White Worsted

"He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck" (14)

Worsted is a piece of yard or thread made of wool. Earlier in the novel two European women are knitting black wool, which symbolize the Belgian Colonial Company forming the Africans into what they wish them to be. This piece of white wool symbolizes again that the Europeans have them trapped and controlled, because the white wool is like a collar. The Europeans are also suffocating them, which the wool around the man's neck symbolizes.