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

Chinua Achebe’s essay, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” explores the underlying racism in Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness. To accomplish this, the author presents the argument that it has become a Western instinct to set up Africa as a foil to Europe. Because of this, the Western world remains ignorant of the intellect of African people and begins to look at them as a lower class of people. The author argues that this racism is displayed in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He provides direct quotes from the novel itself, followed by an explanation of how he interprets it and the racism against Africa he believes it demonstrates.  However, Achebe states real problem of this novel is not its own racism, but the fact that many people fail to see the racism in it while it remains one of the most read books in the Western world. As Achebe states in a play of words, “Whatever Conrad’s problems were, you might say he is now safely dead. Quite true. Unfortunately his heart of darkness plagues us still.” To support this idea, the author provides specific examples and quotes from scholars who have analyzed the novel, though mentioned nothing of the racism it contained. However, although I respect the ideas that the author expressed (and agree with many of them), I do have an issue with one aspect of his essay. I found it surprising how frequently the author unfairly refers to the Western world as if it has a united mindset when repeatedly using phrases such as “Western psychology” and “Western desire.” As Achebe must surely know, Western civilization consists of countless belief systems and ideologies, as well as different perceptions of Africa. One may argue this fault on a poor word choice - and perhaps I would be more forgiving had he used milder words such as ‘the Western tendency to desire..’ or even ‘much of the Western world believes...” But I believe that it is unfair to lump the Western world into one group of people, all with the same mindset - especially when he himself is arguing against misinformation and ignorace. However, despite this flaw, I do still feel that the article was a valuable read. It offered insight into Achebe’s mindset when he wrote Things Fall Apart, as well as gave an atypical interpretation of Heart of Darkness. Because of this, I feel Achebe’s essay sparked two interesting lenses in which to read each novel.