Stop Trying To ‘Save’ Africa
July 18, 2007
Uzodinma Iweala, the author of Beasts of No Nation, a novel about child soldiers, has some words of advice for the Jolies, Bonos and Geldof’s of the world.
Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the “African” beads around her wrists.
“Save Darfur!” she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!
My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.
“Don’t you want to help us save Africa?” she yelled.
It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.
This is the West’s new image of itself: a sexy, politically active generation whose preferred means of spreading the word are magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back. Never mind that the stars sent to bring succor to the natives often are, willingly, as emaciated as those they want to help.
Perhaps most interesting is the language used to describe the Africa being saved. For example, the Keep a Child Alive/” I am African” ad campaign features portraits of primarily white, Western celebrities with painted “tribal markings” on their faces above “I AM AFRICAN” in bold letters. Below, smaller print says, “help us stop the dying.”
Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent’s corrupt leaders, warlords, “tribal” conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like “Can Bono Save Africa?” or “Will Brangelina Save Africa?” The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and “civilization.”
There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one’s cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head — because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West’s fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West’s prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.
Why do the media frequently refer to African countries as having been “granted independence from their colonial masters,” as opposed to having fought and shed blood for their freedom? Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned? How is it that a former mid-level U.S. diplomat receives more attention for his cowboy antics in Sudan than do the numerous African Union countries that have sent food and troops and spent countless hours trying to negotiate a settlement among all parties in that crisis?
Two years ago I worked in a camp for internally displaced people in Nigeria, survivors of an uprising that killed about 1,000 people and displaced 200,000. True to form, the Western media reported on the violence but not on the humanitarian work the state and local governments — without much international help — did for the survivors. Social workers spent their time and in many cases their own salaries to care for their compatriots. These are the people saving Africa, and others like them across the continent get no credit for their work.
Last month the Group of Eight industrialized nations and a host of celebrities met in Germany to discuss, among other things, how to save Africa. Before the next such summit, I hope people will realize Africa doesn’t want to be saved. Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.
July 18, 2007 at 12:03 pm
why don’t they save Iraq or palestine instead? Africa suffers from tragic problems no doubt. However, these problems do not pertain primarily to western interventionsim -the converse is quite true in the Muslim world which is suffereing from the Anglo-Saxons’ sense of divinity and their childish insistance to impose their value system and cultural patterns on others. Therefore, Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine must be given utmost pririty amongst those who percieve themselves to be responsible members of inernational community.
Why focus on Darfour and overlook the much more horrendous and bloodier other ethnic conflicts throuhout Africa?
Is it because Arabs are involved? dear sir, that is a sheer lie. Arabs feel sorry for what is going on in Darfour just like all other people. Yet it must be made clear that Arabs are not part of that conflict- it is more or less a conflict betwen nomadic African tribes and sother settled Afican groups.
Highlighting the term Arab which in that context refers to Nomadic lifestyle ensues shrewed language games- which seem to me to be deliberate, and to be a part of the industralised prejudice against Muslims, especially Arabs
July 18, 2007 at 12:04 pm
To be fair i believe that Jolie is genuinely empathetic and engaging in awareness raising rather than corporate/G8 agenda mascaraising of the other 2.
Im a bit wary off Sir Bob and Bono …..Surely Sir Bob , probably well on his way to becoming Lord Bob, cant be that naive? its all very strange!!
And what about Bono thinking Blair/Brown are the Lennon/mccartney of politics ,Lennon put his livelihood on the line to stop wars , Blair put his on the line in order to start an endless one.I suppose thats what you get when you start hugging Putin & Co.
Between Bono and Co getting the G8 to mend their ways and Blair/Bush using them as spindoctorfodder to re-configuate their image from killers of darkies in the Middle east to being the saviour of niggers in Africa their was only going to be one , albeit phyrric , victors.
July 18, 2007 at 12:17 pm
With all due respect Amre , saddling a continent with crippling debt and restricting their earnings by closed shop trade agreements is the ultimate form of intervention.
Paul Theroux pointed out that the interfernce of the IMF/World Bank has turned once proud tribes into pissed-off peanut farmers.
An example im familiar with is that of Gambia.
It has the richest fishing grounds on the planet and had a sophisticated farming system that made the local population self sufficient.
The IMF instructed the government to produce peanuts as cash crops and stop growing other staples for the local diet and to allow fishing to be opened up to the international market.
The result , replicated all over the continent was that the price of peanuts collasped to such an extent that the crop wasnt even worth harvesting and the only fish that now comes ashore are the ones rejected by the Japanese factory ships as unfit for Human consumption.
This is what comes when you offer external imported solutions rather than genuine solidarity.
July 19, 2007 at 8:33 pm
The language used to talk about Africa is almost always patronising as pointed out. It also frequently has the opposite effect to that it strives for as many are instinctively turned off the issues by the hideous right-onness of Bono et al. My particular favourite is the red credit card. You can spend and ease your conscience at the same time – who would have thought it possible? No, wait, it’s not.
August 14, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I find this author’s article so FULL of hypocrisy and error, its laughable (if it weren’t so personally offensive). You claim to first understand Western media and further assume that its a reflection of western values ? I AM ‘western’ the media is garbage, many of us believe THAT about the media. Its ovely focused on celibrities (who have virtually no ACTUAL global impact, we know that) and focused on negativity, violence, sensationalism, and scandal, an extremely small percentage of the actual population. The other 99% of ‘westerners’ are largely ignored by the media. No reporting of the good people do, at home and abroad, yes even in Africa. Our money$ is indeed welcome, is it my African friend ? Ah, but I should not feel GOOD about donating thousands$ per year to various causes in Africa, is that it ? You don’t want to know the Jesus I know, the one who empowers me to go on mission trips to Africa, to share of my gifts of time and money…? Your arrogance is insulting. What do YOU do for Africa friend ? Insult those who help you ? I am confident you are part of an ignorant,misguided minority and not representative of the general African population. The little hungry, sick, starving orphans I help out certainly don’t seem to share your misguided opinion. Funny, I didn’t see YOU on my last trip… Hmmm.
Signed, a ‘western christian’ trying to make a difference. I’ll gladly stay home if you wish, it seems you have done quite a remarkable job of it on your own this far !
December 1, 2007 at 1:40 pm
[...] their agenda. (p.s. Also check out this poignant plea from an African writer for the West to ‘Stop trying to “save” Africa‘) The French charity group L’Arche de Zoé (Zoë’s Ark) took 103 Chadian children from [...]
December 1, 2007 at 2:05 pm
It may be hard to remember–given the cluelessness of African-American leaders and pundits on this issue–but there was a time when a black leader could spot “cold-blooded” manipulation about the “humanitarian project” of the day for Africa from 8,000 miles away and could dissect the process in an interpretation that has stood the test of time:
That leader was Malcolm X.
Here is a Realplayer audio link to Malcolm X’s talk from which above was excerpted. It’s around an hour and 24 minutes in length. When you click on above, only the first 39 minutes is played, but then the stream will automatically switch to the remaining 45 minutes. His African analysis is in the second half.
December 1, 2009 at 12:35 am
“Fair and equal partnerships” are indeed what Africa (or anyone else) needs, but will not get from businesspeople in the West. The best guide is the increasing autonomy of Ghana and its reliance on traditional African democracy-of-consensus.
December 7, 2009 at 3:14 am
[...] This is a superb presentation by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie. Also see Binyavanga Wainaina’s “How to write about Africa“, and Uzodinma Iweala’s “Stop Trying to ‘Save’ Africa“. [...]