Negative Portrayal Of Africa

When I began reading Chapter 1 of “Mistaking Africa,” it reminded me of our first class meeting. Professor Crowley asked us to do the same exercise Curtis Keim talks about in the text. Professor Crowley asked us what comes to mind when we think about Africa. It is a great exercise and allow us to express our perceptions of Africa. Even in class, it took me time to think about what comes to mind when I hear the word Africa, because I have not really heard much about it besides the common misconceptions: “Africa is a primitive place, full of trouble and wild animals, and in need of our help” (5). I frequently see the UNICEF commercial with Alyssa Milano, who asks her viewers how it would feel to be able to save a child’s life for fifty cents a day. The commercial precedes to play really depressing music and shows a slideshow of undernourished children, who fend for themselves in

There are many misconceptions that have been universally accepted mentioned in Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, many of which are based on biased and incorrect accounts and are extremely offensive. Three important myths are that Africa is a land of cannibals, it is backward and very uncivilized, and that it is one country where everyone and the climate are the same all over. These will be explained, refuted, and the detriment to the people of Africa will be discussed.

News media and Hollywood are the main two vehicles of identity theft among African people. In Hollywood, blacks are always shown in a position of reluctant assistance or sub servant i.e. Butler, Helper and or slave. Equally, News Media almost always show us as animals and criminals of the lowest morals. Consequently, through the system of programming, constant repetitions of demoralizing images are perpetuated, and with no other source of reference to rely upon blacks often consciously and subconsciously accept those images. Moreover some people, rather most become not only to accept those images, a lot of Black disassociate themselves with their race, because who wants to be from a race of ”nobodies” and by default has to capture the identity of the European race. One must keep in mind that racism is a system of power that is employed by White people, thus one must ponder, who owns and operates Hollywood and new media.” I agree with Trevor Musa black often see them self as invisible because of media which is a cause racial prejudice.

Europeans filled in the blanks of African history by using exoticism to come up with origin theories that made sense to them. Because the African population has a different physical appearance than Europeans, they were viewed as the “other” race, and therefore were inferior in the minds of Europeans. Africa, however, was a society that was equally as complex as any European nation, unique with their own kingdoms and customs. Because of this, it was incorrect for Europeans to label Africans as “savage” individuals. Africa’s culture is rich and deserves to be interpreted in the way that they see fit, rather than having European stereotypes of the past define their culture of

Between America and other European nations, stereotypes and misrepresentations have ultimately plagued the continent of Africa. To every side there is often another story, yet unfortunately for the many countries of Africa, they are ultimately victimized and suffer through further oppression. According to Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, Keim suggests that Africa is essentially under the public microscope, it tends to be scrutinized, and compared to European nations and America. Keim elaborates on human natures need to group people, places, and things, which creates the theory of superiority or dominance over races, cultures, and even religions.

The history of Africa is very complex. Europeans invaded Africa and stripped them of their culture and denied future generations their history. Despite the focus on the time of enslavement in modern history, African history expands far beyond that. African history has been consistently whitewashed and many historians have attempted to put our history in a box. In order to understand and study the African experience, one must realize that the history of Africa extends far beyond the times of enslavement and colonialism.

It is unfortunate how often we hear about a disaster occurring in Africa. From civil wars in Somalia and Congo, famine in Yemen and viruses spreading through Liberia, people associate Africa as being chaotic, violent, corrupt, and incredibly poor to the point many Americans still believe animals freely roam in the cities. Naturally, many people and organizations feel the need to bring order and peace to the continent, by policing it, spreading the word of God among the natives, or provide resources such as food, water, or money. However, most people never take the time to learn of African culture and traditions, or understand that some Africans are content with what they have and how things work. We label them as being poor because they do not match our preconceptions of happiness, as we believe living comfortably with others leads to happiness.

All in all African films have completely different politics and aesthetics than films made in the U.S. The film Lumumba shows the politics of liberation. The film Pieces D’Identities shows the aesthetics of self identity. The film Afrique, Je Te Plumerai shows the aesthetics of allegories of colonialism. In conclusion Hollywood would not dare to touch the politics nor aesthetics of these films due to Hollywood’s prejudices and other

Many contemporary scholars such as John Iliffe rashly characterize Africa as a hostile environment that induces weak agriculture and small population. Yes, their perception about Africa is sound to some degree because African geography suggests that its environment is less suitable for certain types of harvesting. Also, there are some diseases more prevalent in Africa. However, it is hasty to judge Africa solely based on these features, and such judgment parochially overlooks other characteristics of African environment that enable its inhabitants to live a life that is not at all inferior but quintessentially different from western continents. In contrary to the typical stereotype, Africa contains a rich diversity of plants and foods sources

The media’s representation on ethical/racial and colonial illustration is not always accurate; there are many stereotypes and critics always find something to be false. Realism also plays a big role in representing in what critics believe. (Shothat 178)

When learning about the history of the world, we can not ignore the fact that Africa plays a significant role. Many believe that Africa is the birth place of all races, and although that is true, the history and cultures of Africa and its natives are misunderstood among Americans. People do not take the time to expand their knowledge about Africa, yet they create their own perceptions of the continent based upon the image that America created. America creates this stereotype that Africa is inferior to the other continents by picturing them as savage like individuals who live an insufficient life. To truly understand Africa, you must understand these two important elements: the demographics of Africa and the true history of Africa

There are many myths and stereotypes of how the media portrays Africa to be. The media has stereotyped Africa to be poor, hazardous, hot, underdeveloped nation, violent and spiritual country (p, 37). In the chapter “How We Learn”, Curtis Keim focuses on the specific sources that stereotypes Africa to be over populated country with exotic animals. Also stereotypes the people to be illiterate and not well educated people. People take negativity from different sources of media and base their opinion upon the information given and that is how people learn about Africa.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has been depicted as “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.” [pg.1] Chinua Achebe believes otherwise. In Chinua Achebe’s An Image of Africa: Racism is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he simply states that, “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” [pg.5]

Africa is a continent plagued by misinformed and false stereotypes, rarely being seen or portrayed as what it really is. Countless amounts of myths and ideas are formulated based off of single stories or one-sided stories from the region, often without a second thought. These stereotypes give Africa an overall negative image to the rest of the world and suppress the reality that is hidden behind the slew of stereotypes. The belief that all of Africa is poor and undeveloped is an uninformed statement that harms the reality and worsens the image of the continent by perpetuating an incomplete idea into the world.

The myth and stereotypes about Africa are not anything new and they are very present in our daily lives and the way Africa is portrayed. For example the reason why many people today think that Africa is bleak land of poverty and diseases is because early writers, historians, and geographers talked about Africa in that way. Because these stereotypes are so readily available, they infiltrate people’s daily thinking. Furthermore this makes people less likely to actually seek to really learn about Africa because they feel that their [inaccurate] suffice for their worldview of Africa. This is in turn leads people completely ignoring anything that contract their already established ideas.