Chinua Achebe An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

+ Achebe’s article first addresses his observation that many “westerners”, contemporary and those of the past two centuries, have a conscious or subconscious, “desire – one might indeed say the need— in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest.” He goes on to state that he believes Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is the most notable and respectable book of modern day containing these themes. Achebe concedes the eloquence with which Conrad, with his great writing ability develops these themes, but Achebe, an African History teacher at the University of Massachusetts, takes special grievances with Heart of Darkness because of its prominent role in all literature educations.


+ Achebe first points out the role of the English language in the novel. There are very few places in the novel in which the Africans speak any English at all, and of these places Achebe believes they are instances in which Conrad simply could not keep the characters from speaking English without losing a part of the story. When Conrad does bestow the civilities of the English language on the Africans, it is often in very unfavorable lights such as the crudely spoken desires of the carnivores and the chilling announcement of Kurtz’s death.

+ Achebe acknowledges that Conrad’s inhuman, and beast-like descriptions of the Africans could be a literary device, used by Conrad, through the voice of Marlow, to further authenticate the setting of the fictional story, but he gives a compelling counter argument to this common defense. Achebe asserts that Conrad, with his gifted writing ability, does not provide enough space between the racist idea in the novel and the reality of the racism that existed in the region at the time. His reasons stated, Achebe goes so far as to reject Heart of Darkness as a classic, and analogize Conrad to a doctor who poisons his patients.