29 pages • 58 minutes read
Chinua AchebeAn Image of Africa
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1975A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Index of Terms
Liberalism
Liberalism is broadly defined as a branch of political and moral philosophy that emphasizes individual rights, such as life, liberty, and property. A product of the Enlightenment, liberalism is the political basis of Western democracy. Achebe highlights the shortcomings of Western liberalism to show the hypocrisy inherent in a culture that fails to extend these human rights to all races. Conrad’s liberalism extends only far enough to criticize the horrors of colonialism. However, he is mostly concerned with the negative impact of colonialism on the colonizers themselves. This is emphasized by Kurtz losing his Western identity in Africa, culminating in his death. The Black characters in Heart of Darkness are afforded no such psychological depth.
Permanent Literature
What Achebe calls “permanent literature” is another term for a literary canon. A culture’s literary canon is comprised of texts considered the most important, influential, and enduring. As an author and a scholar, Achebe is concerned with Heart of Darkness occupying such a prominent place in the English literary canon, with one leading scholar proclaiming it to be one of the six most important short novels in the entire body of English literature. The fact that the novella is accepted as part of the canon—coupled with the fact that no literary critics had addressed Conrad’s inherent racism until Achebe wrote “An Image of Africa”—forms the core of Achebe’s critique.
The Heart of Darkness
The “heart of darkness” in Conrad’s novella is a complex metaphor for the relationship between Europe and Africa, particularly from a colonial point of view. Darkness is unknowable and inscrutable; it is the antithesis of enlightened thought and culture. Darkness is a symbolic representation of evil and savagery, and Mr. Kurtz’s story serves as a warning that coming in too close contact with it leads to insanity and death.
However, in “An Image of Africa,” Achebe problematizes this depiction of Africa, showing how Conrad robs Africans of their humanity. The real “heart of darkness” is a feature of this dehumanization, demonstrated when Achebe turns the symbol on Conrad himself: “Whatever Conrad's problems were, you might say he is now safely dead. Quite true. Unfortunately his heart of darkness plagues us still” (259). From this perspective, Conrad himself can no longer directly contribute to this damaging myth of Africa, but his novella’s influence lingers on. It is this lingering influence that Achebe repudiates, striving to free Africa from this symbol.
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