An Image of Africa

by Clare Clarke

Few works of scholarship have so comprehensively recast an existing debate as Chinua Achebe’s essay on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Achebe – a highly distinguished Nigerian novelist and university teacher – looked with fresh eyes at a novel that was set in Africa, but in which Africans appear only as onlookers or as indistinguishable "savages". Dismissing the prevailing portrayal of Joseph Conrad as a liberal hero whose anti-imperialist views insulated him from significant criticism, Achebe re-cast the Polish author as a "bloody racist" in an analysis so cogent it changed the way in which his discipline looked not only at Conrad, but also at all works with settings indicative of racial conflict.

The creative contribution of Achebe’s essay lies in delving far beneath the surface of Conrad’s novel; he not only generated new and highly influential hypotheses about the author's modes of thought and motivations, but also redefined the entire debate over Heart of Darkness. Just because the novel had been accepted into the "canon", and now falls into the class of “permanent literature”, Achebe says, does not mean we should not question it closely – or criticize its author.

90 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2017

Reviews

[An]

This little book was quite useful for understanding both the heart of darkness and An image of Africa but only the last section was mainly helpful otherwise most of the time the critic is echoing Achebe's thoughts rather than properly analysing them.
3/5

[Hajira Imran]

"But whereas irrational love may at worst en
gender foolish acts of indiscretion, irrational hate can endanger the life of
the community."

[SCDavis]

A very informative analysis of Achebe's essay on Heart of Darkness. A great breakdown of the supports and disagreements with Achebe's criticisms. Myself, not being committed to the idea of the greatness of Conrad's novella, I can appreciate Achebe's views and, upon first consideration, I agree with his views expressed in his essay.

[Lucy]

Helpful but not as helpful as Chinua Achebe