Setting

Physical setting

The events described in the short story “An Outpost of Progress” by Joseph Conrad take place somewhere in Africa. the two main characters, Kayerts and Carlier, are agents overseeing a trading station. 

In the camp, the two European men find “a small clay storehouse with a palm-leaf roof”, where Makola accounts for “beads, cotton cloth, red kerchiefs, brass wire, and other trade goods”. Makola’s hut is a “low, shed-like dwelling”, while Kayerts and Carlier live in a larger building: 

It was built neatly of reeds, with a verandah on all the four sides. There were three rooms in it. The one in the middle was the living-room, and had two rough tables and a few stools in it. The other two were the bedrooms for the white men. 

The size of the building, compared to Makola’s small hut, is symbolic of the perceived superiority of the colonists, who indulge in more comfort than the na...