Stereotyping In Ancient Africa

Since the United States’ inception, the negative stereotypes and generalizations of African Americans have been some of the worst examples of racism that has been extremely prevalent in American culture. African American stereotypes date back all the way to colonial American times, where African American slavery was considered to be accepted and practiced. Since then, black people in America have been treated horribly for stereotypes that have deep roots in the mistreatment of black people in American history.

Like many other continents in the world Africa has a lot of differences in itself for example there are differences in geography ,language, politics, religion and other things in life due to Africa’s lack of political government over an extended period of time.

For years now, the cinematic (Hollywood narrative films) worlds has based all sorts of their different films on Africa and its people, but are these stereotypical representations on Africa showcased in all films? Various genres such as comedy, drama, horror and even science-fiction have showcased African people showing us world cinema’s typical and ideal representation of an African character, portraying their culture poorly, negatively and violently, but not all films portray African characters negatively with no dominance. Though globally seen as poor people who live in poverty, that’s right, I said poverty, most children grow up to see Africans as just that. Poor and unfortunate. The typical African culture is generally assumed to be of poor and unfortunate civilization, undermining any positive influences that could possibly be made to Africa and its people. They are stereotyped as worthless outcasts, although films such as Tsotsi and Remember the Titans take these depictions of Africa and throughout the films, “Transform” them instantaneously in the films Tsotsi and ATL where aesthetic features such as costume, setting and mise en scene differentiate the representation of Africans to the reality in the film.

The Scramble for Africa from 1876-1914 has influenced many Africans by violent resistance, diplomacy, and adopting traditions. During this time period, Africa was being colonized and taken over by European powers. This was caused by the The Berlin Conference and it consisted of European powers deciding what they should do about Africa. Africa didn't actually have a say in this. Therefore, Europe ended up dividing up Africa into colonies that they took over.

According to Chimamanda Adichie, “the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story… It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar,” (Chimamanda). This statement holds a lot of truth; stereotypes are a very negative part of human history. The cause separation among our single human race. Stereotypes have always existed and always will exist in humanity. They have caused separation in humanity be creating differences and hatred, and this separation hurts all sides.

Throughout the years, racial stereotypes have played a major role in society. Even today, one combines racial stereotypes and prejudice thoughts before one even says a word to the person. Just seeing an African- American man while in a parking lot and pulling out ones phone, can be a simple example of modern-day racial stereotypes.

The way society perceives different races today, stems from how those races were viewed in the past. African Americans have faced many stereotypes that had been created because of their slave roots, and the same stereotypes are still upheld by news outlets, high

People are natural evaluators of everything they come across, and they attempt to acquire insights as they evaluate other people. Stereotypes are the beliefs that people hold concerning other human groups after gaining insights about them. Racial stereotypes have been common among African Americans and the whites. In the 20th century, African Americans were stereotyped as contaminated and dirty by the whites; maybe because of the insufficient income they are said to earn. The whites also associate African Americans with substance use.

Whether we notice or not, almost everything we do today was taught to us by someone who were taught it themselves. This is a mere example of tradition. In Man to Send Rainclouds, many unfamiliar traditions are exposed during their funerary process. Three of the Navajo burial traditions that caught my attention is that they believe a person should not die in their home, smearing ashes over your body, and sprinkling holy water around the deceased’s body. Sometimes our traditions feel so customary that it takes looking in from a different perspective to notice how dissimilar all cultures truly are.

Stereotypes have existed as long as history can tell us from Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness telling of savages to racism to gender roles in society. Artists like Komi and Okey challenge these notions of why they exist and how to move past them. Komi brought up the notion of a disconnect between where he belongs in society as in Canada he obtains a label of African Nigerian whereas in Nigeria he is looked as Canadian. He is both Canadian and Nigerian in nationality and in spirit but society does not agree. He can only be one but not the other. This plays part in Binyavanga Wainaina’s article on

Almost every culture or race has a stereotype, including American Indians, non-Indians, Jewish people, Blacks, and among others. Stereotypes and myths are formed by the mass media, our peers, or reputations passed on by parents. Any time you are grouping races or individuals together and make a judgment about them without knowing them, is an example of making a stereotype. A stereotype is based on prior assumptions; we all use stereotypes, all the time without knowing. Both positive stereotypes and negative stereotypes are limiting an individual. If we rely solely on stereotypes, we may overlook the good, or bad, qualities of an individual that is typically included in the generalization.

What are some common perceptions of Africa? Poverty, primitivism, inferior? These are some of the most misunderstood stereotypes of Africa. In Laura Green article the “Negative Racial Stereotypes and their Effect on Attitudes towards African-Americans” she explain that Stereotypes are "cognitive structures that contain the perceiver 's knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about human groups" . Stereotypes of Africa and Africans can be dated back to slavery. Slavery is a large contributor to the development of stereotypes about Africans. Western societies have portray Africans as being primitive and inferior. How has western stereotypes help to instill a rather one sided story about Africa and Africans? The perception an individual holds in western societies about Africa and African societies is large attributed towards how the media portrays Africa. For example Hollywood, their movies convey Africans as being primitive and the country as underdeveloped. I am not concluding that the area that those specific movies was shot in isn’t underdeveloped but rather that these movies convey a one sided story about Africa. The media plays a significantly large role because it’s a way for individuals to visualize Africa. This then allows the media to portray Africa the way they see it, rather than the way it really is. The compelling believes held by western societies about Africa and Africans is largely due to the media, which can be seen as artwork, movies and advertisements.

A stereotype is a widely used belief about a group of people, in this case African

Through European expansion, colonizers and explorers frequently interacted with ethnic groups and attributed specific practices to different groups. Rather than learning about the cultures of the groups they encountered, Europeans chose to generalize based off their observations. The stereotype of the “savage African”-which depicts Africans as primitive, simple, childlike, and/or cannibalistic individuals who live in tribes, carry spears, and believe in witchcraft-developed because of observations made by various European explorers who did not understand the intricacies of African culture and misconstrued the various tribes as one. As time progressed, the stereotypes became cemented in and proliferated across the globe. In modern society, stereotypes about Africa have typically been utilized to explicitly distinguish between African “traditional” healing, which is said to be primitive and stagnant, and biomedicine, which is construed as a praxis of the civilized West: “After the end of formal colonial rule, nationalist

     Africa has more than 800 languages native to its continent. African cultures are so diverse that they are different from any other culture of the world. African cultures contain many different languages. African languages range from common French to languages unheard of to most people such as Swahili. African arts are much different than American arts. Their art involves much more creative pottery, masks, and paintings. Africa has a very interesting culture. Reasons being the people are very creative and like to express their individuality. The most diverse cultures in the world belong to Africa.