Comparing G. W. F. Hegel and Joseph Conrad to Chinua Achebe in Relation to Early African Societies

There are two ways to look at early African societies. One way is to look at these societies as functional, historical societies by their practices, beliefs and culture; the other is by their primitive qualities. However, since about the 1500's-1600's, most Europeans looked at these societies in the latter perspective, birthing a longstanding myth of a savage wasteland of hideous human societies of which many beliefs and theories still continue to haunt global society to this day.

No greater source of this horrible, rotten ideology exists beyond the works of G. W. F. Hegel and Joseph Conrad. Although Hegel never visited Africa proper, he lay down a stunning criticism of the continent upon which all future Western readings eventually followed. "For it is no historical part of the World; it has no movement or development to exhibit," he wrote. "What we understand by Africa is the Unhistorical, Undeveloped Spirit still involved in the conditions of mere nature, and which had to be presented here as on the threshold of the World's History."

According to Hegel, "The Negro... exhibits the natural man in his completely wild and untamed state. We must lay aside all thought of reverence and morality - all that we call feeling - if we would rightly comprehend him; there is nothing harmonious with humanity to be found in this type of character.... The undervaluing of humanity among them reaches an incredible degree of intensity. Tyranny is regarded as no wrong, and cannibalism is looked upon as quite customary and proper. Among us instinct deters from it... [b]ut [in] the Negro this is not the case; and the devouring of human flesh is altogether consonant with the general principles of the African race."

Conrad, however, was even worse: in his novel, Heart of Darkness, he wrote of this description of Negro society: "as we struggled around the bend there would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked grass roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of clapping hands, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling, under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. The steamer toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy. The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us--who could tell? We were cut off from comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse."

Even today, the effects of many of these beliefs continue to leave an arborous scar on global society - even in our own country. Examples of such condemnation of blacks throughout global history include the "separate-but-equal' Jim Crow policies from before the civil-rights era within the southern United States, the conditions of poverty affecting hundreds of poor African families, and the hatred and racism still evident today.

However, the savageness of Africa proper is no such thing. Therefore, in an effort to settle the debate for the last time, writer Chinua Achebe set forth to write a nove, entitled Things Fall Apart, based on the true principles of a typical native African tribe, particularly the Igbo village of Umofia. In the process of doing so, Achebe also analyzed the breakdown of social order upon the arrival of Europeans during the era of the savagery belief of the white man toward blacks in Africa.

Drawing inspiration from the W. B. Yeates poem The Second Coming, Achebe set forth a tantalizing story in which the Igbo go from an independent group of villages to the victims of the European settlement of Africa and its corresponding beliefs of savagery and cannibalism within the African landscape. For the first portion of the story, the Igbo live their lives based on their traditional beliefs. However, as we read into parts two and three, things start to grow into a firestorm of denouncements and denials of these beliefs that quickly begins to tear apart the entire traditional order of Igbo society right smack at the roots until everything devolves into pure chaos.

Yet even Achebe cannot deny the prevalence of the myths and beliefs of African savagery. Indeed, as the Europeans invade Igbo society, the appointment of a district commissioner for the citizenry of Umofia only serves to increase the popularization of the beliefs and notions of Europeans at the time of the culture, or supposed lack thereof, of African tribes of the period.

In essence, the D.C.'s role in the latter parts of the novel serves primarily to bring about the conquest of Umofia and the other villages and clans of the Igbo. Based around this conquest is the assumption of savagery as it relates to the culture - or supposed lack thereof - of the Igbo people. By the end of the novel, Igbo culture as it has traditionally been known is no more, and the great consequences of the occurrence weigh heavily on the primary character of the novel as he takes his life out from within.

In summary, while Joseph Conrad and G. W. F. Hegel paint a rather horrific picture of African tribal societies, Chinua Achebe portrays these African societies as early forms of civilized societies with intricate social orders formed according to their own cultural beliefs and customs. Yet although these cultural norms are in no way up to measure by modern standards, they are in no way savage at all. Rather, they were simply misunderstood and misclassified based on popular belief at the time of their conquest. Would you agree with this? Maybe not, but I hope that this is something worth thinking about.

Source materials for this document include:

G. W. F. Hegel. Philosophy of History, the. (New York: Dover, 1956). Originally published in mid-1800s.

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (New York: Dover, 1990). Originally published in 1902.