Chinua Achebe’s literary works and novels were influenced by many events and wars throughout the 20th century. Chinua Achebe was born into a British bound Nigeria during the 1930s. As he would move back and forth from Nigeria to America throughout his life he endured living amongst world wars, civil rights movements, imperialism and pinnacle legislative cases. Throughout these events, Achebe’s writings developed a strong position of equality for African Americans amongst nationalism as he took a stand against racism. Given Achebe’s personal experiences and background he developed his novel, “an image of Africa” in response to joseph Conrad’s “heart of darkness.” In doing so he demonstrated how Conrad’s writing influenced and prolonged generational racism. 

During the early 1900s imperialism took over almost 90% of Africa, with Nigeria being one of the first to become quickly occupied and taken over Great Britain (cite?). Given that the vast majority of Africa was being colonized, Professor Iweriebor stated that the European imperialist push into Africa was motivated by three main factors of economic, political, and social expansion (cite?).  He also accredited its rapid development to the “collapse of the profitability of the slave trade, its abolition and suppression, as well as the expansion of the European capitalist Industrial Revolution” (1). While these three factors gave fuel to imperialism and furthered its cause, Achebe grew up amidst it all. Growing up in the world that Kurtz and other Europeans came to conquer, Achebe developed a sense of resentment towards these conquerors and their “racist stereotypes” as they began to slowly take over redevelop his native country with their “western imagination” (Achebe 8). As the imperialism construction began with the “establishment of schools that taught Western languages and learning,” some of which Achebe attended, his education within the English system and exposure to European culture quickly grew as he gained a new outlook on colonialism through the African and European lens (Gocuher13). The European lens consisted of the colonizers seeing themselves as “superior to the colonized people,” therefore assuming their dominance and examples they set as all mighty. This western mindset leads the natives to be “considered as ‘other’, different, and therefore inferior to the point of being less than fully human” (Tyson 420). It is the same mindset that provided Conrad with the allowance and social acceptance to further his racial mentality as he consistently refers to the natives faces as “grotesque masks” and their “inhuman” physical qualities (Conrad 4). By creating this negative outlook on the natives and an entire population, the Europeans felt they could continue moving forward in an “erect and immaculate” fashion, leaving behind the third world Africa (Lawtoo 3). Achebe agrees with this assertion as he expressed that Africa is the picture that had to be hidden from the rest of the world, while subtly being abused for their manual labor and vital resources (9). This abusive and parasitic relationship led to many symbolic wars such as the East and Northern African campaigns, lasting through the duration of World War II. Not only did this mindset and attitude contribute to a World War, but also it promoted the development and extension of Conrad’s systemic racism he influenced upon others. 

Shortly into the Europeans imperialism, most of the countries found themselves involved in a world war. As the majority of Africa was imperialized by another European nation that meant that over “2 million people from across Africa were actively involved in the military confrontations, as soldiers or bearers,” As those people had to fight for their mother country (Fischer 3). In the beginning of the war most Africans volunteered with an income promised but as that fell through most were randomly conscripted, beginning in 1915. Once conscription began, The French alone sent “450,000 African soldiers from their colonies in West and North Africa to fight against Germany on the frontline in Europe” (Fischer 20). This monumental war further proved how the imperialistic nations used the power to unwilling pose military activity on their colonies. Nigeria being a colony who was involved in the draft, Achebe unwillingly experienced this process first hand through his peers. Given that the mother countries could exert this much force upon their colonies, this funneled the appropriate behavior of racism and further encouraged it. Achebe even states that his people “suffered untold agonies and atrocities” due to the Europeans, such as hundreds of thousands who died serving for a foreign country. This event in history clearly shaped Achebe’s view towards Conrad’s book as he developed a sense of empathy to his once agonizing people along with further taste of disgust toward the Europeans.

During the 1950s and 60s the civil rights movement was in full affect with social movements, civil resistance and acts of nonviolent protesting, all with the common goal to end racial segregation, hoping to acquire equality for all races. These movements aimed to secure federal rights and legal recognition from all levels legislation and reinstate the rights guaranteed in the constitution, such as the 15th amendment and the voting rights act of 1965. Although most of these events were meant to be nonviolent and civil, in many cases the federal government had to take action and address these pressing matters such as sending national guard troops to diffuse protests or riots. This situation of injustice and lack of equality endowed the constitution, resonated within the American people, creating a surge to amend these rights. Amid this flux of emotions Achebe used this inspiration to his advantage as he crafted an image of Africa. Not only did the civil rights protesting and other physical events shape this Achebe’s account, so did court the cases during these movements. McBride asserts that the Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954 had a tremendous impact on the nation as it ruled racial segregation to be unconstitutional, influencing Achebe’s inspiration to fight for public justice and ending prolonged racism (1).

Imperialism rose during the early 1900s for numerous reasons such as wealth, economic greed, and political standpoints. Due to this Africa fell victim to Europe and especially Great Britain’s wrath. During the 60 years of the strong hold, countries were taken advantage of and people were forgotten about. As white supremacist European’s such as joseph Conrad, colonialized Africa they treated the natives or “ugly humans” with the upmost disrespect and racism (Conrad 6).  While Conrad published the story of his racist accounts in his tale, “heart of darkness,” local Nigerian and father of African literature, Chinua Achebe, responded with his “An Image of Africa.” Influenced by the historical events throughout Achebe’s life, he rallied behind civil rights movements and first-hand effects of imperialism along with unlawful conscription, as he formulated “An image of Africa.”
