical and visual associations with black skin. From that oppression, the residue of critical prejudices sticks to our memory and culture.

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