Achebe Trippen

Disclaimer: Before I begin I would just like to say I am not fond of talking about race or racism. As a multiracial person I’m really over it. I have no tolerance for it. No one should be told they are “too white” or “not black enough” to have their opinion. Unless you’re flat out rude about something. Then you can exit to the right. That being said I look forward to the day when race won’t be a problem and everyone can live their happy little lives.

Chinua Achebe made an argument against the author of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. He charged Conrad with being a racist in his novella and having such a Western view of Africa he could not fully capture what Africa was really about. Now before I roast this man’s soul I would like to define a racist and what racism is. A racist is a person who believes one race is superior to another and racism is having or showing the belief that one race is superior to another. Achebe’s problem with the novella was it showed “white racism against Africa is a normal way of thinking.” He analyzed the way Conrad described both Africa and the natives there and how he believed it differed from the way Conrad described the Europeans. Achebe’s speech really got me hot. I didn’t agree with almost everything he said.

To start Achebe begins with how Conrad portrayed Africa as “other world” and it was likened to “travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world.” Okay but…it’s true, is it not? Unfortunately, some parts of Africa have always been underdeveloped and the way the natives were living, from an imperialist viewpoint, was like being in the early days of civilization. I don’t believe Conrad was being purposely malicious in his description. This was this man’s first time encountering Africa and experiencing the native’s society and culture. Of course he would say or do something offensive. To say he was being racist is far-fetched. Conrad was in new surroundings.

Moving on, Achebe points out Conrad’s “fixation on blackness” giving us the example “A black figure stood up, strode on black legs, waving long black arms” going on to  say that we the readers “might expect a black figure striding along on black legs waving white arms.” If you don’t stop. Yes that example shows Conrad’s fixation, but does it show he’s being racist? No, he was just describing and being in awe of what he was seeing. Conrad did not write that part thinking to himself that his readers would expect people to have black legs and white arms. What sense does that make? It doesn’t.

Let’s just skip to the part where I was 3000% done. Achebe went in on the discussion of how the West has put Africa in a negative and stereotypical light or as he put it “a reflex action to downgrade the discussion to the level of Africa.” He referenced an article on the learning problems with bilingual children. To him “out of the blue sky” came this observation that “in London there is an enormous immigration of children who speak Indian or Nigerian dialects, or some other native language.” Achebe gets defensive and says sarcastically “language is too grand for these chaps, let’s give them dialects!” MY. BRAIN. Honestly, is he forreal? Maybe it’s just me and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt before writing them off as racists. Again this writer was not thinking language was too “grand” or advanced whatever you want to call it for these countries. There are dialects in different parts of India and Nigeria. It’s not that language is too much, they have languages, and the writer was pointing it out as fact. Wait a minute…wasn’t Achebe from Nigeria? Hm interesting.

That’s all I have to say about this subject.