Question

Read the excerpt from "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” Achebe directly quotes Conrad’s descriptions of a Congolese woman and a European woman, respectively.

Towards the end of the story Conrad lavishes a whole page quite unexpectedly on an African woman who has obviously been some kind of mistress to Mr. Kurtz and now presides (if I may be permitted a little liberty) like a formidable mystery over the inexorable imminence of his departure:

She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent. . . . She stood looking at us without a stir and like the wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose. . . .

She came forward all in black with a pale head, floating toward me in the dusk. She was in mourning . . . She took both my hands in hers and murmured, "I had heard you were coming.". . . She had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering.

How does Achebe support his claim that Heart of Darkness contains racist elements?

He focuses on Conrad’s use of the word black.
He highlights Conrad’s contrasting descriptions.
He offers a personal opinion before the passages.
He points out that Conrad uses a simile only in the first section.

Answer 1

He highlights Conrad’s contrasting descriptions.

Achebe places the two quoted passages side-by-side to show how Conrad depicts the African woman as "savage" and part of the "wilderness," while the European woman is mournful, "mature" and humanized—arguing that this contrast reveals racist characterization.