African American Imperialism

Chinua Achebe’s essay An Image of Africa and Hunt Hawkin’s work Heart of Darkness and Racism both discuss the nature of Racism that is manifested on the novella by Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. According to Achebe’s essay, Conrad is a ‘’thorough-going racist’’ (p.343), who refuses to grant human expression and language on Africans. He criticizes Conrad for having an antipathy towards Black people and accuses Heart of Darkness for depicting the Western culture’s stereotype of Africa and therefore giving a false impression of the continent and its people to readers. On the contrary, Hawkin’s essay in a certain degree agrees with Achebe that Conrad’s work has some parts which are racist, and its language dehumanize the Africans. However,

Conversely, Hawkin opposes this notion and attributes Conrad’s image of Africans as necessary for his objective to show Europeans as the true hazard. Furthermore, Marlow disapproves the cruel exploitation of Africans in the novel and he appears to be ‘horror-struck’ (p.373) and resentful of the Belgian’s conquest. According to Hawkin, this makes it clear that Conrad’s racism is not his own but intentional and aims to make the reader censorious about who the real enemy of the novel is. Similarly, Achebe foresees the view that Conrad’s racism is not his own and it is intentional and therefore admits that ‘Conrad very clearly expresses his condemnation of European cruelty’ (p.369). However, Achebe draws the ultimate conclusion that Conrad’s racism was not to oppose European cruelty due to the lack ‘of an alternative frame of reference by which we may judge the actions and opinions of his characters’ (p.342). He argues that Conrad chose to distant himself from the characters consciously so that readers won’t accuse his literary work as racist. In brief, Achebe halts that Conrad’s racism is part of his personal attitude rather than a political attack to European