Images of Africa and the resilience of ignorance (original) (raw)
Related papers
“Interrogating Fallacies, Stereotypes and Denigrations of Africa in Eurocentric Discourse”
Greener Journal of World Peace, Security and Development, 2013
Africa is one continent that has suffered some of the worst forms of physical and psychological bashing in the hands of European explorers, Colonists and historians alike. Compared to other locations in the world, the rich annals of the continent have also been seemingly twisted out of rhythm with the intent to justify long years of exploitations and stereotyping of the people and their cultures cast in the imageries of barbarians and cannibals. Such a 'paradise lost' is also presented as a social abnormality that defies any form of redemption. This paper interrogates the logic of such bland Eurocentric misconceptions/stereotypes with a view to highlighting how such skewed imageries invariably have contributed adversely to the 'development of underdevelopment' across Africa over the years. The paper concludes that, there is now a dire need for the European interlopers to genuinely begin to partner with Africans with a view to correcting such skewed imageries that have thus far brought Africa to the precipice of imminent systemic collapse.
The Persistence of Western Negative Perceptions about Africa: Factoring in the Role of Africans
Africa has continued to be looked down upon by the Western powers. Negative perceptions and representations such as civil wars, hunger, corruption, greed, selfishness, diseases, poverty, and the like have been the defining characters of Africa and the Africans in the minds of many Western people. While the mainstream media has been blamed for much of Africa's negative perceptions, little has been done to establish how Africans have actively assisted the Western nations to continue perceiving Africa negatively. The paper used a historical approach and secondary sources to examine the role Africans have played in the persistence of Western negative perceptions about Africa. The main argument is that the persistence of such negative views about Africa suggests that Africans have played an active and important role. It is concluded that Africa's current and future development will continue to depend on how Africans view themselves before the Westerners and how they seek to be viewed by the West.
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Afrocentrism: A Desirable Pathway of Demystifying Misperceptions about Africa
Article, 2019
The concern of this paper is to examine the philosophy of Afrocentrism as a desirable way of demystifying Eurocentric misperceptions about Africa. Since Eurocentrism claims the universality and superiority of what is European, Eurocentrists evoke emotive terminologies about Africa, which oversimplify African perspectives. However, Afrocentrism contests the superiority assumption of Eurocentrism and debunk the misperceptions about Africa. The paper investigates the Eurocentric narratives that reduced everything African into savagery, barbaric, prelogical, and darkness, in general, and the misperceptions about Africa in particular. In so doing, qualitative method is employed by analyzing related secondary sources from books, journal articles, and book sections. Accordingly, the paper argues that Afrocentrism has played epistemological and historiographic roles in deconstructing Eurocentric narratives and demystifying the misperceptions about Africa. To this effect, the paper suggests that Afrocentric narratives, scholasticism, writings, etc. should transcend the limit of deconstructing Eurocentrism and present multiple alternatives to study the world reality.
The Image of Pre-Colonial Africa in European Circles
2011
Cultural relativism denotes the suspension of personal and moral or value judgements about other peoples and their ways. This is very essential for a successful and objective study of the past. It also enhances successful living in the modern, multi-cultural or racial world. It teaches that before forming an opinion, one should critically examine and understand the situation. It does not emphasise any requirement of embracing the beliefs or value systems of foreigners or giving up one's own values. Contrarily, it preaches the granting of respect to a society, people, or country, trying to see their world and behaviour from their own perspectives, rather than simply rejecting all viewpoints but one's own. European scholars who attempted to reconstruct the past of Africa did not take into consideration the tenets of the historical profession and wrote about Africa from their point of view. The result was that a whole lot of wrong impressions were created about Africa and its peoples. This study, using the multidisciplinary approach, examines some of the wrong impressions Eurocentric scholars have created about Africa and Africans.
Envisioning Africa's Future: A Story of Changing Perceptions
Nations' futures are shaped by how they are perceived by their citizens, policy makers, and external forces. The present state of sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is a product of actions by external and, more recently, internal actors that have been driven by how Africa has been seen in the past. Thus, current perceptions of Africa will help shape its future. Over the past half century, external actors for Africa have included missionaries, adventurers, entrepreneurs, empire builders and, more recently, donors. In designing the various schemes that have shaped the present perceptions of Africa, in particular the "dark continent" image has played a central role. Likewise Africans' perceptions of themselves have been critical in shaping Africa, more so in the post-colonial era. The "victim" perception particularly has played a critical role in determining the image and the relationships that Africa has developed with the outside world. Indeed, how people see themselves determines what standards they hold themselves to. Perceptions about Africa will continue to influence how its future is viewed and thus shaped. The year 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of "The Year of Africa," and as we anticipate how Africa will develop over the next 50 years, it is important to understand how perceptions of the continent have evolved in the past. This paper explores how the changing image of Africa has influenced the thinking about its future prospects since the 1960s, and how current perceptions may influence its future development.
African Studies Review, 2022
Clive Gabay's Imagining Africa: Whiteness and the Western Gaze has more to do with post-colonial studies, critical race theory, and Whiteness studies than with African studies. Gabay's concern is not the continent per se, but rather the history of idealised visions of Africa in the West, informed by the growing anxiety of Whiteness in perpetuating its mythologized genius. In his introduction (9-22), Gabay posits a distinction between "whiteness" (which defines the status of phenotypical white people) and "Whiteness" (which is seen as a system of privilege involving both white and non-white peoples in safeguarding White and Western genius). The author aims at overturning the conventional post-colonial critique of western imaginaries of Africa "by problematising the sense in which the former consistently holds the latter in inferior relation to it" (4). Western considerations of Africa, Gabay claims, changed dramatically after the 2007-08 financial crisis, with journalists, policymakers, scholars, NGOs, and international organizations describing Africa as "rising." These perceptions, according to Gabay, reveal once more the anxiety of Whiteness, which views Africa as the place where it can be redeemed. Gabay does not write a full history of whiteness/Whiteness and its relationship with Africa. As stated by the author, this is not even a "straightforward history book" (34). Gabay's strategy is rather to evoke "illustrative and provocative moments" in the history of whiteness/Whiteness in the past century, with a view to analyzing the rhizomatic genealogy of "anxiety-driven idealisation of the continent." His analysis, it must also be added, is limited to sub-Saharan Africa and, more specifically, to the "Anglosphere," that is, English-speaking Africa (especially Eastern and Southern) and its relationship with British and American individuals and institutions. Gabay divides the book into three thematical and chronological parts, which form its backbone. The first part, which consists of Chapters Two and Three, describes the 1920s, during which Whiteness and the genius of the Western civilization were exclusively associated with the condition of
Descriptions of Africa from the West, must always be wrong for Africa
academia.edu, 2021
A description of what is foreign from a base that is Western of necessity presupposes knowledge of what is indigenous to the West. That is to say, that what is foreign is necessarily described in relation to what is familiar. As a result a description of what is foreign will not make sense, or will make different or less sense, to a person who is not indigenous to the West, including the foreigner. It follows that for a foreign person to make themselves understood by the West in a way that the West is used to understanding what is foreign requires them to ‘know’ about the West. The description of themselves that is designed for approval in the West will be foundationally very different from that which someone would give to their own people according to the way they themselves are or perceive themselves to be.