
Chinua Achebe was an African author (from Nigeria), mainly during the twentieth century. Achebe wrote “An Image of Africa” which is based on a work he was contradicting. This other work is called “Heart of Darkness” and was written by Joseph Conrad over one hundred years ago, and about thirty-one years before Achebe was even born. Conrad was a Polish-British writer. He was very much against the thought of Africans being the same kind of human, or at least somehow related to his Europeans. Achebe states that Conrad is a racist for reasons such as how Conrad labels Africa “the other world”, how he degrades the entire African race, and Conrad’s language towards them.  

In Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” he uses some fictional characters to describe an experience he himself had on his journey through Africa that he once took. He calls this continent “the other world”. By this Conrad means Africa and its inhabitants are not the same as those in Europe or America. Conrad lived during a time when slavery was prevalent. This is no excuse for his behavior or attitude to Africans, but it is, however, something to be expected back in his day. It was normal for white people to look down on blacks because they dressed differently and had a different color of skin. It is almost as if Conrad is comparing these Africans to aliens of some sort and calling Africa some sort of other planet on which aliens live. This is one way Conrad is downgrading an entire race of human beings. 

Achebe really wants his readers to understand that even though these people from Africa are acting a little differently than white people and live a different way, that they are just that– people! He wants to let his readers know that just because they are behind the rest of the world in things such as technology, electricity, and housing, the African people are doing just fine in their own eyes. They should be treated this way. Others should not come in and frown upon their society simply because the society and culture is completely different than someone from Europe or the United States. 

On his journey, Conrad travelled up the Congo River. He compares the Congo to the Thames River and says the Congo is the exact opposite of the Thames. He describes the Thames as restful and peaceful, while the Congo has no joy or pleasure and is like going back to the earliest beginning of the world. Conrad believes that since the people do not look like him or Europeans, their land is the opposite of European land as well. He may be right about climate, but that does not mean Africans deserve all the criticism he and others are laying on them. Conrad does not seem to care or know that there should be a respect for these people. He does not show them respect or care about their wellbeing. Here he is only comparing the land, and it is towards the beginning of his writing, but one may get the sense of something later to come.

As mentioned in previous paragraphs, Conrad downgrades the African race. He is afraid of even the possibility of a common ancestry between whites and blacks. Just the idea scares him. He is unwilling to admit that they are fully adapt human beings and just as able-bodied as any European. Conrad speaks of Africans as if they are animals one hunts or just roaming the “the other world” as he calls Africa. In many instances in his writing Conrad uses the word “savage” when he is talking about the Africans he encountered on his trip. For example:

She was a savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent….She stood looking at us without a stir and like the wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose (Achebe 55).

 The use of this word is just very disrespectful. They had their own villages and systems of doing things. They were civilized, just maybe not in the way Conrad expected of them, and definitely not in a way Conrad wanted to be distantly related to. One may see throughout Conrad’s work that he wants to space himself from these so-called savages because he does not want to be on their level. Conrad describes the Africans as “nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation” (Achebe 57). He eliminates the African people as human factor. He makes them sound as if they are not even recognized as humans. At this point in the story, one may be able to sense a bit of dislike from Achebe towards Conrad.

On page fifty-seven of this story, Achebe introduces Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer is then compared to Conrad. Schweitzer is quoted as saying “The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.” At least Schweitzer calls them brothers. That is way more than Conrad would ever go for. Still, Schweitzer is downplaying the race of Africans as human beings by calling them “junior brothers.” The closest Conrad would come to that would be calling them “distant kinship” (Achebe 58). In their day, Schweitzer and Conrad were called liberals, but Schweitzer more so than Conrad. Schweitzer did, however, have a hospital built for his junior brothers. At least he would do something to be of some help to them unlike Conrad on his trip. 

Conrad and Achebe are two completely different human beings. Conrad is very judgmental of Africans and their culture, whereas Achebe just wants his people to be accepted for who they are. They are hard workers, farmers, hunters, fishermen, and have other practical vocations. Achebe knows they are not as advanced as those in Europe (which Conrad knows as well and makes sure other people know this too), but Achebe is making the point that they do not need to be. They are content where they are and how they live. And to them, contentment is a good thing. 

On page fifty-eight of this story Achebe comes out and says what he had been holding in for so long. He calls Conrad a “bloody racist.” He is so against Conrad and his mentality. Achebe makes the most likely truthful claim that Conrad did not get criticized during his time because it was quite normal for people in his time to be that openly racist and not get reprimanded for it. Conrad’s readers said that he was more concerned about the deterioration of a European mind than he was with Africa. That is a sad thought. He cared more about the mentality of being better than another race of humans than he did about that race and its welfare. These readers (or students as Achebe calls them) have the same mindset as Conrad. They have been brainwashed as well. They say Conrad is less charitable to the Europeans in this situation than he is with the natives. Obviously this is not true. They think he is pushing Europeans to be better and more different than Africans, when in reality he is just diminishing the Africans to make himself feel better. There is no way Conrad is not trying to make Africans feel inferior and Europeans feel superior. 

Achebe summarizes by using a few examples to compare Conrad. First he compares him to a priest who reads mass backwards. This is a bit of a silly comparison but it does make sense. He also says Conrad is like a physician or doctor who poisons his patients. In a way Conrad is doing exactly that. He is poisoning the minds of his readers and students. It is dangerous to let anyone brainwash a person the way Conrad did his readers. After reading Achebe’s “An Image of Africa”, one may come to the conclusion that just because something is normal, does not mean it is right. Racism (open or discreet) was widely acknowledged and accepted as normal for people in Conrad’s day, and even during the life of Achebe. Although, the issue was more cleared up during the life of Chinua Achebe. Conrad may have thought that just because it was accepted, racism was fine to use in writing or speaking. But who knew it would be affecting people even to this day?