3 Phrases that we need to get rid of.

If you ask a non-African what their thoughts are of Africa, they will mostly say things like, poverty, war, darkness and huts.  There are certain phrases that actually continue to sustain the misconceptions of Africa. These need to be gotten rid of and checked every time we hear them. 

“Africa needs your help…”

The portrayal of “Africa” in western media only validates these views and continues to brainwash people into thinking that Africa is a dire situation in need of help from foreign intervention. It cannot be denied that there are issues, but more and more countries are rising to middle income status.

When watching adverts that show poverty in Africa how many of these people you see have been light skinned?

This is something that played on my mind when I realised it – whenever they are showing poverty and destitution they always show dark skinned children. Light skin people exist too and they can also suffer from poverty. The point is that when you see images of a “new Africa” and development, most of the pictures used are of lighter people. The relationship between dark skin and poverty and light skin and prosperity is played upon within Africa but more so in the West. Forming images in the mind the Africa is one homogenous place full of dark skinned people in poverty.

“Even Africa….”

This phrase is used many times by Western politicians and policy makers – where they are failing to do something and highlight that we cannot be failing because Africa has it. An example of this is comparing the representation of women in parliament in Rwanda (which is over 60%) to women in parliament in the UK (which is under 30%)

They say “the UK is doing poorly in representing women at all levels of society, when the proportion of women in parliament is disproportionate to those in the country, even Africa have a better representation of women in parliament”

On the surface some may say that it is highlighting the success of Rwanda in increasing its female presence in parliament. But if you look deeper it is very condescending. As in fact that it is really saying that “… even in Africa (a continent that is less economically developed than us, lacks basic social security, and has a poor record of women’s rights) have a better representation of women in parliament.” Small things like this only further fuel the already negative stereotypes. By comparing the systems is more harmful than good.

“Can you believe this is Africa…”

Another one that on the surface seems to be showing a more positive view. But once again it makes these instances of hyper developed parts, more of an anomaly rather than the norm. there is s trend that some people do, that if you want to combat a negative perception of Africa, it is to tackle it with an image that shows a developed city. This is not thing bad, but then it only celebrates an African country when it manages to look more like a western country – rather than for its individual merits. There are countries with beautiful landscapes that do not have skyscrapers and fast trains.  They should be celebrated for their own beauties rather than conforming to a western ideal of infrastructure and architecture.  

I hope that when you see or hear these phrases you will think about the deeper meaning and context. I also hope that if someone says this to you, you will correct them and educate them to them critically about what they say.