Chinua Achebe Article Response

I want to start off by saying that I understand where my fellow Nigerian, Chinua Achebe, is coming from in his article. Personally I believe that Joseph Conrad misconstrued the strength of African people by writing them out to be weak. I agree that "Heart of Darkness" projects the image of Africa as the other world..." and as an outskirt. Conrad basically separates Africa from the rest of world simply because it was yet to discovered and explored. I get that it is a another continent, however I feel that writing it out as a place of "darkness" is discriminatory and inappropriate. The entire novella is primarily from the perspective of two white men that come from a life style that displays European imperialism; which I think makes them completely unreliable in giving any type of insight on the Congo as a colony and its inhabitants. Africa was only characterized as a place of "darkness" because it was new and came with unheard of trials and tribulations that a white man has never encountered before. Conrad used Marlow's compassion and optimism to draw the reader into believing that white people are somewhat innocent and kind at heart. "Yes we are taking over your home but it is for a purpose; we do not mean to oppress you". That is why Marlow is supposed to represent the heart and positivity in the novella and the darkness resembles Africans. When I think of darkness, I associate it with evil and negativity. And when a person goes to visit Africa for the first time, I can say based off of my trip that it is not a mysterious, evil or dangerous place that one should fear or beware of. Another point that I would like to touch upon is the mockery Joseph Conrad makes of the African dialect. Chinua Achebe writes in his article that the Africans in Heart of Darkness “made a quick violent babble of uncouth sounds” and “exchanged short grunting phrases”. I believe it is fair to say that Conrad wrote Africans out to be illiterate and clearly uneducated. Now I can understand where the lack of education may come from since it is a third world country and in the novella undiscovered land, however from my experience as an African myself, we take a lot of pride in the language we speak whether it be proper English or cultural slang. Making grunting noises and awkward sounds reminds me a of a monkey. So is Conrad saying that the African people he confronted spoke like animals? That to me is considered an insult and a form of arrogance on his part to even write about. Coming from a white European man who is writing about his first time going to Africa, he has more to offer than any African immigrant. White people have money, power, education and dominance whereas immigrants, in fact African immigrants are working from the ground up with no luxury or advantage. Marlow’s observation are not only an example of Conrad’s African experience, but the misinterpretation of Africa’s dignity.