Challenging
Misrepresentations
OF AFRICA An Interview with Local Pan African Activists Part I |
Interview by Aly Wane and
Christina Kaiser
On November 11 the PNL
sat down with members of the Pan African Community of Central New York (PACCNY)
for a discussion about the stereotypes and misrepresentations of Africa that
exist in our community. This is the first segment of our three-part conversation.
PACCNY seeks to foster unity among
people of African descent, "provide space that promotes and celebrates
the efforts of people of African origin towards self-assertion, human dignity
and self-determination" and "promote understanding among all global
communities, especially those who suffer from oppressive structures and systems."
Micere Githae Mugo is the president of PACCNY and Professor
and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University.
Dr. Mugo is Kenyan by birth and upbringing, Zimbabwean by citizenship and a
long time resident of CNY.
Kwame Otieku is the secretary of PACCNY and the Ghana Society of Central New York (GSCNY). He is a Ghanaian and a Central New Yorker since 1982.
Emmanuel Awuah is the president of GSCNY. He is a Professor of Sociology and Director of Multicultural and International Services at Onondaga Community College. Dr. Awuah is a Ghanaian and long time member of the CNY community.
PNL: One of the ways that Central New Yorkers get information about Africa is through the media. Often media sources misrepresent African people by reinforcing stereotypical images of insurmountable poverty, disease and corruption and neglecting to portray the depth and complexity of African issues. What is the impact of these misrepresentations on our local and global community?
MM:
The impact is obvious. It's demeaning. It's insulting. It misleads, specifically,
people who don't know much about the continent. But even more than that, for
me, it is a very arrogant way of dealing with diversity and dealing with a culture
that one doesn't know. And by arrogance I mean that even sometimes people who
haven't traveled to Africa or who have just gone there for a few months give
themselves the liberty to make it look as if they are the Ms. or Mr. "Know-All."
Just the dehumanizing aspect of the stereotypes is really disgusting and the
reason it's disgusting is that every day of our lives we know African people
are struggling to respond to these adversities but we don't get that resistance.
We don't get that active aspect of African people responding to their own problems.
It looks as if they're sitting there helpless, waiting to be struck by disaster.
This depiction of people who look so hopeless as if they need salvation from
outside is also very worrying, but I think that the other part of it is that
these kinds of depictions do not give voice to African people to speak for themselves.
This is why, for instance, I appreciate the fact that you're speaking with us.
It is very important for African people to have voice to speak for themselves, name their reality and explain what is going on. That is the only thing that can bring understanding and create a conversation - not when people are speaking for you and depicting you in their own terms.
KO:
For me it is very annoying when you just go into a country and come back like
you're a master and you write books after being there a very short duration.
A good example is recently when one of the reporters from here [The Post-Standard]
went to Ghana and became a "master of all."
I don't fault the Americans
being ignorant because they have never gone anyplace before. You go to work
and your co-workers show you pictures and ask you questions, very elementary
and stupid questions, but sometimes you sit back and ask, "Are they stupid
questions?" Or are they because of ignorance? Confucius has said that the
realization of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom. It's up to us to educate
such folks because they ask questions from nowhere, reading what has been presented
to them.
We, as Africans who have crossed both fences coming from Africa and
being here, have a lot of work to do. The fact that these folks are asking stupid
questions - it may be genuine that they don't know, but we have to be the voice
to turn things around and let them understand what Africa is. More importantly,
we need to focus on reporters, or people who claim to be masters, and let them
understand that their reporting should be a little bit different.
I can go to
Africa and paint a bad picture of America. I can go to a ghetto area, and we
have a lot of ghettos here in America and present that as what America is. There
are more important things in Africa to report on. If you want to measure the
economy of Ghana in high rises and things like that, no, we're not there. But,
you can measure the economy of Ghana on something that is very tangible and
that has a very positive impact on the people in Ghana.
EA:
The fears I have are that Africa is seen as the repository of all the fears
we have as human beings. That is, it looks like Africa has reached a point which
we call "arrested development," that we cannot go beyond a certain
point in terms of our development, that we are stationary.
I think that this is a feed-off from colonial representation and anthropological
work that was done. In the 21st century when we have an instant advantage to
see what is really going on in Africa - I think we in the West are rather in
an arrested development stage of not changing our positions, views and perceptions
of Africa. My main worry is the next generation of Americans who are still going
to feed on the media representations which are very negative. We need to deal
with the textbooks that teachers are using in our schools because these are
the kids who are going to become policy makers, who are going to relate to Africa.
And if this continues in the 21st century, I think America may not fully benefit
from the actual development that is going on in Africa. Therefore, they might
fall behind.
If you get to know that Africa is not in a stage of arrested development - that
it has made great progress - that will enhance American foreign policy, that
will enhance economic relationships between the US and Africans - that will
bode well for all of us because it will be a win-win situation, not only in
terms of economic reasons, but also culturally and socially. We could then continue
to maintain relationships with the United States in a positive way in the sense
that the relationship is based on the realities that exist on the ground rather
than based on deceptions which are not supported by the evidence. It's something
that we need to work on through the education institutions that we have.
It's amazing that those images, those wrong perceptions, still continue in our
schools. I don't know whether there's an agenda because those who are responsible
for holding teachers accountable for teaching students what Africa is really
about - I think they are compromising by maintaining standards that are not
consistent with the realities in Africa.
MM:
The people who hear us must understand that we are not denying that, like any
other part of the world, there are problems in Africa. There is illness, there
is disease, there is poverty and so on and so forth. That is not what we are
saying; what we are saying is that a very balanced view is absolutely necessary
in order not to stereotype Africa as this pathological place where nothing else
happens other than ailment. More importantly, we object to journalists and scholars
who go to Africa in order to make a name for themselves, in order to get promotions
and make it in their career by giving this very, very superficial depiction.
It really is criminal professionalism.
Look for part II next month