Abir Aboutaha

Aboutaha Abir 1

Representation of the Other: A Comparative Study between Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart

In this paper, I examine the representation of the Other as portrayed in two selected novels: Conrads Heart of Darkness and Achebes 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 Achebes novel Things Fall Apart and how he writes back to Conrads 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 Conrads Heart of Darkness and Achebes 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 Achebes 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 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 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 Englands social mission, was a crucial part of the cultural representation of England to the English (Lewis and Mills 306). These cultural practices represent societys 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 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.

Conrads 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 Marlows 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 Marlows crew consists of cannibals who assist him in his mission: I dont pretend to say that steam boat floated all the time. 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 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 Marlows comment at the beginning of his narrative about Englands own past . Apparently, Marlows 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 Conrads Heart of Darkness as they regarded to be less than males. Marlows 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: Marlows aunt, Kurtzs mistress, and Kurtzs Intended. The two other female characters are mentioned later in the novel, after Marlow has arrived at the inner station. Kurtzs 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 Kurtzs death. The Intended here refers to civilization and 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 Conrads 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). Conrads 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 Saids argument in his influential book Orientalism, the Westerners 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 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 colonizers 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). Tiffins 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 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 Europes 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 Achebes 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 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, Conrads Heart of Darkness which represents the image of Africa as Other world. Conrads 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).Achebes affirmative consciousness towards the self assertion of the Africans enables him to correct such representations. He offers his readers an Afrocentric representations rather than a Eurocentric perspective. Achebes 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 fathers 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, Achebes 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 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 mans 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 Okonkwos 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. 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 Nwoyes 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 Achebes Things Fall Apart: Nwoye, the gentle son who can not accept Okonkwos 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 Umuofias 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 superiority of the white colonizers. His obsessive self assertion makes him lose his violent temper. Okonkwos 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 Okonkwos 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. Okonkwos words to his friend Obiereka mark the climax of the novel. He says: I dont 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 Umuofias 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 ones traditional identity intact against any rational questioning or critical reasoning. Moreover, they argue that authenticity derives from the natives ability to protect the national culture against any intruder of neo-colonialism (Wahba 130).

As a result, Okonkwos 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. Umuofias inhabitants lack the courage to 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, Fanons 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 Saids 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 Conrads 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 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 ones political agenda. Work CitedAchebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Doubleday, 1959.__________Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays. New York: Doubleday, 1988. Print.Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, eds. The Post Colonial Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 1995. Print.Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer. New York: Signet Classics, 1950. Print.Cook, David. African Literature: A Critical View. London: Longman Group Ltd., 1977. Print.Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Mask. New York: Grove Press, 1967. Print.Foucoult, Michel. In Other Spaces. Trans. Jay Miskowiec. Diacritics 16 spring, 1986. Print.Gikandi, Simon. Chinua Achebe and the Poetics of Location: The Uses of Space in Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease in Essays on African Writing: A Revolution. Ed. Abdulrazak Gurnah. London: Heinemann, 1993. Print.Hall, Stuart. Cultural Representations and signifying practices. London: Sage Publications, 1997. Print.Kate, Turkington. A Guide to Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart. South Africa: Hodder and Stoughton Educational, 1982. Print.Killam, G. D. The Writings of Chinua Achebe. London: Heinemann, 1969. Print.Lindfors, Bernth. African Textualities: Texts, Pre Texts and Contexts of African Literature. Trenton, NJ: African World Press, 1997. Print.Lewis, Reina and Sara Mills. Eds. Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.Prendergast, Christopher. The Triangle of Representation. New York: Columbia UP, 2000. Print.Rhoads, Diana Akers. Culture in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart. African Studies Review, Vol.36. No.2 (Sept., 1993): 67-68. JSTOR. Web. 27 Oct. 2010Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1978. Print.___________Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.___________Representations of The Intellectual. London: Vintage, 1994. Print.Taylor, Willene. The Search for Values Theme in Chinua Achebes Novel, Things Fall Apart. Understanding Things Fall Apart: Selected Essays and Criticism. Ed. Solomon Iyasere. New York: Whitson, 1998.Tredell, Nicolas, ed. Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness: Essays, Articles, Reviews. New York: Icon Books Ltd., 1998.Wahba, Mourad. Philosophical and Political Essays. Cairo: Anglo- Egyptian Bookshops, 1986. Print.