Is the Colonization of Africa Really that Good of an Idea

A detailed Summary of Is the Colonization of Africa Really that Good of an Idea

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe both involve the colonization on Africa. In Heart of Darkness, the author talks about how savage the natives were and how much there was a need to update the living conditions of the natives and to help them become better people. In Things Fall Apart, the author talks about how the white people came in with their bicycles and their new religion. He talks about how they turned some of their own people against them. In his eyes, the white people came in to destroy the natives beliefs, traditions and gods. They tried to convince the natives that there was only one God and not a group of lesser Gods. Achebe and Conrad do not have the same perception of the effects of colonization on Africa.

In Things Fall Apart, the author views the colonization of the white people as an invasion on the natives' living conditions. When the white people first begin to move into the natives' land the natives thought that it was a joke, but they soon realize that the white people are beginning to take over. Many of the native people begin to join the white people and worship their God, including Okonkwo's son Nwoye. "One morning Okonkwo's cousin, Amikwu, was passing by the

On the other hand, In Heart of Darkness, the author feels that the colonization of the white man will help the natives become better people and provide them with better living conditions. One of the things they were against was how the natives were like animals. He talks about how they were like dogs on hind legs. " He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind legs." (Conrad 61) Conrad is talking about the fireman Marlow had on his boat and how he was a improved specimen but people still see them as animals, like dogs, just standing on their hind legs. Conrad's opinion is that with the colonization of Africa, this will change the way the natives are looked at. They will finally be looked at as improved specimen.

Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart, Doubleday, 1959

Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Doubleday and J.M Dent & Sons Ltd., 1902

Achebe sees the colonization of the white man as wrong and disrespectful of the natives. One of the things the white people begin to do is arrest those natives who go against their religion and this is beginning to cause problems in the villages. "They guarded the prison, which was full of men who had offended against the white man's law. Some of these prisoners had thrown away their twins and some had molested the Christians." (Achebe 174-175) At first what seemed to be a joke in Umofia when the white people arrived has now caused many problems, the natives are being arrested for traditions like throwing away twins, which has been a tradition for a long time in their

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Approximate Word count = 1140
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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