In “An Image of Africa”, Chinua Achebe condemns Conrad as a “bloody racist,“ depicting the African natives as inferior and savage (17). Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness represents its time period by conveying racist ideas. However, the humanity seen by Conrad contains a flaw at the primordial level and this imperfection exists in mankind in its entirety and not just a single race.

Joseph Conrad’s European background dictated his style of writing, his subject matter, and also his attitude toward his subjects. The European explorers traveled to Africa as early as the thirteenth century, discovering a continent

Conrad’s depiction of the Africans is negative, but so is his characterization of the Europeans. He describes them as “strong, lusty, red-eyed devils” that plunder a continent simply for their own benefit (Conrad 25). His description of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition as “cruel without courage” summarizes his view of imperialism in general (Conrad 50). He describes the European colonists as “mean and greedy phantoms”, plundering the earth without thinking of the consequences of their actions (Conrad 50). These men futilely search for a city that does not exist and destroy the land surrounding them, finding nothing of value. The treatment of the Africans at the Outer Stations and the cruelty of his fellow “civilized” men appalls Marlow (Conrad 24). Conrad relates imperialism to “robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind“ (17). When Marlow returns to Belgium, he sees the ignorance of the West. Conrad sees this ignorance in his aunt who spoke of “weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways” (18-19). Photographer George Kimball wrote that “the darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it“ (Bolander 19).

where “dark things seem to stir feebly” (23). The river, like a serpent, tempts the ignorant Europeans to indulge their most primitive desires (Conrad 11). Through the feelings of many of the Europeans in Heart of Darkness, Conrad communicates a tone of negativity towards the continent itself as well as its inhabitants. The jungle brings out Kurtz’s primal core and tempts all who enter:

Conrad, though racist against the Africans, shows the negative aspects of humanity. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad shows the greed, evil, and corrupted values of European colonialism and expresses feelings of disgust and disbelief toward their actions and attitudes. Achebe accuses Conrad of being a “purveyor of comforting myths”, but Conrad describes the world as he saw it on his voyage up the Congo (2). His story of Ma

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