Hunt Hawkins - Heart of Darkness and Racism

Key Points from the Criticism:

• Chinua Achebe declared Conrad was "a bloody racist"
• Achebe's discussion of Heart of Darkness has fostered the impression that racism is the main, or even the only, issue of importance in Conrad's work. ... It has given new life to Conrad studies while tending to narrow them. 
• On many topics, including race, it offers views that are multiple, ambiguous, ambivalent, conflicting, and perhaps even ultimately incoherent. 
• dehumanizes Africans
• Conrad's narrator often uses frankly derogatory language to describe the Africans
• Achebe observes the Africans are barely present in Heart of Darkness - none of the African characters have a name
• neglect of Africans in the short story was deliberate
• Achebe's Ibo live at approx. same time but more than a thousand miles from Upper Congo dedpicted by Conrad
• "Upper Congo: - tribes from the region, a great deal more disordered and violent tribes than in other parts of Africa 
• evolution of societies
• hypocrisy ideals of "civilizing mission"
• "barbarism per se is no crime"