Based
on the questions raised and opinions presented during the class I would like to
provide a deeper argument on how of an important role can narrations and optics
of Africa play in judging and evaluating the future of this specific region. I
am going to focus on media portrait of African region delivered through
childhood and on its impact on the vision western nation have regarding this
continent. When the subject of these contextualization is Africa, I consider
these complex historical relations and media narratives even more important.
That is for we have only a little understanding of what Africa really is and what native Africans consider it to be. From young age it is portrayed to us somewhat as both magical and dangerously wild place. This optic is, in my opinion, strengthened by all mainstream informational resources available to us, and digging for more complex and trustworthy information became quite of a hard task in the modern times.
To truly understand the process of shaping the “not so empirically based” vision of Africa in western societies, we need to approach the problem through socially contextual nuances of one’s childhood and adulthood.
The first source of information on Africa is generally through pictures and television. The first encounter with a specific phenomenon is often crucial and in this case I would argue that the very first mentions of (to us) distant and specific environment of Africa is actually positive in one’s childhood. It is hard to imagine that the first mentions of Africa that a person would be about to absorb would have been geopolitical facts, situational analysis or security related discussions. No. The first contact is full of beautiful scenery, wild and exotic animals, to us very distant tribes and apparent cultural difference. This specific audiovisual learning curve is actually without any further contextualization and in many cases without geo-related placement or any further information bases. The first contact is usually based on pure childish emotion. As mention in the article “How to write about Africa” this childish presentation of Africa as continent and environment full of adventure somehow persist to the adulthood era.
I don’t perceive this phenomenon strictly bad rather than positive. To child Africa is presented as exotic world full of surprises and hard-to-understand experiences that are so distant to child’s actual not so long live period that it is “distant” from the beginning. Distant and magical. The magical aspect can have two usual consequences.
Firstly there are huge sympathetic connotation created toward Africa in young age – these can actually be broken hardly by the not so exclusive racist tendencies in modern societies in later age. I would describe that process as if beautifully painted imaginary portrait of Africa met the drastic reality of misery, bloodshed and warfare, which is as naïve as the childhood fantasy itself. Both of these radical descriptions of Africa in general persist among our societies. The Kony 2012 short documentary was a good example of these simplistic irrational descriptions – it was catchy and hugely shared on social media by young audience with zero to none informational base of this specific conflict.
The second consequence is the difference we perceive in Africa when compared to the other continents and states. This magical difference actually holds us from accepting the reality that some of the states can be as developed as ours and that they are actually quite similar both politically and economically. We would actually like to help Africa all the time, not because it needs us, but because we want it to need us. It is a higher cause, a calling, a way of life. We don’t want to imagine or to experience the nature of highly developed cities and areas next to the safari and savage tribes. This is not the vision of Africa full of adventure and expenditure options we gained through our childhood.
Africa is not described and taught about deeply enough in one’s educational period in westernized countries. By this I mean mostly elementary and high school education institutes which persist in this fairytale like description of the continent. These optics can argue for two perspectives, none of these picture Africa as it is. One of them is description of savage, wild and dangerous Africa. Violence, wars, drugs and child soldiers are main topics of these narratives. The second one is more focused on the wilderness and magical aspects - native tribes, rituals including herbs and substances, exotic free animals.
Both of these, sadly, supports the childish fantasies we obtained in youth. But how to change this unrealistically shaped approaches towards African continent? Here I must agree with the opinion that this is at least partially caused by mandating the narratives about Africa to non-African speakers. It could help to stir these narratives by ones that actually comes from the within the continent. Let people from Africa tell us what they think about their continent and specific country, not only at later age when we actually have the chance to search for this original information, but at childhood. Include this narrative as part to one’s development. Practically talking this would contain of African made stories and fairytales, books, African teachers at schools etc.
But this is the goal of globalization as such and the problem does not lie in ignorance of these options and their benefits. It lies in comfort, tradition and irrational hatred we are witnesses to every day. There would be very strong voices advocating against this approach which drastically differs from our traditional narratives and perceptions. It would be perceived as multiculturalism and globalization efforts.
Yet I have strong believes that these voices will be shushed by simple and natural phenomenon.
By progress and understanding.
That is for we have only a little understanding of what Africa really is and what native Africans consider it to be. From young age it is portrayed to us somewhat as both magical and dangerously wild place. This optic is, in my opinion, strengthened by all mainstream informational resources available to us, and digging for more complex and trustworthy information became quite of a hard task in the modern times.
To truly understand the process of shaping the “not so empirically based” vision of Africa in western societies, we need to approach the problem through socially contextual nuances of one’s childhood and adulthood.
The first source of information on Africa is generally through pictures and television. The first encounter with a specific phenomenon is often crucial and in this case I would argue that the very first mentions of (to us) distant and specific environment of Africa is actually positive in one’s childhood. It is hard to imagine that the first mentions of Africa that a person would be about to absorb would have been geopolitical facts, situational analysis or security related discussions. No. The first contact is full of beautiful scenery, wild and exotic animals, to us very distant tribes and apparent cultural difference. This specific audiovisual learning curve is actually without any further contextualization and in many cases without geo-related placement or any further information bases. The first contact is usually based on pure childish emotion. As mention in the article “How to write about Africa” this childish presentation of Africa as continent and environment full of adventure somehow persist to the adulthood era.
I don’t perceive this phenomenon strictly bad rather than positive. To child Africa is presented as exotic world full of surprises and hard-to-understand experiences that are so distant to child’s actual not so long live period that it is “distant” from the beginning. Distant and magical. The magical aspect can have two usual consequences.
Firstly there are huge sympathetic connotation created toward Africa in young age – these can actually be broken hardly by the not so exclusive racist tendencies in modern societies in later age. I would describe that process as if beautifully painted imaginary portrait of Africa met the drastic reality of misery, bloodshed and warfare, which is as naïve as the childhood fantasy itself. Both of these radical descriptions of Africa in general persist among our societies. The Kony 2012 short documentary was a good example of these simplistic irrational descriptions – it was catchy and hugely shared on social media by young audience with zero to none informational base of this specific conflict.
The second consequence is the difference we perceive in Africa when compared to the other continents and states. This magical difference actually holds us from accepting the reality that some of the states can be as developed as ours and that they are actually quite similar both politically and economically. We would actually like to help Africa all the time, not because it needs us, but because we want it to need us. It is a higher cause, a calling, a way of life. We don’t want to imagine or to experience the nature of highly developed cities and areas next to the safari and savage tribes. This is not the vision of Africa full of adventure and expenditure options we gained through our childhood.
Africa is not described and taught about deeply enough in one’s educational period in westernized countries. By this I mean mostly elementary and high school education institutes which persist in this fairytale like description of the continent. These optics can argue for two perspectives, none of these picture Africa as it is. One of them is description of savage, wild and dangerous Africa. Violence, wars, drugs and child soldiers are main topics of these narratives. The second one is more focused on the wilderness and magical aspects - native tribes, rituals including herbs and substances, exotic free animals.
Both of these, sadly, supports the childish fantasies we obtained in youth. But how to change this unrealistically shaped approaches towards African continent? Here I must agree with the opinion that this is at least partially caused by mandating the narratives about Africa to non-African speakers. It could help to stir these narratives by ones that actually comes from the within the continent. Let people from Africa tell us what they think about their continent and specific country, not only at later age when we actually have the chance to search for this original information, but at childhood. Include this narrative as part to one’s development. Practically talking this would contain of African made stories and fairytales, books, African teachers at schools etc.
But this is the goal of globalization as such and the problem does not lie in ignorance of these options and their benefits. It lies in comfort, tradition and irrational hatred we are witnesses to every day. There would be very strong voices advocating against this approach which drastically differs from our traditional narratives and perceptions. It would be perceived as multiculturalism and globalization efforts.
Yet I have strong believes that these voices will be shushed by simple and natural phenomenon.
By progress and understanding.
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