54:57 Read the excerpt from "An Image of Africa: Racism in
Conrad's Heart of Darkness."
How are the writers' views different in these excerpts?
In my original conception of this essay I had thought to
conclude it nicely on an appropriately positive note which
would suggest from my privileged position in African and
Western cultures some advantages the West might derive
from Africa once it rid its mind of old prejudices and began to
look at Africa not through a haze of distortions and cheap
mystifications but quite simply as a continent of people not
angels, but not rudimentary souls either—just people, often
highly gifted people and often strikingly successful in their
enterprise with life and society.
Read the excerpt from Heart of Darkness.
And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was
fireman. 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 as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of
Conrad presents all Africans as mechanically gifted, while
Achebe does not.
Achebe presents Africans as prejudiced, while Conrad
presents them as unbiased.
Conrad values those who excel, while Achebe values
only everyday people.
Achebe understands Africans as complex people, while
Conrad presents them as caricatures.