William Krier

Professor David Stubblefield

English 2120
7 November 2014
Africa towards Balance
The African continent and its European colonization was much a mystery to the rest of
Western civilization during the colonial era. For a while, by virtue of unbalanced power, the only
representation of it was of European perspective; famously Joseph Conrads novella Heart of
Darkness. But when Africa was freed in the postcolonial era of the twentieth century, transfer of
power was evident, and the multi-cultured Chinua Achebe masterfully made sure of it with his
world-renowned novel Things Fall Apart. With the emergence of the African voice in English,
the African perspective of the colonial ordeal reanimated the conversation on the true nature of
their culture. From this sequence, one can see how the presence of an imbalance in power,
whether physical or social, forms inhomogeneous realities, thus sexism, racism, elitism,
prejudice, etc. The following discussion will explain and assess how the misunderstandings on
how to distribute, control, and manifest forms of power criticize the two aforementioned cultures
provided by the works of Conrad and Achebe and how such literary action can transform society.
In both Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart, a form of masculinity prevails in the
plots. Domestic violence, purchased marriages, and vulgar language and be found throughout
Achebes story. For example, the female ochu that Okonkwo, the main protagonist figure,
committed was known as an accidental, careless, clumsy manslaughter. (Damrosch: Achebe
2746) Achebe made sure to criticize such prejudice in his representation of his culture by
including it at a seemingly exaggerated margin. And in the excursions of Conrads story, no

women are present to contribute to the mission. It is said that at that time they live in their own
world away from the darkness and wont get involved, and are used by the men to display their
success and status. (Damrosch: Conrad) Masculine dominance is not uncommon in several
cultures, and can prove to be a cause of undistributed power and a source of disharmony in
society. Yet, interestingly, Achebe includes Igbo anecdotes mentioning how Mother is
Supreme, as well as stating how women see each other as equals, whereas the men quarrel for
power positions. (Damrosch: Achebe 2748) Therefore, the importance here is that feminism
provides nurture and a ground for comfort, while representing the value of equality necessary to
achieve such security; a security the Igbo people dont have because of indecision and a security
the European colonists dont have because of obsession, both causes are conditions of inequality
that will be explained later. Although sexism was one of these said conditions in the literature, it
was by far not the major prejudice involved.
In Heart of Darkness the whites had physical control and power over the Africans, in the
form of slavery, with the goal in mind to civilize these people from what they called savagery.
This got to a point where many argue, including Achebe, the novel displays racism. (Achebe)
The European powers competed to divide up the continent into countries attempting to order the
brutes under monarchs (Damrosch: Conrad). However, unawareness in African culture sent
this system into chaos. As seen in Things Fall Apart, Achebe depicts Africa of many tight,
smaller cultures centered on villages. Plus, Achebe portrays African as respectful between
cultural members, not as brutes. So, it is very well that the Africans were ordering themselves
quite fine before the intrusion. This makes it clear that the European attempt to force social
control introduced internal stresses within the individual African communities. Achebe describes
how the detached members of the society, when converted to Christianity by the missionaries,

conflicted with the ancient value of kin (a value of equality given by women) and ancestry (a
value of wisdom given by men) causing huge distress among the tribal leaders whom themselves
had their own indecisive solutions (Damrosch: Achebe). Next, this brings up the question of how
a control of power is manifested within cultures. The condition of indecisiveness over cultural
maintenance control for the Africans and the condition of control over obsession for progress for
the Europeans will be discussed; each symbolized by a major character in the novels of topic.
There are two characters of great interest concerning power; both may be considered
elitist in their respected cultures. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, a strong warrior leader whose
power is achieved through masculinity, is depicted to have questionable control, or use, of his
status. It takes three instances, violence during festive ceremony, killing of adopted son, and a
female ochu, to finally exile him. He becomes confused with his sadness and doesnt understand
his attacking consciousness, and this mosquito never died. (Damrosch: Achebe) His biological
sons conversion finally set him off to a murder spree of white officers and to his suicide, the
novels symbolism of Umuofias loss of hope to defeat the indecision and distress of tradition
versus new idea; Okonkwo wasnt known for being patient. In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz, the top
agent of the Belgian Company who was idealized upon for his genius and leadership qualities, is
depicted by Conrad to have obsessive power. He takes extra ivory for his personal profit, he gets
the natives to worship him as a god, and he taunts his power via gruesome displays. It was
expressed that he was originally the embodiment of European values, such as progression, yet
became the assault of them once the jungle made him go mad and cant stop himself from
ceasing more power. (Damrosch: Conrad) The manifestations of these characters power
definitely showed to be imbalanced elitism. And as seen, imbalance is the source of the darkness
caused by perspective in which the result is things falling apart. However, like what Achebe did,

the written word, especially in a well-known language, can resonate worldwide to achieve a
better balanced understanding.
The publication of Things Fall Apart put Africa in a spot to regain its independence from
unbalanced perspective. It wasnt a war, revolution, or politics, but literature. From this, African
leaders are beginning to take an understanding of their duty to rectify Africa. And its not just
Africa either, Koreans resonate fondly with what the Africans went through because their
national story involves the invasion of the Japanese. As described, maybe it takes a revolutionary
novel or story to kick start revolutionary politics. (Bacon) Using the same themes described in
the previous discussions one will see how literature can evoke social or political change. When
power is distributed unfairly, like a tyranny or monarch, lifestyle is dictated unfairly. The small
mention of how the Africans fall apart from forced monarch states may bring to attention a
nation of readers seeking equality. Or, the control of power given to the people versus the elites,
like the Africans who wish to convert over the guidance of their tribal elders whom deserve
influence according to traditional culture, may alert a group of readers to take action for
themselves or stay loyal to tradition. In that respect, reading how Umuofia struggled to decide
over tradition or neocolonialism and how the following of the progress obsessed Kurtz portrayed
darkness may cause readers to realize that reality is a life of decisions not self-imposed cultural
or societal prisons. Literature can enlighten one of many realities and can free you of the
imprisonment of a single burdening one. Such realization provides a balance of perspective and
thus a better understanding on how to treat humanity.
Without literary variety there is biased perspective and uncertainty of truth and thus
darkness lurks. Those conditions will cause events similar to what occurs with colonialism:
misunderstanding, racism, slavery, greed, obsession, indecisiveness, elitism, inequality, and the

lists go on. But, was Conrads racism authentic or a form of writing? Conrad used contradictory
metaphors to give a justifying feel to the corruption. For example: a business venture is a moral
crusade, profiting and enslaving, the blank space on the map and darkness. But, Conrad liked to
describe almost everything with darkness. It could be believed this is so because much of Africa
was mysterious to the West and what cannot be understood is blind to the perceiver, and that
perceiver creates his own understanding based on his reality, or his prison. That is a forced, false
balance, something Marlowe, Conrads narrator, tried not to do. He gained his balance naturally
through his observant experience of truthful reality. One thing is for sure: either tend towards
balance or darkness will cause things to fall apart, and it was literature that first put Africa on the
right path to proper social reconstruction.

Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'" Massachusetts
Review. 18. 1977. Rpt. in Heart of Darkness, An Authoritative Text, background and
Sources Criticism. 1961. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough, London: W. W Norton and Co.,
1988, pp.251-261. Web. November 6, 2014
Bacon, Katie. An African Voice. Web. November 6, 2014.
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/interviews/ba2000-08-02.htm
Damrosch, David. "Achebe: Things Fall Apart." Longman anthology of world literature + new
myliteraturelab: compact edition.. S.l.: Longman, 2013. 2692-2781. Print.
Damrosch, David. "Conrad: Heart of Darkness." Longman anthology of world literature + new
myliteraturelab: compact edition.. S.l.: Longman, 2013. 2444-2502. Print.