ACHEBE & CONRAD

Without a doubt Achebe sees Conrad as a ‘bloody racist’ and I can understand why. In the Conrad Heart of Darkness, terms and descriptions for the African people were very prejudice. “They were dying slowly – it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now – nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the green-ish gloom. Also, the usage of ‘nigger’ was repeated constantly; along with Black figures, negros, shadows, etc.
As Achebe pointed out, Conrad’s perspection on an Englishman was quite different. “[His] calves exposed to the public gaze… dazzled the beholder by the splendor of their marble-like condition and their rich tone of young ivory… The light of a headlong, exalted satisfaction with the world of men… illumined his face… and triumphant eyes. In passing he cast a glance of kindly curiosity and a friendly gleam of big, sound, shiny teeth… his white calves twinkled sturdily.” All these are positive descriptions for the Englishmen. Not once did the Africans in Heart of Darkness have anything good said about them.
I cannot find a reason why Conrad wouldn’t be considered a racist. We witness how Blacks were not appreciated. They where discriminated and “teased on.” There was this one part that caught my attention the most. “I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high, when the stout man with moustaches came tearing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that everybody was ‘behaving splendidly, splendidly,’ dipped about a quart of water and tore back again. I noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail.” I felt like they were being taunted. After all there hard working doing what they were suppose to, they couldn’t even have something to drink. Because everything was so negatively spoken towards the Africans, it’s hard to imagine Conrad not as a racist.