1. Aboutaha Abir 1
Representation of the “Other”: A Comparative Study between Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
In this paper, I examine the representation of the “Other” as portrayed in two
selected novels: Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Achebe’s Thing Fall Apart. The essay
will attempt to inspect how the “Other” is viewed in Nineteenth Century Europe and the
cultural ideology behind such representation. Then, the study will focus on Achebe’s novel
Things Fall Apart and how he writes back to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in an attempt to
correct and discredit these distorted images surrounding the indigenous societies of Africa.
In my analysis, I will adopt “the interdisciplinary approach”, which enables the researcher
to bring as many perspectives as possible to colonial and postcolonial issues in relation to
representation and resistance.
I will examine and explore the meaning of representation and its enormous power
of construction of social reality if it is allied with political and imperial conquests. For that
reason, we have to put into our account the historical and theoretical relations between
Western economic – political domination and Western intellectual production. A case
which I will examine in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart and their tendency of representation of the indigenous native. My objective is to
show how the other is negatively represented and how such representation usually involves
unequal power relations. Then, I will deal with Achebe’s narrative for its authentic
representation of an early African indigenous culture that repudiates imperialist ideology.
Representation and resistance are very broad arenas within which much of drama of
colonialist relations and postcolonial examination and subversion of those relations has

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taken place. Helen Tiffin argues that “in conquest and colonization, texts and textuality
played a major part. European texts, anthropologies, histories, fiction, captured the non
European subject within European frameworks which read his or her alterity as terror or
lack” (Ashcroft, Griffith, and Tiffin 83). It is important to note that meanings are
constructed in and through systems of representation and they are mediated through
dominant hegemonic discourses which can reproduce unequal social relations.
Representation is a vital part of process by which meaning is produced and exchanged
between members of a culture. It also produces cultural values and constructs identity.
According to Hall: “Representation is the production of the meaning of the concepts in our
minds through language. It is the link between concepts and language which enables us to
refer to either the ‘real’ world of objects or imaginary world of fictional objects, people and
events” (Hall 19). Hence, representation produces and circulates cultural meanings, values
and identities through the use of language. It is important to highlight that meaning is not
static but is socially constructed and can change depending on the context in which people
of a particular culture construct it. We construct the meaning through the ways in which we
represent “things” which in turn creates cultural codes, values and identity. Hall argues that
“meanings regulate our conduct and practices as they help set up the rules and conventions
by which social life is ordered” (Hall 4). We come to know that representation is a form of
discourse and it involves social conventions and unequal power relationships and that some
people have more power to speak than others.
Theorists of postcolonial studies examine various forms of representation: visual
and textual in relation to race, ethnicity, nationality, gender and others. Thus, representation
includes various aspects of social, political and religious phenomena. These

3. Aboutaha Abir 3
representations, to some extent, are thought to be realistic. Nevertheless, Edward Said, in
his book Orientalism, argues that representation can never be realistic. Representations are
fabricated mythical stereotypical images (Said 21). Further, Said observes that
contemporary Western views of the orient as an outsider and an inferior part of the West
are manifested in the academic sphere. Western scholars use oriental images and ideologies
to consolidate the intellectual awkwardness of the “Other”. In other words, these views of
the Orient are attempts to portray the superiority and intellectuality of the Western status
(Said 7).
It is worthy mentioning that in society, cultural practices as television and press are
important dimensions of the social, political, and economic organizations. “It should not be
possible to read nineteenth – century British literature without remembering that
imperialism, understood as England’s social mission, was a crucial part of the cultural
representation of England to the English” (Lewis and Mills 306). These cultural practices
represent society’s dominant ideology which becomes a standard upon which other forms
of social relation and productions are interpreted. For Edward Said, the question is not to
represent cultures but how to represent other cultures. “ ‘Other’ the key word, evoking not
only the extremely complex category of the alterity but the position from which this word
‘Other’ is uttered” (qtd. in Prendergast 87). Hence, I find that Said tries to find an answer
for such important question, which is how we can represent a culture that is not “ours”
from within a culture that is ours. Said adds further that in order to present other culture,
one has to pass through a social space of interpretation on the grounds that the diverse
cultures of the world are autonomous and self- contained conceptual entities that can
therefore be understood only from the inside (qtd. in Prendergast 88). Hence, anything that

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is said about another culture from inside is a violation of its conceptual autonomy. Said
tries to show how the Orient is portrayed as an inferior and barbaric civilization by the
West through a series of negative misrepresentations and the mission of the West to redeem
it and bring enlightenment to its darkness by salvation and through physical conquest. It
seems that the Orient remains the object of hypostasizing gaze of the West which defines
the field representation promoted in the name of science. Said highlights the dangerous
power of literature in imperial conquest an active force in the social construction of reality
and representation.
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is part of a colonial discourse in which the African is
represented by the European as savage, exotic, cannibal, primitive and so on. Heart of
Darkness shows the superiority of whites over blacks in a context where the blacks are
considered to be irrational and whites are supposed to be civilized. Conrad views the “Dark
continent” through Marlow’s train of thought. The novella portrays the image of Africa as
the “Other” world. The “Other” which is inferior, savage and barbarous. Africans are
represented as silent and with no “other occupations besides merging into the evil forest or
materializing out of it” (Tredell 82). The colonizers are too harsh on Africa. They claim
that black people have no culture, no civilization and no religion. Additionally, the blacks
in Heart of Darkness have no personal traits or uniqueness, and there is no humanity in
their culture. Their appearance is never described as the only thing Marlow says about them
is that they are “black shapes”.
The most revealing passage in Heart of Darkness is however about the
representation of black cannibals. The best part of Marlow’s crew consists of cannibals
who assist him in his mission: “I don’t pretend to say that steam boat floated all the time.

5. Aboutaha Abir 5
More than once she had to wade for a bit, with twenty cannibals splashing around and
pushing. We had enlisted some of these chaps on the way for a crew. Fine fellows-
cannibals- in their place” (Conrad 96). The question is how does Marlow know that these
people are human – eaters in reality? Definitely, he does not see them practicing
cannibalism as “they did not eat each other before [his] face” (96). Marlow does not come
across even a single instance of cannibalism. And when these “cannibals” are very hungry,
he wonders why they do not attack the whole crew: “I might be eaten by them before long”
(105). Marlow interprets their gestures and murmurs as sings of their cannibalistic
intensions. Yet, this interpretation is not taken for granted, because it is interwoven with
distorted portraitures, which are misrepresentations of European travelers and colonists.
The African natives and the river Congo are represented in the novella as
projection of the European self, as a forgotten, prehistoric past, out of which the European
man and civilization have emerged. As the narrative voice says:
We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect
of an unknown planet. We could have fancied ourselves the first of men
taken position of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of
profound anguish and of excessive toil. But suddenly as we struggled round
a bend their would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked grass-roofs, a burst
of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping,
of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling under the droop of heavy and motionless
foliage(97).
Marlow is continually forced to interpret the surrounding world. The description of
his journey upriver is strange and disturbing. Marlow describes the trip as a journey back in

6. Aboutaha Abir 6
time, to a “prehistoric earth.” This remark reflects the European inclination to view
colonized peoples as primitive, further back on the evolutionary scale than Europeans, and
it recalls Marlow’s comment at the beginning of his narrative about England’s own past .
Apparently, Marlow’s depiction of his journey consolidate many colonial assumptions.
The black here is negatively depicted as a physical animal and as naked human body
without intellect. Its inhabitants become a “living part of the jungle” (71). “Black shapes
crouched, lay sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, have
coming out, have effected with the dim light, in all the attitude of pain, abandonment, and
despair” (71). In this context, the African native is seen through a European perspective.
The civilized European has the power to represent, to be himself, speak about the silent
native. Hence, he has the authority to incorporate these representations into a colonial
discourse, which in turn shapes the European more superior than the African as the later
has not emerged yet from prehistory. At the same time, the primitive native symbolizes a
past phase of the historical evolution of Western civilization and in a sense he can be seen
as living evidence of the process of this evolution.
On the other hand, women are negatively represented in Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness as they regarded to be less than males. Marlow’s view of women embodies the
typical nineteenth century view of women as the inferior sex. There are only three minor
female characters in the novel: Marlow’s aunt, Kurtz’s mistress, and Kurtz’s “Intended.”
The two other female characters are mentioned later in the novel, after Marlow has arrived
at the inner station. Kurtz’s mistress and the “Intended” have two sets of characteristics.
The Whites would see the “Intended” as feminine, saintly and rightly in a state of mourning
even a year after Kurtz’s death. The “Intended” here refers to civilization and

7. Aboutaha Abir 7
enlightenment. But the mistress would show as savage, careless and masculine. So, the
African women symbolize the savage reality of Africa. Apparently, these portrayals reveal
the colonist, Eurocentric and patriarchal ideology of Conrad’s society.
Such negative representation is contrasted sharply with positive representation of
Europe. It is mentioned that Whites as the civilized, are the pioneers who spread education
among the Blacks. As Willene Taylor points out: “These European writers believed that
colonialism was an agent of enlightenment to primitive peoples without a valid system or
civilization of their own” (Taylor 28). Conrad’s society sees the White colonizers as the
“white emissaries of light” in spreading civilization among illiterate blacks. However, in
reality, they try to keep them under their control. The means of economic production, social
status, and political power all are under the control of the so-called light possessed Whites.
We can notice clearly that the relationship between Africa and Europe is both contrasting
and unequal. If the West is considered the place of historical progress and scientific
enlightenment, then the Orient is considered remote from the influence of historical
change. The Orient is represented as a timeless place, static and trapped in antiquity.
According to Said’s argument in his influential book Orientalism, the Westerner’s views of
the Orient do not depend on what existed in the Orient but on dreams and fantasies of the
West based on an institutional framework. Thus, within the institutional structure,
knowledge about the Orient is circulated. A series of images concerning the exotic East are
fabricated and become an object suitable for study in the academy, for display in the
museum, for theoretical illustration in anthropological, biological, linguistic and racial and
historical theses about mankind and the universe (Said 7). Westerns have grassed their
knowledge of the East in a variety of systems. They have justified the occupation of the

8. Aboutaha Abir 8
Western colonial rule of Eastern lands because they assumed them the site of knowledge
and power. Such power is intimately connected with the construction of knowledge about
the Orient. As Said points out: “knowledge gives power more power requires more
knowledge and so on in an increasingly profitable dialectic of information and control”
(Said 36).
In the light of the above mentioned colonial assumptions. The colonized writers are
“writing back”; they advocate representations either of the oppression and racism of the
colonizer or the inherent culture of the indigenous people. Resistance literature has
emerged and succumbed to the language of the empire to disrepute its dominant ideologies
and refute further subjugation. Helen Tiffin mentions this idea obviously in her essay
“Post-Colonial Literature and counter – discourse”: “ Post –colonial literature and culture
are thus constituted in counter – discursive rather than homologous practices and they offer
‘fields’ of counter – discursive rather than homologous discourse” ( Ashcroft, Griffith, and
Tiffin 96). Thus, the counter – discourse fails to recognize its ground either by existing to
react against the colonizer’s representations or to resist their dominant ideology.
The concept of representing the other is incapable of existing without its
“dialectical relationship” with its basic points. As Tiffin points out: “Post –colonial cultures
are inevitable hybridized, involving a dialectical relationship between European ontology
and epistemology and the impulse to create independent local identity” (Ashcroft, Griffith,
and Tiffin 95). Tiffin’s idea is a reflection of fixing relationship between Europe and its
“other”. Her idea involves a compromise between complete separation from the empire and
the complete dependence upon the empire for its existence. Similarly, in his book
Orientalism Edward Said asserts that the concept post-colonialism needs a dynamic

9. Aboutaha Abir 9
relationship between the colonized and the colonizer since “the orient is an integral part of
European material civilization” (Said 2). For Said, this relation may impose an intellectual
domination or the so-called assimilation of indigenous people.
Consistency, the Anglophone Africans have asserted the propensity of giving
their identity back. Some African writers think that the black person has been looking for
his identity and history; a history that has been smeared by Europe’s colonialization of
other nations including the Africans. As a result, African postcolonial narratives have
emerged to resist the inaccurate and demeaning picture of the African people. Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, as a postcolonial text, defends the African heritage and
corrects the distorted images of the past, which was epitomized by many Western writers
such as Joseph Conrad. Things Fall Apart reflects the mood of representations including
the social and political aspects of Ibo society before and after the coming of the White man.
In Representations of The Intellectual, Edward Said argues that the intellectual is an
individual endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message, a
view, an attitude, philosophy or opinion to, as well as for a public (Said 9-10). Chinua
Achebe, as a native intellectual, has the faculty of articulating representations of social
reality through his profoundly influential writings. He creates a complex and sympathetic
portrait of a traditional village culture in Africa mainly the Ibo society. He attempts to
inform his readers from the outside world about the Ibo culture, as well as reminds his
people of their valuable past. He proves that his society is not lacking in value; but it has an
identity of great depth and respect. In his essay, “The Novelist as a Teacher”, Achebe
writes: “I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no

10. Aboutaha Abir 10
more than teach my readers that their past – with all its imperfections – was not one long
night of savagery” (Achebe 30).
On the one hand, Achebe writes his narrative to redeem the Igbo, and ultimately the
Africans from the dark image of colonial assumptions. Achebe takes us back to the past to
show that Igbo “was not one long night of savagery”(30) , but it is a heroic past dominated
by strong characters like Okonkwo. Okonkwo, a proud and industrious figure, emerges
from poverty to eminence by strength, determination and commitment to social values. The
society which produces Okonkwo is a source of pride and worthy of emulation. This past,
however harmonious and balanced, is not perfect, and by pointing out its imperfections and
suggesting better alternatives, Achebe performs his role in society. As he argues in “The
Role of the Writer in a New Nation”: “The past needs to be recreated not only for the
enlightenment of our detractors but even more for own education” (Killam 9).
On the other hand, the novel is a response to the misrepresentations of Africans in
Western literature including among others, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness which represents
the image of Africa as “Other world”. Conrad’s grotesque caricature portrays life in the
African bush as lawless and primitive. Africans are depicted as “strings of dusty niggers”
(24). As a result, Achebe vehemently rebels against these misrepresentations in Things Fall
Apart by presenting life as civilized and stable, not primitive and chaotic. Then, with the
advent of the White man, things fall apart. As Bernth Lindfors puts it: “The White men, in
other words, where not bringers of light to a dark continent, as was popularly supposed,
and their civilization mission did not result in peace, order and harmony” ( Lindfors 23).
Achebe’s affirmative consciousness towards the self assertion of the Africans
enables him to correct such representations. He offers his readers an “Afrocentric”

11. Aboutaha Abir 11
representations rather than a “Eurocentric” perspective. Achebe’s use of the African
language forces the readers to find out some aspects of the culture of Africa. Achebe shows
us that Umuofia tribe has specific rituals and charms represented by the features of
ceremonies such as singing, dancing, drumming and scarifying. Additionally, Achebe
attempts to locate an accurate picture of the African culture within the framework of the
world culture. Achebe uses proverbial sayings to explain his culture: “As the elders said, if
a child washed his hands he could eat with kings” (Achebe 6). This proverb illustrates
tribal recognition that through strenuous hard work even a person like Okonkwo can
challenge his father’s ill reputation to make himself “one of the greatest men of his time”
(12).
A significant number of critics of this novel agree that Achebe attempts to correct
the distorted image of Africa. On the one hand, he wants to counter the heterotopic
representation of the African in the colonial text by making Umuofia an epistemological
presence (Gikandi 3). On the other hand, Achebe’s narrative does not seek to represent the
African space as a Utopian counter to European heterotopias (3). I would argue that
Achebe endeavors to create two contrastive images of Umuofia: the village that is shown to
have the old traditional method of life; and the place that is torn by the negation of the
white oppressors to the cultural inheritance. This self negation leads to the triumph of the
colonizers at the end of the novel.
According to Michel Foucault, heterotopias are the real spaces in which the central
meaning of culture is simultaneously represented, contested and inverted (Foucault 23).
Umuofia is “goldenly” presented as a proud and stable society in which law and order are
preserved by a complex system of customs and traditions and covering birth, marriage and

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death. In this society, a man could begin his life as a pauper and rise to become one of the
distinguished men of the clan. A man’s prestige depends on the number of yams in his
barn, the number of wives and children he has, and the number of titles he has taken.
In an objective manner, Achebe presents the past as admirable pointing out its good
as well as its bad sides. As Diana Rhoads points out: “He does so both because he holds his
own art to a standard of truth and because he sees that the history he is trying to recreate to
give his people dignity will be credible only if it includes faults” (Rhoads 68). Achebe is
always persistent to show the flaws of Umuofia. He shows that his society is too inflexible
and incapable of adapting with the new regime. Okonkwo is incapable of adaptation due to
his objectivity towards his traditional society. This lack of adaptation increases the quality
of his bad situation. In a conversation with South African writer Lewis Nkosi some years
after writing Thing Fall Apart, Achebe says: “I think the weakness of this particular society
is a lack of adaptation, not being able to bend [. . .] I think in Okonkwo’s time, the strong
men were those who did not bend and I think was a fault of the culture itself” (qtd. in
Turkington 55).
Nevertheless, the complexity of the situation shows us that Umuofia is impotent to
take any positive step in confronting the white colonizers. Therefore, the Igbo village of
Umuofia falls apart and its culture collapses due to two reasons. First: it is the spirituality
of the village which paves the way to the arrival of the Christian mission. Second: the
mission launches its task as a channel to allow a new regime to infiltrate Umuofia and
obliterate the identity of Igbo culture in the bottom of oblivion. Christian missionaries are a
gateway for the intrusion of religious doctrine and then foreign domination. Consequently,
these two perspectives are rendered into problematic to the weakness of Igbo inhabitants.

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The credibility of the new religion where Christianity provides answers to questions people
are seeking. The Igbo religion appears to be false and the new religion is the sound option.
This attitude is obvious in Nwoye’s rejection of both his father and the traditional religion,
as he is so grief – stricken by the murder of Ikemefuna. The nobility of Christianity attracts
Nwoye so he converts to it (147). His conversion is crucial because his clan is totally split,
and subsequently is crippled. As Diana Rhoald points out in “ Culture in Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart”: “Nwoye, the gentle son who can not accept Okonkwo’s harshness and
especially his killing of Ikemefuna, finds in the poetry of Christianity the promise of
brotherhood”(69). Nwoye and other converted natives keep in their minds that their society
would not stay static due to the fast growth of the world. For them, it is important that the
boundaries of various cultures will sooner or later overlap. To avoid the loss of Umuofia’s
community, the inhabitants could seek a compromised co-existence between the Christian
mission and the clansmen.
Differently, Okonkwo, the embodiment of national resistance, highlights a stream
of violent actions against the intrusion of the white colonizers. For him, cherishing the
inherent cultural traditions is insufficient; therefore, he becomes involved in the “fighting
phase” against the oppression of the settlers. In this respect, Fanon writes: “At the level of
individuals, violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex
and from his despair and in action, it makes him fearless and restores himself respect”
(Fanon 74).
Throughout the novel, Okonkwo constructs his national consciousness which makes
him acting violently against colonization. Okonkwo finds himself totally torn between
taking effective steps towards preserving his identity or weakly submitting to the

14. Aboutaha Abir 14
superiority of the white colonizers. His obsessive self assertion makes him lose his violent
temper. Okonkwo’s violent action is obvious when he madly kills the head messenger who
comes to Umuofia to break up a town meeting. This head messenger is about to utter short
sentences, before Okonkwo assassinates him (204-5). Therefore, the clan fails to support
him. For Okonkwo, the inability of the clan to understand his violent action is much worse
than his rejection. Consequently, this situation brings about the ultimate suffering and
misfortune to Okonkwo. His ultimate despair leads to his final abomination as he reaches to
a point of no return.
I would argue that Okonkwo’s individual assertive actions are a reflection of the
over- resistance against any pacification. His individual character is peculiar to the majority
of his tribe as the tribe is determined to reconcile the matter rather than taking resistant
steps. Okonkwo’s words to his friend Obiereka mark the climax of the novel. He says: “I
don’t care what he does to you. I despise him and those who listen to him. I shall fight
alone if I choose” (176). In this context, I would say that individual resistance is not the
sound solution. The basic ground of Umuofia’s society has not reached the level of native
authenticity to resist any intruder. In his book Philosophical and Political Essays, Mourad
Wahba argues that African intellectuals attempt to define authenticity as the ability to
preserve one’s traditional identity intact against any rational questioning or critical
reasoning. Moreover, they argue that authenticity derives from the native’s ability to
protect the national culture against any intruder of neo-colonialism (Wahba 130).
As a result, Okonkwo’s individual resistance fails to achieve an adequate ground for
protecting his native authenticity. Okonkwo embraces authenticity, though his clansmen
are submissive to get rid of the old tradition. Umuofia’s inhabitants lack the courage to

15. Aboutaha Abir 15
resist after witnessing the rigidity and the harshness of their clans’ members. What
Okonkwo could not understand is the nature of the old ways which can not meet the
challenges of the new. In this regard, Fanon’s idea concerning violence has proved to be
odd because the inhabitants accept the fact that they are a hopeless case, and if they rebel,
their situation will get worse. Hence, finding a peaceful coexistence is the right solution.
Obviously, Achebe provides his readers with doubleness of images in which he
represents and misrepresents the protagonist of the novel. He actually draws closer to
Said’s idea that no true representation is possible due to the distortion of facts by human
communication. Okonkwo defames himself and breaks the taboo of his own community by
his cold blood killing and committing suicide. As the narrative voice explains: “ It is an
abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth, and a man
who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen. His body is evil, and only strangers
may touch it” (207).
To recapitulate, my argument is that representation plays a decisive role in
constructing meanings and identities about others and there is also a tenacious relationship
or a strong alliance between knowledge and power which has destructive consequences on
the representation of the other. We find that Africa is represented negatively in Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness. One comes to conclude that the real reason behind a continuous
negative representation is the desire to rule and colonize others under the umbrella of
enlightenment. However, Achebe shows through his novel Things Fall Apart that Africa is
a civilized place which holds natives with a very complex belief system. Achebe shows
what brings about the confusion and chaos amongst the natives is the breaking down of
their beliefs by the colonizers. It is a representation that the colonizers are blind to what is

16. Aboutaha Abir 16
really going on and through this blindness, postcolonial literature has emerged. By
portraying the indigenous culture in post-colonial writings, Achebe attempts to discredit the
blind truths of Africa presented in colonial discourse such as Heart of Darkness.
Additionally, we tend to think that where there is a representation, there is also
misrepresentation at the same time since we represent things and objects according to
certain concepts in our mind influenced by race, ethnic group we belong to, religion and
other factors. We come to conclude that the most dangerous type of representation is the
constructionist representation when we construct realities and misrepresent them in order to
serve one’s political agenda.

17. Aboutaha Abir 17
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18. Aboutaha Abir 18
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