
Chinua Achebe wages war against Joseph Conrad in his piece, “An Image of Africa.”  Within this piece, Achebe blatantly expresses his distaste for Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.”  At one point, Achebe plainly states that Conrad is a “bloody racist.”  It is clear that he is bashing white supremacy, specifically that of Westerners over Africa.  However, Achebe appears to be using a subtle technique in conjunction with his obvious criticisms. Achebe uses Conrad’s own style and craft against him throughout the entire piece; this makes the piece work.

One example of this is in the sixteenth paragraph.  In this part of the passage, Achebe mocks Conrad.  His use of parenthesis causes his reader to receive his comment as a sly remark when he says, “(if I may be permitted a little imitation of Conrad.)”  This alerts his reader.  As a result, the moment in which Achebe is demeans Conrad’s description of the savage back woman is emphasized when he writes in Conrad’s ornate style when he describes the woman as being “like a formidable mystery over the inexorable imminence of his departure.”  Another thing that makes this work is, he follows this statement by quoting a passage from Conrad, “She was 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.” By doing this the reader is able to notice that Achebe’s words are paired in the same way as Conrad’s.  Where Achebe says “formidable mystery” and “inexorable imminence”, Conrad pairs his speech by saying phrases such as “savage and superb” and “wild-eyed and magnificent.”  

Something else Achebe seems to be doing is he quotes a passage then he breaks it down and tells his audience how this makes Conrad a racist.  For example, Achebe starts by inserting the following paragraph into his piece:

For the Thames too ‘has been one of the dark places of the earth.’ It conquered its darkness, of course, and is now in daylight and at peace. But if it were to visit its primordial relative, the Congo, it would run the terrible risk of hearing grotesque echoes of its own forgotten darkness, and falling victim to an avenging recrudescence of the mindless frenzy of the first beginnings”

Here he appears to be using the description of the Congo in relationship to the Thames in order to indicate that there was a period when England was not considered civilized as well, and this scares Conrad.  Conrad as well as many other western scholars do not want to acknowledge that they are no better than the “savages” Conrad describes.

In fact, Achebe points this out by inserting the following passage into his piece: 

And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was fireman. He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking on his hind legs. A few months of training had done for that really fine chap. He squinted at the steam-gauge and at the water-gauge with an evident effort of intrepidity -- and he had filed his teeth too, the poor devil, and the wool of his pate shaved into queer patterns, and three ornamental scars on each of his cheeks. He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank, instead of which he was hard at work, a thrall to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge.

This passage highlights Achebe’s argument.  Conrad portrays the man as a joke; he even compares him to a dog dressed in “a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking on his hind legs.” It appears that he is a joke because he is dressed in clothes instead of looking like the rest of the savages. When Achebe responds to this he seems to be telling the “wanders” to that should stay home.  He even states that “tragedy begins when things leave their accustomed place, like Europe leaving its safe stronghold between the policeman and the baker to like a peep into the heart of darkness.”  Here Achebe seems to comparing the “wanders” to their own perception of the African man.  In other words, he says they are the ones out of place.  Even more, the phrase “peep into the heart of darkness” alludes to the title of Conrad’s work.  However, by using the word “peek,” Achebe seems to be implying that the “wanders” do not see the whole Africa.  Basically, they do not understand and have a superficial perspective.

In conclusion, Achebe argues that Conrad is a “bloody racist” throughout his analysis of “An Image of Africa.”  Interestingly, he seems to be making his points and vaguely alluding to Conrad in his rhetoric simultaneously.  He appears to be doing so through the use of similar structure, parallel analogies, and reversing perspectives.  This is what makes his text work. 