Heart of Darkness has long been considered a triumph of 20th-century English-language literature, and its exploration of the darkness within man has long provoked critical scrutiny . But the famous Nigerian author and eminent scholar of African culture, Chinua Achebe, has a decidedly different view. In a 1975 lecture, he denounced Heart of Darkness as an example of pervasive racism, contempt for African culture, and European arrogance and ignorance. He argued that if it was to be taught, it should only be used as an example of the horribly backward views of Joseph Conrad and the period in which it was written. His lecture and subsequent essay sparked an academic uproar with many strongly denouncing Achebe's views. and arguing that, although racist, Heart of Darkness was well ahead of its time and in fact sought to highlight European abuses of power in Africa. Hunt Hawkins is among these scholars, and his counterargument to Achebe represents the much more relativist view of many critics and seeks to place Conrad's novel and his views in the context of his era and its author's life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Achebe's criticism focuses on the portrayal of Africans in Conrad's novel. Their representation is effectively that of subhumans. As he points out, no African character is given a name and only one is described in any detail. They are considered beyond savage, beyond primitive, and not quite human. Achebe highlights Conrad's use of racial slurs, his denunciation of the blackness of Africans, and their apparent lack of humanity. This is important, Achebe argues, because it is often the only representation of Africans that students experience before college and is therefore critical in shaping their early opinions on the subject. Achebe believes that this book and the image it perpetuates are responsible for the idea that Africa has no culture worth studying. He readily admits that Conrad is “one of the greatest stylists of modern fiction,” but Achebe claims that this only adds to the danger. The permanence and quality of the writing of Heart of Darkness is what makes it one of the most ubiquitous novels on high school syllabuses, and this provides him with a platform from which to spread his vision of Africa as "the other world." In Achebe's view, Conrad does not present Africa or the Congo as a nation or a people, nor does he present its inhabitants as fully human: they are simply a nameless, faceless backdrop for the Europeans in the story. This is not simply a representation of the prevailing views of the time in Achebe's mind, but a reflection of Conrad's views and his deep animosity and ignorance towards the African people. Hunt Hawkins presents a radically different view in his counterpoint to Achebe's essay. He admits that Heart of Darkness is inherently racist and makes no attempt to deny that Africans are dehumanized in the story. But Hawkins first argues that the tribes described by Conrad are not the well-established and relatively stable Ibos of Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, but are chaotic, warring tribes, torn apart by European disease, the slave trade, and occupation. Unlike the Ibos of Things Fall Apart, these are a people devastated by colonialism, of which we do not encounter the first hints. Therefore, Hawkins argues that Conrad may have gained a much darker picture of African society from his experiences in the Congo than he would have had he remained elsewhere”..