Achebe on Conrad

[jbor]

http://www.thenation.com/issue/000710/0710north.shtml

"Achebe [...] does not deny Conrad's "great talents," evidenced even in
*Heart of Darkness* itself. But he vigorously criticizes using

   Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human
   factor. Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable
   humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril. Can
   nobody see the preposterous and perverse arrogance in thus reducing
   Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty European mind?
   But that is not even the point. The real question is the dehumanization
   of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and
   continues to foster in the world. And the question is whether a novel
   which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of
   the human race, can be called a great work of art. My answer is: No, it
   cannot."

There is perhaps more subtlety to Conrad's vision of Africa in *Heart of
Darkness* than Achebe allows, but it's still refreshing to see criticism
expressed directly and honestly like this without smugness or spite, and by
someone such as Achebe who actually has had worthwhile contributions to
make.

best

----------
>From: "Otto Sell" <o.sell at telda.net>
>
> Great post, Doug
>
> just this:
>
> "They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was
> just robbery with violence, aggrevated murder on a great scale, and men
> going at it blind - as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The
> conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who
> have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not
> a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea
> only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and
> an unselfish belief in the idea - something you can set up, and bow down
> before, and offer a sacrifice to . . ."
> (Josef Conrad: Heart of Darkness)
>
> Are there Dutch or Belgian p-listers who remember Jef Geeraerts "Black
> Venus" - just to mention a negative example of colonial and post-colonial
> writing.
>
> Otto