Chinua Achebe’s “An Image of Africa” opens with the description of an encounter of two men, one being a fellow professor and the other a college student. Both are amazed in regards of Africa, specifically the literature and the culture. This meeting later develops into Achebe analyzing Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and how everything about it is extremely racist. One major claim made by Achebe is the fact that this work is not, and can never be considered art. This claim made by Achebe is false. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a work of art that has been able to create a strong emotional response in many of its readers.

Achebe has many reasons as to why Heart of Darkness simply cannot be a work of art. Among these reasons he compares this novel to Nazi Germany, slave traders, and dehumanization. These can be considered valid reasons to his claim because the degradation of another race based on color alone is extremely inhumane. How Conrad degraded Africans as a whole, placing them on the bottom tier and Europeans on the top tier cannot be considered art. This being because art is not meant to put someone, let alone a race down. Achebe exclaims “…a poet cannot be a slave trader at the same time…” (58). This quote is very one sided, saying that the views of one person cannot make them something else. There have been many other authors, artists, singers, and songwriters who have shown thought of racism. On the same page, Achebe associates Conrad’s thinking with the work of Nazi Germany, writing “All those men in Nazi Germany who lent their talent to the service of virulent racism whether in science, philosophy, or the arts have generally and rightly been condemned for their perversions” (58). Relating these to one another is a very extreme way to persuade an audience that Conrad’s work is not art. What Nazi Germany did to much of the European population and how Conrad describes an African tribe are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Conrad is simply taking a fictional character and giving him the ethnicity of a white man in a time of extreme racism, while the Nazis had the physical act of killing innocent people. This analogy is extreme and displays how Achebe himself is very one sided and wrong in saying that Heart of Darkness is not a work of art. 

Art is a conversational piece that is meant to interest, intrigue, anger, and excite its spectator. Many of Conrad’s descriptions, while extremely racist, are beautifully written. Many passages given by Achebe show how Conrad describes Africans, writing about their long slender yet strong limbs. Art is an emotion, and Conrad does an amazing job of striking certain powerful feelings in Achebe. A respectable piece of art can start a conversation, tell a story, and cause controversy. This is exactly what Heart of Darkness has done to Chinua Achebe. By writing that Conrad’s novel is not a work of art, Achebe actually proves himself wrong. A wonderful work of art is able to start conversations, even arguments, and art cannot simply go one way. It tells a story and is able to move a person. In this case, Heart of Darkness has moved Achebe so much that he felt obliged to write about it. If other readers felt the same as Achebe did, this novel would not be a great work of art, but the different opinions, outlooks, and perceptions create an effect that other novels do not. 

Conrad is clearly a racist, but it is the racism that aids in the argument of the novel being art. In one passage Conrad writes, “They were all dying slowly- it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now-nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom” (57). In this excerpt from the novel, Conrad is describing the unsettling situation of many African men, women and children dying. His diction and syntax are beautifully pieced together to create a strong emotion in the reader. Although his description of the Africans could be considered racist, calling them nothing but “black shadows,” Conrad is still able to show sympathy for a dying race, having wonderfully described their fate. In another instance, Conrad describes a woman by stating “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” (55). Here, the words used to portray an African woman are somewhat barbaric, as well as degrading. Conrad calls the woman a “savage” yet she is “magnificent” at the same time. Passages like this show the parallel between Conrad’s racism and his gift of language. He is able to degrade a human being, giving them caveman-like qualities while also calling them beautiful, unique even. This ability is what makes Heart of Darkness a true work of art. Many times the reader is appalled at how Conrad depicts the African race, but is then amazed as to how he can do it so exquisitely. 

As stated by Achebe, “Conrad was a bloody racist” (58), but he did so to be able to style Africa not only as a race, but also as a whole. It is arguable that Conrad created the main character Marlow specifically to be a racist; this way Conrad could portray his actual beliefs without directly saying how he feels. Although Achebe states many solid arguments as to why Heart of Darkness is not, and will never be art, his is ultimately incorrect with this statement. Conrad’s ability to anger a single person so much, that he feels the need to write about it, shows that his work is truly a piece of art. As stated before, art is meant to strike up a conversation with a total stranger, or create a strong sense of emotion, which is exactly what Conrad has done to Achebe, whether he realize it or not. This simply goes to say that Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness can, and will always be considered a work of art. 
