Black Servant Girl

See Lueni

Joseph K.

See Joseph Korzeniowski

King of Belgium

The King of Belgium is overjoyed when he hears that the last group of African rebels has been defeated in the Belgian Congo. The rebels had been a constant threat during construction of the new railway.

Joseph Korzeniowski

Joseph Korzeniowski, the persona of the reallife, famous author Joseph Conrad, reveals himself to be an African sympathizer and arms supplier to the rebels. In 1929, Conrad was already five years dead, but Høeg resurrects him to play a part as one of the passengers on the first railway trip into the Congo. Conrad's African colonial narrative, Heart of Darkness, describes a similar journey up the Congo River in the late nineteenth century. Joseph K. mentions this work, although not by name, several times, the first being when he says that, since he has been this way...