[Book Review] “Heart of Darkness” and “Things Fall Apart”: A Comparison
By Shaista Batool
Chinua Achebe is one of the prominent writers of Africa who aimed at telling the other side of the ‘Heart of darkness’, a controversial book.
Achebe had himself confessed that the narrative in “Things fall Apart” aimed at responding to the offensive representation of his people and region. In his work, Achebe tattered the colonial lens which had long reigned over the world.
In the essay entitled “Named for Victoria, Queen of England,” he declares that this novel is a ritual return and a homage to his region; Africa.
Simon Gikandi believed that ‘Things Fall Apart’ serves as a counterpoint to the representations of African life portrayed by the British writers. As Conrad’s novel represented African people as less than humans, with neither proper and admirable dialogues, nor description and imagery. He aimed at considering the British rule as a heroic act to educate and bring about better qualities to those people. Conrad’s position holds British culture and people as superior to that of Africans.
Achebe, however, tried not to respond to this narrative by simply projecting the positive aspects of African region. Instead, he portrayed Africa the way it was. His aim was not to compare African region to that of its colonizers. Rather, he wanted to portray that his region has a specific culture that has no comparison with the White culture. Cultures cannot and should not be compared or given positions. He rejected this competition and stressed that ‘Africans are people in the same way that Americans, Europeans, Asians, and others are people…. Although the action of Things Fall Apart takes place in a setting with which most Americans are unfamiliar, the characters are normal people and their events are real human events. The necessity even to say this is part of a burden imposed on us by the customary denigration of Africa in the popular imagination of the West. (Lindfors 1991, 21, quoted in Rhoads 61).’
Thus, he portrayed the reality that every region is distinct, with different beliefs and philosophies. He wanted to reveal that having a different culture and different values does not posits someone as lower to the other. His book imposes the confidence that culture can have right and wrong beliefs in it but that does not make his region inferior and his people less human. Achebe’s purpose was not to present his culture as civilized as British or better than that, neither he wanted to portray his culture as the best. He only wanted to emphasize his different culture, tradition, and people and wanted the world to respect them the way they are by presenting a true picture of his region.
As Conrad writes in ‘Heart of Darkness’, “Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.” This notion, actually, represented how only due to economic dominance Britain was able to get an upper hand on every aspect of African region, even in their characteristic of being human. Conrad allowed no rational or educated dialogues to the native Africans. Their voices were ‘disgruntled groans’ coming from the ‘unhappy savages’. Achebe describes the importance of conversation in African nation as “Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.” This aspect was neglected in Conrad’s version of Africa, while Marlow, a white man, the voice of civilization and superiority was given all the right to perceive the African nation through his own racist canon.
Achebe, on the other hand, gave equal voice to both the African nation and the missionaries. He gave a holistic view of the transition of the colonized African nations, while Conrad only manufactured xenophobia in the world through his approach.
African narrative is still being suppressed and misrepresented in many other ways and it is still screaming in a number of ways, as if foretelling George Floyd’s last words, ‘Please! I can’t Breathe’.
It appears that White man’s burden, then, was to educate them, and the white man’s burden now is to tolerate their existence and let them breathe.
Chinua Achebe voiced the true African narrative in the world of Conrad’s biased ‘heart of Darkness’. This description become successful in its true spirit only because it was a neutral picture of Africa and not a romanticized or idealized version. Although this region has acquired freedom long ago and tried to make its existence less offensive and more acceptable, but Conrad’s theory of ‘The horror! The horror!’ is so deeply rooted within the world narrative that even in 21st century humanity has to be constantly reminded that #Blacklivesmatter.
Shaista Batool is currently pursuing bachelors in English Literature. She is an avid reader. Reach out to her at: shaistabatool11@gmail.com
Works Cited:
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Lahore, Famous classics, 2009.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Lahore, Readings classics, 2013.
Gikandi, Simon. “Chinua Achebe and the Invention of African Culture” Research in
African Literatures, Vol.32, No.3, Autumn, 2001, pp. 3-8.
