An Image of Africa

Chinua Achebe
I will be responding to the following article written by Chinua Achebe, An Image of Africa.
An Image in Africa was written to prove that Achebe was as educated as the white authors that have written articles. This piece was a response to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness gave the image that Africa was nothing more than bushes filled with black man with long black arms and legs. This man that he describes has no kinship of equality when compared with Conrad. How can one human being make the assumption that another human being is not of kinship. We all come into the world the same way, and we die and leave the world the same way. We may not be kinship by blood, but we are kinship by nature. The text fits in with my life because I was able to realize that other people can destroy another person or population with the bitter words that they speak. Conrad degrades the Africans as if they were nothing more than wild beast roaming the earth. There are many points in this article that I agree with Achebe such as, “Herein lies the meaning of Heart of Darkness and the fascination it holds over the Western mind: “What thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity- like yours…..Ugly.” The Western mindset boosted themselves up to be as if they were the best thing on earth, but by doing this it gave them an ugly mindset and made them inhuman. The thought of western humanity to Achebe makes them ugly as they have thought of the Africans.
My views changed of how an author can change one’s mindset from the words that they write. Conrad’s piece is quoted to be a “great work of art”. This book is far from a great work of art. No art neither good nor bad should dehumanize another culture or consider humans as inhuman. Art is intended to bring people together and retell past and present history. Art should not destroy a society to where they are thought as nothing but mere peasants that walk the grounds.
“Language is too grand for these chaps; let’s give them dialects”. When immigrant children ask their parents what language do I speak? A parent does not respond o no child, we speak a dialect not a language. Dialects were given to Africans and other cultures that do not speak English as their first language, but how can this be true. Dialect is used to make one think that they are indeed beneath another. No country is beneath another nor is nor language or “dialect”. Whether I speak Twi or English they are both languages not dialects. Dialects did not exist off hand they were words that the colonizer used for the colonized. When speaking with an African I have noticed that they use the word dialect to refer to which language they speak since there are many languages “dialects” within a country. The next time that I speak with someone and they state that they speak this dialect, I will gladly correct them and inform them that they speak a language and not a dialect.
An Image of Africa made me think long and hard about the things that Achebe commented on. It is a piece that should be read in the grand universities in Africa after they have read Heart of Darkness. This would open the student’s eyes to consider the book that they thought was so great for what it really is. This should be used not as entertainment but as a public service announcement to look and think beyond what you are reading. There are many hidden meanings in Conrad’s work that criticize and humiliate the Africans and their culture. These are the same Africans that consider the book to be a good reader. Reading this text made me do something that I hardly ever do while I am reading. That is to think beyond the words of the book.