We can each look at this novel from a different angle. I think the vividness was not specific toward Africans. We all know how novelists write to bring out readers' emotions, etc.
Hello Okafor Williams
I agree that this is a very thoughtful book (with detailed descriptions as you say) and many people seem to apply current values (what we consider acceptable now) to a book written in a very different historical time. In this way, people can get offended and maybe we need to look at it in a different way.
Joseph C Lee Current values have nothing to do with it. Conrad simply described what he saw. I have challenged Achebe's fanatics to quote verbatim the phrases in The Heart of Darkness that are derogatory, but for the past three years, none has sent me even a single excerpt from it. Joseph Conrad had seen my forefathers barefoot, trying to stone the Europeans away. My great-great-grandfather passed down the same story of shoes and mirrors having been an invention of the visiting European. How else do we want writers to say it. I think there is a better way we Africans can assert our intelligence than trying to manipulate history. I am a proud African.
In the same breadth, the British Author, James Hadley Chase used to be very popular in West Africa. Even now, if you search James Hadley Chase on Facebook, dozens of very active groups will pop up, created by us Africans and with thousands of African members. The writer is known for using derogatory words on characters from every non-white race in his novel, is ablist, and the word fat is his favourite word. Why do we love his books? Because 1. We enjoy them. 2. Chinua Achebe did not criticise it. We are merely parrots and few of us have even read The Heart of Darkness.
Joseph C Lee Sorry I made a mistake and the initial post was lost, but your answer still makes sense. i do apologise. Maybe I should edit it again.
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