While researching for a paper on the topic of African American Dance in the Harlem Renaissance I stumbled across a quote that made me think about our Literary Theory and Criticism class. In the book entitled simply Dancing the author Barbara Glass states that "Africa is a large and complex continent more than three times the size of the United States. Today, there are nearly a thousand African cultural groups. Thus, there is no monolithic African language, perspective, or way of life. Instead, there is enormous variety in speech, art, customs, and beliefs from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, and from Senegal to Somalia". This quote succinctly states what Binyavanga Wainaina writes about in his article "How to Write About Africa".
Last summer, as previously stated, I traveled to Tanzania, Africa for a month long trip. I was emotionally struck when reading Wainaina's sarcastic article. He states that one needs to:
"treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling
grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are
starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat
primates. Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is
big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving
and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is
full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things,
but your reader doesn’t care about all that, so keep your descriptions
romantic and evocative and unparticular."
900 million people. 54 countries.
These numbers are what people don't understand. When explaining my trip to family and friends I heard so many questions asking if I stayed in a hut, worked with dying people suffering from AIDS or malnourishment, or the worst one-if I contracted a disease just by being there. I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of Tanzania was very limited before I spent a month there. But, by experiencing only very little of one country in the massive continent my knowledge increased a little. My stereotypes were demolished and I get rather frustrated when I hear people grouping together so many rich cultures, histories, and societies into one-one that most always has a negative connotation.
Tanzania by itself is extremely diverse. The country encompasses so many different climates. There are big cities with shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, cars, and thousands of people. There are small villages that are run by Catholic monasteries. There are islands off the coast of the Indian Ocean that are 95% Muslim. There are sick people. There are healthy people. There are rich people. There are poor people.
is fruitful, the countries having citizens with intellect. Not every child there is starving. Not every country is in a civil war. Wainaina's article sheds light on the ignorance of the continent, and I hope people who read it take it to heart.
My own experience of Africa is similar. When I was in Kenya, my trip was organized by Catholic Relief Services, and so all I saw was poor people with HIV and the people who cared for them. Most people on my trip saw only that. However, my experience was different from the others because I had an old friend from graduate school who was a Ugandan writer -- Doreen Baingana, whose collection of short stories entitled Tropical Fish might interest you -- and she had a job with a publishing company in Kenya called Storymoja. And so one day, I left my group and hung out with her. She and I went to a play in Nairobi and hung out with with doctors, lawyers, business people, journalists, writers, etc. And so, while everyone else in my group only had experiences that met their expectations of a poor Africa in need of their help, my experience was of a smart Africa that might be able to solve its own problems better if the European and American governments stopped interfering.
ReplyDeleteI thought that this blog was great specifically because you've actually been there to experience the African lifestyle from a hand on perspective. I like the detail and the change you experienced between stereotype and actually experiencing what its really like. My blog that I wrote about in regards to "how to write about africa" was similar, however, unlike you I have never visited the wonderful continent of Africa.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that this was interesting because you got to see this stereotype demystified first hand. It is amazing to me how little I knew about these kinds of issues before taking postcolonial literature and the ignorance of people I encounter when speaking about what I had learned in that class. I loved "How To Write About Africa" for two reasons: one is because I thoroughly enjoy sarcasm and two because he was so honest and accurate. This essay could make any ignorant person feel completely ridiculous and I think that it is a very powerful piece.
ReplyDeleteKind of going off what Steven mentioned above, I wonder just how much of our conceptions of Africa stem from out "white savior complex" towards African countries. Largely due to organizations such as the Catholic Relief Services, we have conceptions of Africa being the place that is full of AIDs and starving children that we must help because they can't do it themselves. To hell with the fact that our interference usually ends up screwing over local economies and upsetting balance.
ReplyDeleteI like what Jesse said about the "white savior complex". We really have this mind set that all of Africa not only needs but somehow wants our help. There are ways we can but each situation needs to be addressed individually, not on this, "oh Africa has a problem with HIV, let's fix that and everything will get better. As you said there are 900 million people in 54 countries. They all need to be treated as such, not 900 million people in Africa.
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