A review of Chinua Achebe's Image of Africa: Racism in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Posted by Ohikhuare Isuku (author of Granpa's Clothes)

                             
                                                                Heart of Darkness
Chinua Achebe

Years ago, I read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I remember it was a semester break and I was in my third year at the University of Benin. A roommate had installed a book app in my android phone, and in the bookshelf, Heart of Darkness was one of the free books. So I set to read it.

Ordinarily I wouldn't have read it if there were a lot of books with me at that time. The reason being that I hated the book even before I saw it. I had read Achebe's biography and had read about his biting criticism of the book. But I read the book anyway also because I was curious to know what was there in.

I was slightly disappointed with Chinua Achebe after reading the book: I felt there was nothing racist about the book, that Achebe was just being over conscious, or rather it was the book title and the picture of naked ebony women gliding through the front cover that actually infuriated Achebe. I relished the manner in which Joseph Conrad developed his characters and the power of narration and description he possessed. Heart of Darkness became one of the best western books I had yet read as regards African adventure, together with King Solomon's Mines  and Allan Quartermain.

But few days ago, I stumbled on Achebe's easay: Image of Africa: Racism in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I read it through to get Achebe's view about the book, and the scales fell from my eyes. I realized I had been so immersed in the power of the narration of Heart of Darkness that I didn't take notice of the dark and dirty lines Joseph Conrad used to describe black people. I realized Achebe's pain: that Africa's image was being dented and we seen as sub-humans. I became wounded: not just because of the derogatory descriptions of black people in Heart of Darkness, but also because years ago when I read the book, Joseph Conrad insulted me plainly but I praised him instead because I was oblivious of his insults.

 I will conclude by saying that until someone tells you you're poor, you may never notice it.