Racism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Over the years many authors and critics have critiqued Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. This is no different for author Chinua Achebe. Achebe had an article published called “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” explaining to the reader how much of a “thoroughgoing racist” Conrad is (343). Although Achebe correctly points out the racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, his argument is flawed because he neglects the novels literary quality, level damaging accusations, and anachronistically applies contemporary standards to a 19th century piece of fiction.
Achebe makes many valid points where Conrad comes off as a racist throughout his novella. Achebe argues that Conrad is racist in how he portrays the Africans language throughout the book. He quotes Conrad as he is having the Africans talk: “Mistah Kurtz—he dead.”, then quotes “‘Catch ’im,’ he snapped with a bloodshot widening of his eyes and a flash of sharp teeth—‘catch ’im. Give ’im to us.’ ‘To you, eh?’ I asked; ‘what would you do to them?’ ‘Eat ’im!’ he said curtly” (341). This shows Conrad portrays the Africans are below the Europeans how they are uneducated and have poor speech habits. Not only does this show how the Africans are beneath the Europeans but also this is Conrad going back to another comment made in calling the Africans “Cannibals” (340). This type of comment is very degrading and racist.
Upon meeting a black person for the first time Conrad says: “A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days” (344). Achebe is showing that not only in this book is Conrad racist but he has always been racist. The fact that Conrad used the term “nigger” also shows how racist he is. This is a word that should never be used under any circumstance it rude, crude, and very demeaning towards anyone. Another word that is used that is demeaning is when he explains how the Africans are “savages” (341). Words such as these show such racism. So in context Achebe is correct in implying how Conrad’s novella is racist, but that is where it stops his article still has many flaws.
Achebe’s first flaw is where he neglects the novels literary quality. When Achebe reads this novel he only sees the racism in Conrad. What he should be looking at is the novella Heart of Darkness as a fictional story and not some type of biography or non-fictional piece of work. As Achebe progresses through his article he moves from critiquing Conrad’s novel to attacking him as a person. For example when Achebe says a quote mentioned in the previous paragraph about his first encounter with a black person; “a certain enormous buck nigger…manifested in the human animal to the end of my days” is not necessary (344). When critiquing a book there is no need to bring in personal experiences from the author unless it is some type of biography, which Heart of Darkness is not. In his article he continues on explaining how “Conrad is a dream for psychoanalytical critics” (345). Here again Achebe is talking about just Conrad and not the novel. He then goes on to explain a study that was done on him by Bernard C. Meyer, M.D. Achebe explains how Meyer goes on about hair and hair-cutting in Conrad but not once does he explain Conrad’s attitude toward black people. From this Achebe concludes that “Western psychoanalyst must regard the kind of racism displayed by Conrad as absolutely normal” (345). There was nothing here about the novel at all, all it was talking about was a study that was done on Conrad and how he didn’t agree with the outcome of the study. The title of this article is not “An image of Africa: Racism in Conrad”, but “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”. In the title of Achebe’s article the title of Conrad’s novel so that is what Achebe should focus on not Conrad as a person.
Achebe’s second flaw is his level damaging accusations. The main accusation that is made throughout Achebe’s article is that Conrad is a racist. So far we have gone over how yes Achebe is accurate in the accusation that the novel has a lot of racism in it, but making an accusation that the author is actually racist is a very large accusation. Making an accusation like this is not only damaging to Conrad but also can be damaging to Achebe. This can hurt Achebe’s reputation in that why would someone want to read something by someone that accuses someone else without real proof of that accusation being true. The most popular accusation made is when Achebe says “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” (343). This is a pretty straight forward accusation that can really damage someone’s reputation. Another major accusation that Achebe
Achebe’s third flaw is he anachronistically applies contemporary standards to a 19th century piece of fiction. What most people including Achebe need to realize when they read Conrad’s novel is that it is not written by today’s society rules and standards. This novel was written in the 19th century, when so many things were different. In a previous paragraph it was talked about how Conrad was racist by the language he used for the Africans and the European, but how would Achebe know if that wasn’t how people talked back then. Achebe say’s “It was certainly not his fault that he lived his life at a time when the reputation of the black man was particularly low level” (344). From this quote it is clear that Achebe is aware of the time difference in which Conrad wrote this novel so why does he still act like it was written in today’s society. Yet he still decides to bash Conrad in calling him racist even though in his time it was
Achebe is correct when he says there is racism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. After reading the novel anyone will find that that is a true statement. However Achebe fails to realize that the reality of things is that that is really the way things were during that time and he should not be punished for that. His novel should be looked at as a literary fiction piece of work not a biography or non-fiction. He should not be judged based on it, because it is not real. Achebe fails to do this and in my opinion that makes me not in favor of Achebe and less willing to read other books or articles by him.
Achebe, Chinua. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.”
Armstrong 336-49
Armstrong, Paul B, ed. Heart of Darkness. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005
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