An Image of Africa

Achebe’s main purpose for writing “An Image of Africa” was to critique the way that Western writers portray Africa and its peoples. Colonial ideology demanded that the colonized be treated as something less than human, be it for their skin color, non-Christian religions, or any other societal differences. Any deviation from the European norm was seen as an inherent inferiority and used as a justification for the colonial project. Until the publication of “An Image of Africa,” critics usually praised Conrad for his critique of imperialism in Heart of Darkness. While this is true to an extent, Achebe’s essay demonstrates that Heart of Darkness is “a story in which the very humanity of black people is called in question” (259).

Conrad failed to portray the African characters in his story as anything more than pieces of the backdrop. They lack names, characterization, and any agency beyond serving or impeding Conrad’s white characters. Phrases such as “rudimentary souls” and “a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling” underscore the dehumanization of African characters (Conrad, quoted in Achebe 255, 253). Achebe critiques Conrad’s use of “Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human factor,” reducing it to “a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril” (257). However, he argues that this imagery is not incidental but foundational to the narrative’s construction of meaning. By diminishing the humanity of his Black characters, Conrad reinforces the notion of European superiority—a core tenet of colonialist ideology.

Beyond diminishing their agency, Conrad’s novella downplays the real suffering experienced by colonized peoples. Of the 54 recognized countries in the continent of Africa, only two are considered by scholars to have never been colonized: Liberia, which was founded in 1847 as a homeland for freed American slaves, and Ethiopia. The rest of the continent fell victim to systematic colonial exploitation by European powers, epitomized by the atrocities committed in King Leopold II’s Congo Free State. Some opponents of Achebe’s position may argue that part of Conrad’s negative portrayal of the Congolese peoples is derived from him visiting the Congo during this time of colonial oppression and encountering a people diminished by exploitation and genocide. However, Achebe contends that “Conrad's picture of the people of the Congo seems grossly inadequate even at the height of their subjection to the ravages of King Leopold's International Association for the Civilization of Central Africa” (260). He asserts that Heart of Darkness only reinforces the “prejudices and insults” that colonized people already suffered under (259).

Achebe concludes his essay by calling for an acknowledgement of shared humanity between the former colonizers and the formerly colonized. He writes, “the victims of racist slander who for centuries have had to live with the inhumanity it makes them heir to have always known better than any casual visitor even when he comes loaded with the gifts of a Conrad” (262). This acknowledges that Conrad was a gifted writer; however, he was complicit in silencing the voices of the colonized. “An Image of Africa” ultimately calls for a continued critique of colonialism but contends that it is time to start listening to the colonized, who were more intimately affected by imperial subjugation, rather than to Western authors like Conrad, whose works tacitly reinforced their dehumanization.