Human beings are human beings no matter what color their skin is, no matter what language they speak, and no matter how different their culture may seem from your own. In the 1977 essay An Image of Africa, the author, Chinua Achebe, analyzes Joseph Conrad’s portrayal of Africa in his novel Heart of Darkness. The cultural context of the point in history that An Image of Africa was written greatly influenced Chinua Achebe’s arguments in the essay.

When writing An Image of Africa, Achebe was fed up with racism and the effects it has on people. The essay is from a speech that Achebe made in the 1970s when race relations were very tense among Americans. Segregation was on the downfall but there were still many people that were set out to suppress the power and rights of black people. Achebe was exhausted with this and he expressed it by critically analyzing Heart of Darkness and dissecting it piece by piece to expose Conrad’s true reasoning behind his word choice and descriptions.

Hatred is shown towards the fact that Heart of Darkness is esteemed literature in this essay. Achebe points out that even though Heart of Darkness was written in the 1800s (when racism was a part of common culture in history), Conrad’s racism and dehumanizing Africans is unnecessary and that his work should not be considered a great work of art due to its hateful nature. In An Image of Africa, Achebe brings up the point that many of the Nazis were talented in the work that they did but their expressive racism still caused them to be condemned for their perverseness. By pointing this out, Achebe was hoping to show that Conrad should be condemned for his racism and perverseness even though some consider him a great artist.

“According to Achebe, Conrad has an obsession with skin colour: he describes a man as being black, having long black legs and long black arms. Achebe mentions a scene in the novella where after Kurtz’ death, the manager's boy is described as putting his “insolent black head in the doorway” (Conrad 69). “(Svensson 8) In Heart of Darkness, Conrad talked about and treated Africans as if they were incredibly inferior beings. Achebe was out to expose the flaws in Conrad’s portrayal of the Africans and point out that Conrad was a racist.

Conrad portrays Africa as the antithesis of Europe in Heart of Darkness. Europe at the time that Conrad wrote his story (just as it is now) was full of rich, civilized, and haughty white folk. Civilization in Europe was advancing quickly and things were coming into order. Achebe tells us that Conrad used all kinds of horrible, degrading adjectives to describe the journey that they took down the river. “We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet… But suddenly, as we struggled around a bend, there would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked grass roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling, under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage (Conrad).” (Achebe 3). Conrad chose his words wisely with the intent to horrify European culture back home and people in the Western culture.

Although Conrad brings descriptions of horror and desolation to the table, he cannot be blamed for all of the impact his story made on peoples’ ideas of Africa. It was already a common stereotype in Western culture that Africa was a place of horrors, animalistic behavior, and torn people with no history, literature, or any form of credible art. Conrad’s story was merely a response to the pre-set stereotype that people had. He took the stereotype and essentially fortified it. This is why Achebe is so adamantly against Conrad’s writing. Achebe was strongly against the stereotype in the first place.

When Heart of Darkness went public, the people sucked in the content of the novel and breathed out stronger stereotypes of African culture and more hatred for black people around the globe. Heart of Darkness became an esteemed novel and Conrad was considered a great artist. Being that hardly any people traveled to Africa during that time, other cultures did not have much else to base their idea of Africa on. The people were blinded by the blurs and the shadows described as Africans and Africa while not having any knowledge or experience of the culture for themselves.

After analyzing a single line from the Christian Science Monitor, Achebe makes the reader aware of an interesting point. “In London there is an enormous immigration of children who speak Indian or Nigerian dialects, or some other native language” (Achebe 10). Achebe analyzed this line and brought to light that instead of giving Africans and Indians the slightest amount of respect and acknowledging that they speak a language, the editor for the article merely called their languages “dialects.” It is quite obvious that the editor’s word choice was intentional to demean the human value in African and Indian culture. Achebe shows us that even in context, this word choice is a downgrade of Indian and African culture.

In his speech, Chinua Achebe used ethos, pathos, and logos to draw in the audience without accusing Joseph Conrad of being a “bloody racist” until he had laid down enough convincing evidence from his analysis of Conrad’s work. He knew that even in the current American culture, he would not be listened to if he started off by accusing a white man of something so serious. American culture and his audience influenced the arrangement and style of his speech.

“Some critics who claim that this novel (Heart of Darkness) portrays Africa and its natives as dark, mysterious and primitive. Many post-colonial authors, like Achebe, consider this image to be a degrading attempt to perpetuate that image of the Africans that is projected in the European system of beliefs” (NooriBerzenji 710). Achebe’s wished were for people in his current point in history and culture to quit looking at Africa and Africans through this distorted and deformed lens. He did not wish for people to praise Africans and their culture as if they were divinities, nevertheless he wanted people to see that Africans were not just worthless undeveloped souls. Africa and its people are a major part of the world population and absolutely a credible source of art, literature, and history. Achebe hoped that people would realize that the stereotypes were wrong if he showed people that Conrad was racially biased in his work. 

In An Image of Africa, Achebe replied to Conrad showing irrational love for a certain white Englishman (love for his own culture) in Heart of Darkness. After quoting the passage in which Conrad speaks of his “unforgettable Englishman,” Achebe states that irrational love may be the cause of some “foolish acts of indiscretion,” However, Achebe makes a statement right after saying: “Irrational hate can endanger the life of the community.” This is an amazing quote that could be applied to cultures everywhere and Achebe knew that it needed to be heard in the culture that he was living in.

The arguments in An Image of Africa made by Chinua Achebe are primarily based on the cultural context of the point in history that he wrote his speech. Human beings all deserve the same respect no matter their race, language, or culture. Achebe was fed up with the racism and demeaning of African people, culture, literature, and history. In that time of cultural relations, he knew that he had to carefully construct and present his argument in order to be heard. Chinua Achebe performed phenomenally to expose and challenge a racially biased work in a society that was still struggling with several racial issues. 
