An Image of Africa
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15
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"Beautifully written yet highly controversial, "An Image of Africa" asserts Achebe's belief in Joseph Conrad as a 'bloody racist' and his conviction that Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness" only serves to perpetuate damaging stereotypes of black people. Also included is "The Trouble with Nigeria", Achebe's searing outpouring of his frustrations with his country. "Great Ideas": throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are." ([Source][1])
[1]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/unclassified/9780141192581/an-image-of-africa-the-trouble-with-nigeria
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Before coming to the main review I wanna say that even though this book has two essays I have read only one of the i.e Chinua Achebe's criticism of heart of darkness. I can't find the full book in any of my libraries so had the settle for the open-access essay available on the Yale website. I just have finished Conrad's book and obviously, I want to read the racial problem, with it just as some other old classic.
So I am only pointing out the factors that I don't agree with and some points that I highly agree with
Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world,” the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality. The book opens on the River Thames, tranquil, resting, peacefully “at the decline of day after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks.” But the actual story will take place on the River Congo, the very antithesis of the Thames. The River Congo is quite decidedly not a River Emeritus. It has rendered no service and enjoys no old-age pension. We are told that “Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world.”
First, she is in her place and so can win Conrad's special brand of approval and second, she fulfills a structural requirement of the story: a savage counterpart to the refined, European woman who will step forth to end the story
Weighing the necessity for consistency in the portrayal of the dumb brutes against the sensational advantages of securing their conviction by clear, unambiguous evidence issuing out of their own mouth Conrad chose the latter. As for the announcement of Mr. Kurtz's death by the “insolent black head in the doorway” what better or more appropriate finis could be written to the horror story of that wayward child of civilization who willfully had given his soul to the powers of darkness and “taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land” than the proclamation of his physical death by the forces he had joined?
Certainly, Conrad had a problem with niggers. His inordinate love of that word itself should be of interest to psychoanalysts.
As I said earlier Conrad did not originate the image of Africa which we find in his book. It was and is the dominant image of Africa in the Western imagination and Conrad merely brought the peculiar gifts of his own mind to bear on it. For reasons which can certainly use close psychological inquiry the West seems to suffer deep anxieties about the precariousness of its civilization and to have a need for constant reassurance by comparison with Africa.
