AN IMAGE OF AFRICA 337 the long grass near the path, with an empty water gourd and his Jong alt yng by 336 ! (Curyua ACHEBE ‘had just read Things Fall Apert? One sappy to learn about the customs and su trivial encounters rather ‘and while physically disabled and seriously depre that with your melancholy temperament you 0 ineven in| fanguage on certain pag Secret Sharer"’s ecpnomy, “Heart of Dath mains one of the great dark meditations the purest expressions of 2 melancholy temperament. amy own age could not be excused ats. Ignorance might be a more likely rea- jeve that something more willful than a formation was at work. For did not that erudite CHINUA ACHEBE ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness} In the fall of ok 1 was walking one day from the Engl partment et the University of Massachusetts to a packing lo a fine autumn, ‘moring such as encouraged friend angers, Brisk youngsters were m obviously freshmen in the man going the to look at this phe- ‘wish nor the compe- logical sciences but more simply inthe manner of a novels nding to one famous book of European fiction: Joseph Conrad's ;, which better than any other work 1,” 1 heard him say finally 7 your fourse to find out. ts of modem fiction and a good contribution therefor falls auto- ‘Gil ait of aot of Darks ‘Ghancllors Lecture st the Unceae Sea AN IMaGe OF AFRICA course because it may seriously modify my eatlier supposition ‘conflict with the psychological pre-disposi about who may or may|not be guilty in some of the matters I will ‘need for him to contend with their resistanc and refinement are finally Book opens on the ny when representatives of Europe in a steamer going down the tranquil, rest el {Congo encounter the denizens of Africs, ‘good service do peopled its banks. sy will tad pisselen tks Ries Conese We were wanderers on a prehist il tae place on the River Congo th ‘wore the aspect of an unknown planet. ied ‘ourselves the first of men taking possession of an accursed in~ heritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and suddenly as we struggled round a bend wondering and an enthusiastic ‘cause we were travelling in the that are gone, leaving hardly upon the shackled form o there you could look at a earthly and the men were. . - thought of their hun smote Kinship with teace of a respons suspicion of the forms of trickery much lies the meaning of Heart of Darkwess and the ty. Generally normal readers Folds over the West thought of their hum: © Having shown us‘An IMaGe oF AFRICA 341 page later, on a specific 18 us one oF his rare descrip: tions of an African who limbs oF rolling eyes: And between whiles I/had to look after the savage who was fireman. He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a ver tical boiler. He was tere below me snd, upon my word, fying as seeing 2 hat walking on his She was savage and superb, wild-eyed an She stood looking at us without a stir and itself, with an air of brooding over an inserutable purpose. beit of @ pre- her place and so win Conrad's special brand of approval and second, she fulfills ‘structural requirement of the story: a savage counterpart to the fined, European woman who months of training had done fer th squinted at the I She came forward all in black with a pale head, floating toward mei ng. She took both my e coming, for sulfer- i fn the attitude of As everbody knows, Conrat is a romantic on the side. He mi ‘oo many direct and not exactly admire savages clapping their hands and stamping feet but they have at least the merit of being in their place, un this dog in a parody of breethes. For Conrad things! keing inthe the utmost imy wunan expression to the one an olding of it from the other. It is clearly not part of Conrad's pur- ose to confer language on the “rudimentary souls” of Africa. In lace of speech they made “a violent babble of uncouth sounds.”” “They “exchanged short grunting phrases” even among themselves. rope leaving its safe stronghold between the baker to take a peep into the heart of darkness. Before the story takes uj into the Congo basin proper we sven this nice litte vignetté as an example of things in thei pl NNow and then a boat {rom the shore gave one a moment contact with reality It as paddled by Black fellows. You co see from afa te of their eyeballs shouted, san ies streamed with perspirat had faces like grotesque masks—these chaps; but they bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movem that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast. T wanted no excuse for Icing there. They were a great com to Took at ‘Towards the end ofthe stqry Conrad lavishes a whole page? q unexpectedly on an African woman who has obviously been sor and now presides (if may be perm mmidable mystery over the inetorable 44 them: “Catch 'im,” he snapped wi and a flash of sharp teeth—“ you, ch?” I asked; “what would you do with them?” “Eat he said curtly. “Mistah Kurtz—he dead.” ‘At first sight these instances migh served them for speech sud Terting the Europe: prsgraphs (fom "Fine fellows to gree Sentence added in 1998,