Chinua Achebe: The Lecture Heard Around The World
In 1899 Joseph Conrad published a short work of fiction called Heart of Darkness.
This novella is often read, discussed, criticized in literature
programs throughout the world. It is a work that allow us to
tackle a variety of topics, and is therefore responded to in a variety
of ways. The work itself as one critic puts it “might most
usefully be considered hyper-canonized” (Padmini “Why” 104). The
work is taught beyond the realm of a normal work in the literature
program. Many forms of criticism have taken on the subject matter
within the book feminism, psycho-analytic, Marxism have all had things
to say about the novella. They’ve discussed things such as
imperialism, the psychology of Marlow and Kurtz, the role of women in
the novella (both literally and symbolically), all these issues are
important topics in the novella. For a long time, however one
crucial issue in the work was not addressed, that of race.
It was not until 1975 when Chinua Achebe gave his famous lecture, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”
that the issue of race was tackled head on in Conrad’s work. It
is this lecture that has become the cornerstone of writing and
criticism of Heart of Darkness. It would be hard to
find an essay since then that doesn’t in some way discuss or
acknowledge Achebe’s essay. Even critic’s who do not use
take into account historical or auto-biographical details of a work,
such as Miller, have written responses to Achebe. In Miller’s
essay “Should we read Heart of Darkness” he discusses, in his own way,
the essence of Achebe’s argument that the novella should not be read
because of it’s racist undertones. On critic has even gone on to
say that Achebe’s essay has become a work included in the literature
canon.
The lecture given at the
University of Massachusetts in early 1975 was published as an essay
in The Massachusetts Review, and later republished in The Norton
Critical Edition Heart of Darkness. Achebe’s main theme
within the essay is “the need—in Western psychology to set up Africa as
a foil to Europe” (“Image” 252). Within the context of this theme
he goes on to criticize what he considers a work of “permanent
literature”, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He
discusses how within the context of the work we can see that Conrad was
nothing more then a racist. The entire argument of the
essay, both the ignorance of Western literature and Conrad’s racism,
can be summed up in the following passage:
Africa as a setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as a human factor… Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the break up of one petty European mind? But that is not even the point. The real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered an continues to foster in the world. And the question is whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization… can be called a great work of art. My answer is: No it cannot (“Image” 257). It is interesting how most critics focus on the first two sentences of the beginning of this passage, the idea of Africa as the setting. Few it seems what to take on the charge that Heart of Darkness is not a great work of art.
Achebe’s criticism of
Conrad is not limited to this essay, he is in a fact a well read
novelist. He has won several awards for his numerous books,
including an award for a book of children’s poetry. He has
published five novels Anthills of Savannah, Arrow of God, Girls at War and Other Stories, A Man of the People, No Longer at Ease, and Things Fall Apart. It is within the context of the last two works, No Longer at Ease and Things Fall Apart, that we can see Achebe challenging some of the ideas in Conrad’s work.
Things Fall Apart
is the story of a classic tragic hero who’s great strengths are
inevitably his great flaws. The setting is a rural village
in Nigeria, the people of the village belong to the tribe of Ibo.
The main character, Okonkwo, “ruled his household with a heavy hand”
and his family “lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper” (Achebe
“Fall” 13). He was also a great warrior, wrestler and
farmer. All of these thing culminate in the end when he is
confronted with the encroaching colonialism and simply reacts by
killing one of the magistrates. In the end he also makes a bold
statement defiling himself by hanging himself on a tree.
No Longer at Ease
is set in the same area and is concerned with the same tribe and family
a generation later. Now colonialism has taken strong hold of
Africa and the main character, Obi, has just returned from his studies
in England. He is the first of the tribe and family to study
abroad. He has returned with the hopes of changing the corruption
within his city and country. Achebe sets the tone of this piece
with a speech given by one of the elders of the tribes, “Today
greatness has changed its tune. Titles are no longer great,
neither are barns or large numbers of wives and children.
Greatness is now in the things of the white man. And so we too
have changed are tune” (“Longer” 62). What we have in this novel
is the way Nigerian culture is changing to fit Western ideals.
Both of these novels can be scene as responses to Heart of Darkness because they are giving us the other side of the story. We are seeing colonialism from the perspective of the Africans who are being colonized. Achebe does a great job in writing clearly but not giving us a clear black and white picture. There is never a clear statement of these people are right and those people were wrong.
Many critics have responded to the challenges that Achebe has brought both in his literature and in his essay. There are some who have defended Conrad on grounds stating that the work was ahead of it’s time. There are some who believe that Achebe’s argument is over-simplified it’s attack on race. They also believe that it would be easier for Achebe to just write Conrad off, but these things may not be as simple or easy as people think. A passage from “The Rescue Conrad, Achebe, and the Critics” by Padmini Mongia makes the following statement:
My summary of Achebe’s essay earlier demonstrates, I think, that because Achebe takes Conrad and his work seriously, no such simple ‘writing off’ is possible at all. Further, Hawkins swift but certain move to reduce Achebe’s essay to a simple ‘writing off’ illustrates the point Achebe tries to make in his essay: that Conrad’s place in the canon of high-literature is so secure that it blinds the reader and critic to the operations of racism in the text. (302)
We must realize that there are no simple answers to Achebe’s charges. That is what makes them stand out and cause such turmoil over whether Heart of Darkness can be seen as a work that is racist in orientation.
It would be impossible and a waste of time to try to go into the psychology of Conrad. It would be hard for us to say that he was an out and out racist as Achebe claims. Along with that the very structure of Heart of Darkness does not make it easy for us to tell whether or not Marlow is really a reliable Narrator. And how could we ever assume what Conrad would say or do if he were alive today, he is not, we are. We do have a moral obligation here, we as students, teachers, professors, and readers need to be thinking as critically as possible. We must recognize the flaws of any work of literature and the flaws that may be contained within any historical context. Of course that does not mean that we can excuse something immoral just because of the time period it was written in. To do so would be to walk on treacherous ground; it would open up excuses for immoral behavior now and in the future. To overlook racist or sexist context just because something was written a long time ago would be to go against the evolution of the human spirit.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” Heart of
Darkness A Norton Critical Edition. Ed Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton, 1988: 251-262.
Achebe, Chinua. No Longer at Ease. New York: Anchor, 1960.
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1959.
Miller, J. Hillis. “Should We Read Heart of Darkness?” Conrad in Africa: New Essays on
Heart of Darkness. Ed. Attie De Lange and Gail Fincham. New York: Columbia UP, 2002: 21-40.
Mongia, Padmini. “The Rescue: Conrad, Achebe, and the Critics.” Conrad in Africa:
New Essays on Heart of Darkness. Ed. Attie De Lange and Gail Fincham. New York: Columbia UP, 2002: 299-312.
Mongia, Padmini. “Why I Teach Conrad and Achebe.” Approaches to Teaching Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer. Eds., Hunt Hawkins and Brian W. Shaffer. New York: MLA, 2002: 104-110.