A Response to a Response

For today’s post, I will discuss an essay by one of my favorite authors Chinua Achebe. While Achebe is most known for his novel Things Fall Apart, today I will take a closer look at his response to Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. Despite my adoration for Achebe and his work, I will put that to the side to form an unbiased response to his response.

Before I begin discussing my own response, I think it is important to explain the place Achebe’s criticism is coming from. Achebe was a Nigerian-born author who spent years teaching and lecturing in the U.S. Although he wrote a number of books throughout the course of his life, he is regularly remembered for Things Fall Apart. A major element of his work was highlighting the pitfalls of imperialism, especially its damage on Africa life. So, it is without question that he would be critical of other works that are proclaimed to be illuminative of imperialism’s evils. 

Additionally, I think it is important to note that Achebe does not from a place of malice in his criticism of Conrad. He actually applauds Conrad’s work in the beginning of his essay: 

Conrad, on the other hand, is undoubtedly one of the great stylists of modern fiction and a good storyteller to bargain. His [novella] therefore falls automatically into a different class-permanent literature-read and taught and constantly evaluated by critics.

I think this is important to note because Achebe’s criticism is coming much more from a place of respect than a place of disdain. He has no bone to pick with Conrad; he only wants Africa to have the respect Conrad has garnered over the years. 

With this being said, I agree with many of the claims Achebe makes in his argumentative piece and I can clearly see where his criticism comes from. A lot of Conrad’s language does come off as demeaning towards the Congolese and there is a point about Conrad’s casting of the region as the antithesis of Europe and thus of civilization.

[There is a trend] in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe...Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world’, the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization.

I think this analysis particularly rings true in Conrad’s description of the setting; much of the explanation of what Marlow sees casts the Congo as a place which is all together otherworldly.  It is concerning that he depicts Africa as the complete opposite of Europe. However, I think Conrad uses an array of criticism towards European imperialists as well. Kurtz’s horrific treatment of the Congolese is most evident of this. While this does not excuse the demeaning manor in which Conrad discusses the Congo and the people who live there, it is worth to note that his novella is still critical of European imperialism. Could his criticism have been stronger or more poignant: without a doubt. Could Conrad have been more conscious of the way he demeaned Africa: obviously. So while Heart of Darkness does possess a startling amount of subtle and obvious racism, it is also relatively critical of imperialism.