Imperializing Africa

An essay, An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, written by Chinua Achebe came from an amended version of the second Chancellor’s Lecture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, February 1975; later publish in the Massachusetts Review, vol. 18, no. 4, winter 1977, Amherst. This essay is regarding to the racism that was used in Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, and how it influenced the topic at hand of Achebe’s essay. Achebe was not happy when he noticed the racial remarks being used in the books and how no one really focused on them and wanted to fix the problems. Chinua was brave enough to write an essay, even after Conrad’s death, to express his opinions on racism in Heart of Darkness, but also remarks on other racial factors that happen in other countries. His main idea is to prove that racism is a problem and that “Joseph Conrad was thoroughgoing racist.” I agree with Achebe’s opinions because he uses a lot of evidence to support his claim, and by reading the actual novel, I too believe he is a racist because of the words that were used to describe the Africans’ appearance and their actions.

In "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Chinua Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the continent and people of Africa. He claims that Conrad propagated the "dominant image of Africa in the Western imagination" rather than portraying the continent in its true form (1793). Africans were portrayed in Conrad's novel as savages with no language other than grunts and with no "other occupations besides merging into the evil forest or materializing out of it simply to plague Marlow" (1792-3). To Conrad, the Africans were not characters in his story, but merely props. Chinua Achebe responded with a

Constantly throughout the novel, Joseph Conrad describes the Africans using words bearing a negative connotation. Africans are portrayed in Conrad's novel as inhuman savages with no language other than sound. For example, he describes Kurtz’s African mistress as “savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent.” (5; part 3) Conrad uses the word savage frequently when describing Africans in the novella. Kurtz’s mistress is used in contrast to a European girl who loves Kurtz.

The weak always gets taken over. That pretty much explains imperialism. Imperialism was was in 1875-1914 in Africa. What was the driving force behind European imperialism in Africa? That is that question that I aim to answer in this essay. The term driving force means reasoning or push. The word imperialism is the act of fully taking over a country. I have three main reasons for the driving force behind European imperialism in Africa: get materials, national competition and to gain more power. The main reason was so that Europeans can gain more power.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has allowed me to view the world through a multitude of new lenses. In seeing Kurtz and Marlow’s disintegration when removed from society’s watchful eye, I began to understand that all people have a streak of darkness in them under the right circumstances. While the narrator, and many readers at the time of this novella’s publication, believed that the African natives being colonized were “savages”, this book sheds light on the true brutes in this scenario: the thoughtless Europeans. The other complexity that I never truly understood until reading this book, is the idea that there is a single story told about Africans in Western literature. Africa is portrayed as weak, primitive, and impoverished in most books

3] Achebe believes that Conrad deliberately showed Mr. Kurtz’s mistress as a “savage counterpart to the refined, European woman.” [pg.4] As he moves into more detail of the difference, he moves into the subject of the black’s lack of speech.

Instead, "the real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world." (12). Questioning whether a novel which "celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art" (12), Achebe responds by doubting Conrad's talents as a writer.

In addition, Achebe says Conrad had “a residue of antipathy to black people which his peculiar psychology alone can explain.” Conrad has stated that he had a bad experience with a black person before: “A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards.” Conrad’s past experience left a scar on his perception of black people. Thus, his ongoing grudge instigated his display of racism in Heart of

In his famous critical essay, “An Image of Africa” (1975), Chinua Achebe takes a strong stance against Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He asserts that Conrad was a racist and his novella is a product of his racism. A following quote that is good to show Achebe opinion for Conrad is:

284) In comparing the two views, one must step back and consider that both views are only interpretations on what Conrad may have intended. Since no one can ever really know what his actual meanings were for these two women being so similar (in their movements), and yet so different (in their character), only individual explanation can be brought up. This in particular, is what brings me to question both Achebe and Sarvan's points. By reorganizing Conrad's descriptive words, Sarvan was able to propose that Conrad did not intend for the mistress to be perceived as the "savage counterpart."(Achebe, p. 255) Yet, at the same time, both Sarvan and Achebe each write about what they think to be the right thing. It seems to me that Achebe was looking for racism in this short novel, and that Sarvan was so taken back by Achebe's accusations, that he himself, went and looked for ways to defend Conrad.

A famous criticism of Conrad’s novella is called An Image of Africa, which was written by an African native named Chinua Achebe. In Achebe’s criticisms of Heart of Darkness, he points out the difference between descriptions of the European woman and the African woman, who was Kurtz’s mistress. The narrator describes the European woman as being calm and mature, and the African woman as being “savage” (341 Norton). Even though many writers claim that Marlow is kind to the Africans by bringing light to their situation, the real problem does not lie in his description of their situations, but his descriptions of the people themselves (30 Heart of darkness Interpretations).

Joseph Conrad’s treatment of race in “Heart of Darkness” differs significantly from Neil Bissoondath’s “I’m Not Racist But…” From Neil Bissoondath’s perspective, racial discrimination occurs everywhere and is conducted by everyone, either willfully or ignorantly. Bissoondath’s attempt is to inform the reader of the connection between stereotyping and racism and in turn condemns such acts. Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” however, exposes the brutality of the Europeans on Africans. While Bissoondath’s work addresses the sensitivity of racial judgement and racial superiority intended to bring hatred or abuse used against any given group of individuals, Conrad’s work describes how the Africans are racially judged and brutally treated by the European settlers. According to Conrad, the European settlers suppressed Africans from their freedom and supplied no medical care nor food. By dominating over the Africans, the European settlers in Africa are not only able to use the Africans as cheap labours but are also able to exploit the African’s raw materials with less restriction. Nevertheless, both Bissoondath and Conrad condemn the community on their approach to racial treatment.

He uses derogatory and offensive remarks that devalue people of color and make them out to be savages. Chinua Achebe, a well-known writer, talked about Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, entitled "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Throughout his essay, Achebe notes how Conrad "set Africa up as a foil to Europe,"(Achebe) while he also "projects the image of Africa as “the other world”. Africa is said to be a “prehistoric” world. Conrad described this land as non-advanced and inferior to the western countries.

Joseph Conrad’s novella The Heart of Darkness has been under controversy because of racial interpretations. The race factor in this novel has made some scholars and professors question the function the novella has in the classroom. However, Joseph Conrad had another view when writing the novel; to demonstrate how prejudice and dehumanizing the European culture is towards African Americans and their culture during this time period. European’s superior authority over African Americans is portrayed through the background of the text, use of the language and the opinion’s on vermilicitude. The novella focuses on the negative aspect of the European culture, not the African culture and therefore should be in taught in school.

In Chinua Achebe’s essay, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad 's Heart of Darkness,” Achebe purports that Joseph Conrad’s short story, Heart of Darkness, should not be taught due to it’s racist caricature of Africa and African culture. In Conrad’s book, Marlow, a sea captain, is tasked with venturing into the center of the Congo, otherwise known as the Heart of Darkness, to retrieve a mentally unstable ivory trader named Kurtz. Marlow narrates his adventures with a tinge of apathy for the enslaved Congolese who are repressed beneath the foot of the colonizing Belgians. In Heart of Darkness, the Africans are reduced to “savages” and cannibals with little or no moral values. It is Achebe’s argument that due to these characterizations, it is an abomination that Heart of Darkness be continued to be taught. Despite Achebe’s vehement opposition to the teaching of Conrad’s novel, academics should not only continue to teach Heart of Darkness in a lyrical sense, but also a historical one.