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Chinua Achebe in his essay on Heart of Darkness describes Joseph Conrad as a racist in how he characterizes the native Africans in the novel. Do you agree or disagree with this sentiment? Why or why not? In Chinua Achebe’s essay, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” Achebe contends that Joseph Conrad’s portrayal of Africa, and the African people, in his book Heart of Darkness, is that of a racist. However, the points Achebe makes are weak, and he is wrong in his argument that Conrad was a racist. Conrad did not portray Africa and its people in a negative light. He only intended to portray it for what it was, a resource-rich area, ripped apart by European colonialism. Therefore, his portrayal of Africans was not racist, but accurate. One of the first points that Achebe makes about Heart of Darkness is that “it projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality.” However, Achebe fails to point out that Africa WAS another world to these Europeans, just as Europe would have been another world to Africans. Africa was so rich in re