Waiting for the Barbarians and Achebe

Achebe claims that Conrad in his novel Heart of Darkness describes Africa as “a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality.” In the novel Conrad describes the people through animalistic characteristics. This idea can be observed, for example, by when he illustrate the thirsty man by the lake. Not only was the man drinking directly from the lake, but was also positioned on his four limbs. He even calls them “creatures”. The aspect of “triumphant beastiality” can also be observed in Waiting for the Barbarians.

The people of this book are also portrayed as beastly. They are abused, tortured, and neglected. This idea can be demonstrated through a number of examples. (Or what I have read so far). The narrator on page 34 states that “People say that I keep two wild animals in my rooms, a fox and a girl.” The girl is considered to be an animal. The people automatically compare her to a wild fox. They dehumanize her by bestowing animalistic traits upon her. Also on page 36, the narrator asked a few men about how and where the young girl was abused. One of the men replied by saying that “I do not know sir, most of the time I was not there.” “Some times there was screaming, I think they beat her.” Why did they beat her? How can a man abuse a woman? They accomplished these actions due to the fact that they did not consider her as a human or a woman with genuine feelings. An animal does not possess feelings.

After the narrator has a number of sexual encounters with the girl he states that “I can not imagine what ever drew me to that alien body”. Why did he specifically utilize the term “alien”? Did she physically appear different than non-African women or did his stereotype of African women cloud his judgment and eyes. By using the term “alien” he is practically describing her as an aspect that is non-existence in this world. This term is far worse than describing them as creatures.

Finally, the term Barbarian is a well illustration of degrading the natives. Why did the narrator and his colleagues utilize this repulsive word? If their purpose was simply to identify them, they could have used terms such as natives, the Africa people, or other non-discriminating names. Their main intention was to illustrate these people as non-humans.