Helping Africa

In class today, we talked about the American media's portrayal of Africa. Some key themes we noted were corruption, disease, and reliance on foreign aid, and overall we came to a conclusion that on the whole, the messages the American people are receiving about Africa are extremely negative, with the continent of Africa shown as a downtrodden, hopeless place that is constantly reliant on foreign assistance.

Having just had this discussion, it was interesting to stumble upon this article, written by a Nigerian scholar and scientist, Oyeniyi Akende. Believe it or not, it seems like the American media's picture of Africa is somewhat accurate at least on one level, as Akende admits that many African people do not give technology a chance and/or do not understand it.

Then again, America deserves to be scolded at least a little bit. Akende says that international assistance is largely useless because foreigners don't understand Africans' needs.

This presents a bit of an issue. Akende says that Africa needs to develop at least technologically, and foreigners want to help, but neither party seems to know just what's good for African people, especially because we call them just that: "African." Africa is a huge continent with many different countries, of course, not to mention varying local needs and cultures. So who can find out what everyday Africans think? Whose job is it to pinpoint what is going to help a Nigerian, an Ethiopian, a Sudanese? There needs to be more desire to learn from people both in and out of Africa. Africans need to learn what's best for themselves, and American's need to make a conscious effort to get past the generalizations they assume and learn about an entire continent that they have reduced to a single, monotonous entity.