In "The Congo" (written 1912, published 1914), the American poet Vachel Lindsay paints an ambiguous, some might say problematic, portrait of Africans. Initially, it seems as if the poem is going to be a critique of European imperialism, particularly that of the Belgians in the Congo (see the line about King Leopold), who punished natives by cutting off their hands. Yet the subtitle, which may be ironic (his tone remains elusive), is "A Study of the Negro Race" and the first part, which opens with drunk and rowdy black people, is called "Their Basic Savagery." If Lindsay's poem is to be taken at its word, then he doesn't seem to believe that blacks can integrate into white American culture. Or, to put it more crudely, you can take the savage out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the savage. Even these supposedly urban black people remind him of the Congo river, "tattooed cannibals," witch doctors, and demonic songs. It's a veritable litany of dark continent stereotypes to instill white panic in the sensitive reader.

In a commentary on the poem, Richard Hyland (see link below) gives his assessment of Lindsay's ideology: "White people created civilization. Negroes will never rise above their savage nature. When negroes (sic) are transported into the modern white world, they do not rise to the occasion." Blacks remain the other, the opposite of whites and the poem concludes with the line "Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you," which may be Lindsay's attempt at an "African" chant but is ultimately gibberish.

jacket2.org/commentary/richard-hyland-vachel-lindsays-congo