Nigerian novelist and professor Chinua Achebe was acutely conscious that Western views of Africa were inevitably the views of a culture that assumed itself superior. When confronted by what it took to be an inferior culture, the West identified itself as betterâmaterially, intellectually, even spiritually. Achebe believed that even as original and subtle a work as Joseph Conradâs Heart of Darknessâa novel seen by many as a criticism of colonialism and one that Achebe admired stylisticallyâreflected these assumptions.
For Achebe, Heart of Darkness was a book shot through with racist preconceptions that belittled and demeaned both Africa and Africans. As such it could never be considered a great work of art, as had consistently been claimed in the West. Achebe maintained that the novelâs racism left it permanently tainted. This was a view that shocked, startled, stimulated, and colored all subsequent opinions of Conrad. It remains controversial and challengingâeven divisiveâtoday.