In the last fifty years Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, has been dissected and evaluated multiple times, yet “his obvious racism however, has not been addressed. And it is high time it was!”(344). In the article “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” by Chinua Achebe, Conrad is characterized by Achebe as being a “thoroughgoing racist” (343). Although Achebe’s anachronistic view, as well as his unfair overlook of Conrad’s literary talents to only focus on the political qualities of Conrad’s novella hinders the judgment of future readers, Achebe opens a new door to the audience through his strong emotions about the subject of his article, that Conrad is a racist, and helps them to acknowledge the fact that racism is a problem.
In the beginning of “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” Achebe starts off by telling the audience a story about how he had a conversation with a man on his way home and how he had received letters from two high school students who had read his own book, Things Fall Apart, which, like Conrad’s novella, depicts the life of Africans. In one of the letters, the student talked about how much he enjoyed reading his novel and learning all of the superstitions of an African tribe. In response, Achebe says the following in his article:
The young fellow from Yonkers, perhaps partly on account of his age but I believe also much deeper and more serious reasons, is obviously unaware that the life of his own tribesmen in Yonkers, New York, is full of odd customs and superstitions and, like everybody else in his culture, imagines that he needs a trip to Africa to encounter those things.(337)
Achebe believes that in the student’s case, and other citizens’ as well, he was just oblivious to his surroundings and culture, probably because he was accustomed to it. So when the student read Things Fall Apart, he became intrigued because the African culture is different from his. This is why Achebe was so upset, because so many Americans read about African culture and view them as weird, different, or cool and fail to realize that that is their culture, it is what they are accustomed to. The man whom Achebe had run into on the way home made a comment to him about how he never thought that Africa could have a history or a background. This made Achebe wonder if both the student, subconsciously, and the man, willingly, were being ignorant rather than having a lack of knowledge. Achebe, when talking about the man, states that “the other person being fully my own age could not be excused on the grounds of his years. Ignorance might be a more likely reason; but here again I believe that something more willful than a mere lack of information was at work.” (337). Achebe believes that the man, unlike the student, had no reason to act the way he did because he had more life experience. In other words, he believes that the man should not have been so ignorant, especially given his years.
Since Achebe is of African descent, he interprets Conrad’s novella differently from the way someone of another culture would. This is how Achebe generates another strong point when he begins to analyze Heart of Darkness. When discussing the book, he says that “it took different forms in the minds of different people but almost always managed to sidestep the ultimate question of equality between white people and black people” (342-43). In other words, the book, or any book, is open to a person’s own interpretation because his or her view on the book ultimately depends upon the culture in which he or she were raised. A Caucasian person reading Heart of Darkness will most likely not be insulted by its contents versus an African American who reads it. This being because a Caucasian person cannot relate to the discrimination and racism towards Africans used by Conrad in Heart of Darkness because they have never experienced it. This proves that although two people may be reading the same passage, they could still get different interpretations depending on where they come from and their life experiences. The other half of the quote where Achebe states that people “almost always manage to sidestep the ultimate question of equality between white people and black people” is another good observation he had on Conrad’s novella. Despite all of the cultural differences between the many audiences of Heart of Darkness in the last fifty years, not one person had questioned the way white people as well as black people are perceived in not only the book but also in the world.
Achebe, although he comments on it fifty years later, is the only person who has discussed the ongoing racism throughout Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness. In fact, Bernard C. Meyer, M.D. even wrote a book analyzing Conrad, in which he never mentions Conrad’s racism towards the Africans:
In his lengthy book Dr. Meyer follows every conceivable lead (and sometimes unconceivable ones) to explain Conrad. As an example he gives us long disquisitions on the significance of hair and hair-cutting in Conrad. And yet not even one word is spared for his attitude to black people. (345)
Dr. Meyer seemed to care more about analyzing the little things in Conrad, like his hair for example, versus the bigger and more controversial items, like why Conrad uses words that are insulting and dehumanizing towards African Americans. Achebe, however, acknowledges the fact that Conrad is a “thoroughgoing racist” (343) and comments on this accusation a lot throughout his article, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” Achebe supports his accusation with textual evidence from Conrad’s novella. One of the quotes he uses deals with Conrad’s obsession towards the color of an African:
Sometimes his fixation on blackness is equally interesting as when he gives us this brief description:
‘A black figure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving long black arms...’
as though we might expect a black figure striding along on black legs to wave white arms! (345)
Achebe’s emotion and tone when describing Conrad’s words is all a reader needs to read to know just how offended Achebe is by Conrad and how passionate he is when he states that Conrad is a bloody racist.
Achebe’s anachronistic views on Heart of Darkness are unfair and affects the interpretations of future readers. Although Achebe begins with defending Conrad by saying that “it was certainly not his fault that he lived his life at a time when the reputation of the black man was at a particular low level” (344), he still goes on to criticize Conrad for his choice of words. Achebe realizes that in the past it was almost “normal” to act this way towards Africans because it was all the Europeans knew, yet it does not stop him to question “whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art.”(344). Achebe feels that Conrad crosses boundaries in his book when describing the Africans and does not believe that his book should still be taught in school or even read despite the fact that Heart of Darkness was published in 1899, fifty years ago, and times have changed now.
In “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” Achebe overlooks Conrad’s literary talents and only focuses on the political qualities of his novella. Achebe forgets that Conrad is just an author writing a fiction book, whose to say that whats written in his novella are his inner thoughts and beliefs. In all actuality, this is proof that Conrad was a phenomenal writer. Achebe was so intrigued and offended by Conrad’s words that he ultimately forgot that it was not Conrad living in the story, but Marlow.
Despite the fact that this novel was written in the past and it was in a sense “normal” to be racist, Achebe continues to believe that it is a book of ignorance and insulting towards the African race. Although he overlooks Conrad’s talents as an author and believes that Heart of Darkness should be removed from the shelves, Achebe still makes very strong points when evaluating Conrad’s novella. He notices that race affects everyone everyday, whether when it comes to reading or just walking down the street, and he also notices that people have ignored the main topic of Heart of Darkness for fifty years, which is racism.
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