Rewriting Africa

“In the last five years we have seen a multipolar world come. I am interested in a powerful Africa, and I really mean an Africa with Power in the globe, power with capital P… where we have our say and where our say means something.”

-Binyavanga Wainaina

Sick and tired of the stereotyping, one of my main aims in maintaining this blog is to challenge the stereotyping of Africans, and praising those who go against the status quo. So it was with great delight that I watched an interview of Mr. Binyavanga Wainaina, an author and active advocate of change in the way we view our beloved continent, Africa. Talk to Al Jazeera sat down with Binyavanga to explore why the world is still not understanding Africa, and how to break the lens of media distortion.

 

Binyavanga is known for his satirical essay “How to Write about Africa.” I’ve come across many other such essays before, and I think that it should be a priority issue among youth and Pan Africanists to combat the way western media depicts Africa in such a negative, stereotypical way without shedding any light on positive developments being witnessed every day.

In my opinion, what’s more worse than the way western media depicts Africa, is the way international NGOs and humanitarian organizations try to raise money by perpetuating these negative images of Africa. Although they are both a horse of a different color, I get particularly irked knowing that humanitarian organizations raise money for ‘poor, helpless Africans’ when indeed a lot of money goes to providing luxury housing and all-paid vacations for [Western] humanitarian workers. Both western media and humanitarian organizations basically bank on the misery of the needy, while also completely undermining any sort of indigenous efforts by the African people to develop their communities and their own lives.

This needs to stop, and we need to encourage our youth to take up their lawful duty of being the leaders of not just tomorrow, but also today. The future of Africa is in our hands!!