Racial Stereotypes In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter,” said Achebe. The historians in this proverb were mostly Europeans and Westerners, as they had tools to spread their ideas. While, Africans didn’t have the tools to share their past and ideas, but this all changes with one novel. Chinua Achebe wrote this book to contradict the racist stereotypes Joseph Conrad sets towards Africa, by writing Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe responded with Things Fall Apart to Heart of Darkness by Conrad to portray the real image of his own, Africans, instead of the false images that were being taught all over the world. Conrad had put all Africans into one group and had written through a biased point of view rather than showing Africa for how it really is, or even a non-racist way. Africans were not seen as people in his story, but almost as animals that were able to be …show more content…
This idea caused Achebe to respond to what Conrad was spreading. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe showed Africans through one man who was named Okonkwo. He was Igbo, which was their religion, and showed us the many difficulties and problems which he had to face. Africans here are being portrayed as humans, unlike how they were represented in Conrad’s story. Kurtz was a main character in the Heart of Darkness. He was a trader of ivory and tricked many other Africans into believing he was superior. In Things Fall Apart it contradicts the stereotypes set up in the Heart of Darkness. Although both Conrad and Achebe use techniques throughout their novels to help depict their views on Africa and Africans, Achebe uses ways in his writing to contradict Conrad’s opinion and set a better view of his own