First published in 1989, Chronicles of Darkness is about images of Africa seen through the eyes of writers, visitors, residents, and native-born. They range from Joseph Conrad and Olive Schreiner, through Laurens van der Post, Karen Blixen and Evelyn Waugh, to more recent writers like Nadine Gordimer, Andre Brink and J.M. Coetzee.
Such writers have frequently been faced with feelings of alienation, marginality, exile, self-consciousness, and egoism. It is only in this sense- that the eyes which see are shadowed and troubled- that Africa is a ‘dark continent’ and that these writings are ‘chronicles of darkness’. In some cases, Africa, even if merely a backdrop painted in crude and garish colors, becomes a way of revealing or admitting something about ‘Europe’ which might be concealed when a writer performs in a different theatre. This is an interesting read for scholars and researchers of English literature and African studies.