"Image of Africa"

Achebe's essay, "Image of Africa," is a criticism of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. However, it has a much more profound effect on readers as a commentary on the underlying racism in Western cultures. This commentary runs throughout the essay. Before jumping into his criticism of Heart of Darkness, Achebe recounts a conversation with a fellow professor at the University of Massachusetts. His colleague at first didn't know he was a professor, and then said that "he never had thought of having that kind of stuff..." This comment reveals the point that Achebe tries to prove throughout his criticism: the underlying racism in Western culture drives the ignorance and open racism that plague modern society. Achebe uses several passages from Heart of Darkness to demonstrate Conrad's racist portrayal of the African people. Achebe discusses how Conrad uses many comparison between things and their antithesis, just as historically Europeans viewed the people of African nations as the antithesis of themselves (whom they saw as an almost Aryan race). Achebe attributes this unjust comparison (the only thing different about them was the color of their skin) to a Western inferiority complex, and a desire to see that they are "beating" someone. This inferiority complex is difficult to explain, but its putting down of Africans and African culture was the impetus of the underlying racism in Western culture. Achebe also comments on how Conrad loves things to be in their proper place. In American society when Conrad was born in 1857, people of color were at best free, but second-class citizens; at worst they were slaves. Achebe attributes this to some of Conrad's racist views, but he doesn't think that ignorance and cultural upbringing accounts for all of his racist views. Towards the end of his essay, Achebe addresses how the public views both Conrad and Heart of Darkness. Achebe mentions that a book written by Dr. Bernard C. Meyer to explain Conrad. He mentions nearly everything, including his antisemitism, but leaves out his racist ideology. Achebe takes this and the fact that Heart of Darkness on a list of the six "'greatest short novels in the English language'" and is "the most commonly prescribed novel in twentieth-century literature courses in English departments of American universities" to mean that Conrad's racism is accepted in Western/American culture.

Achebe's commentary on the underlying racism is supported by two more examples in his essay as well as current events. Achebe references an article in The Christian Science Monitor, a newspaper renown for being "more enlightened than most." This article uses the term "dialects" to refer to African tribal languages. Achebe attributes this to the idea that they tribes were not civilized to have true languages, another manifestation of the underlying racism of Western culture. Achebe mentions letters he receives from students who have read Things Fall Apart, saying that they enjoyed learning about African culture, something that is not widely taught in schools. On the last day of the semester, Severn had an assembly for Martin Luther King Day. We did a silent, stand up-sit down exercise with anonymous surveys that students had completed earlier in the week. For the statement, "I do not study the culture of my ancestors in school," a startling number of students stood. This was a prime example of how Western culture's underlying racism against all non-white people has defined how we learn about history: almost always from the white, predominately male, European perspective. This racism is carried into all aspects of our culture, including the entertainment industry. Many famous actors and actresses are boycotting the Academy Awards because of a lack of diversity among nominees. This is a reflection of the racism in the film industry as a whole, which makes it incredibly harder for non-white actors to be cast in films. This, along with many other current events, proves that Chinua Achebe's commentary the underlying racism in Western/American culture is very accurate and poignant even almost sixty years later.