Images of Africa in Joseph Conrad´s 'Heart of Darkness‪'‬

Conrad's famous novel Heart of Darkness has been regarded as a canonical work in the English literature and has been praised as an outstanding short-novel. But the tale has not only received positive reviews. The first scholar who questioned the outstanding position which the novel held in the academic world was the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe with his essay An Image of Africa: Racism in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness'. I my opinion Achebe is right in pointing out that Conrad employs a rhetoric which is supportive of imperial domination and that his novel Heart of Darkness contributes to a stereotyped image of Africa. But I want to disagree with Achebe´s statement that Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist and that we should therefore not plague ourselves with his heart of darkness any more. I also want to show which images of Africa Conrad uses - namely, that he portrays Africa as a dark, underdeveloped, black, ill and mysterious continent.