Misrepresented Africa
Images have the power to shape the mind of an individual’s knowledge of a place. The world is full of beautiful cities, states, and countries. The large continent of Africa is brought together by fifty-four beautiful countries, but in the media the images misrepresent Africa as a continent. Africa is constantly portrayed as victims of poverty, violence, hunger and diseases. Also, Africans are stereotyped to be uncivilized and uneducated. These images in the media neglect the upside to these countries. The only positive images of Africa that are consistently shown are ones the safaris filled will majestic animals that graze the land. The media chooses to cover the negative side of Africa; they do not focus the achievements
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These countries have gdps range from $1.058 trillion to $109.4 billion dollars (worldsrichestcountries). There are many movies that don’t show the wealthy, modern cities within Africa. Many photos and movies only show the mud huts, tin roofs, the wild safari and jungle, and a warzone; where everyone lives in poverty. Movies that dumb down Africa’s reality are Congo, Blood Diamond, Hotel Rwanda, and Black Hawk down. These movies only depict uncivilized and undeveloped parts of Africa that are nothing, but warzones. If film makers showed the reality of the other side of Africa, many people would be surprised to see that there are countries and cities that have a modern infrastructure. Many countries have skyscrapers, malls, restaurants, universities, schools, public transportation, businesses, and parks. These cities have electricity, clean water, internet, and phones. There are many people in Africa that live in beautiful homes and apartments, drive luxury cars, and live comfortably. Many people who have money and would be considered middle class in the United States live more than comfortably with housekeepers, drivers, and maids. A few countries that are well developed consist of Cape Town South Africa, Accra, Ghana, and Nairobi, Nigeria (Begbie, Africa.com). Also, many of these countries are a wonderful destination to vacation with beautiful resorts in Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda. The media has implanted terrible images of the lands of Africa and brought fear about the countries within Africa and have truly molded the minds of people to believe that is all Africa has to offer. Along with individuals thinking Africa is poor and undeveloped, the stigma that comes along with that is the ignorance that Africans are
In the essay “Why Africa? Why Art?” by Kwame Anthony Appiah, he talks about basically how Africa is thought to be an uncivilized barren and that’s the stereotypical thing that comes to most people’s mind when thinking about this continent. African art has to look a certain way to be able to be called “African.” It has to be made by a tribe, not just one person which is why he says that most African pieces are signed with a tribe name, not just one name. Appiah gives an example of these Asante gold weights that his mother had a collection of. Their use value was to weigh gold dust, which used to be the method of currency. They were made as a utilitarian product, not for art, but many people started to recognize the aesthetic value. He says, “…in appreciating and collecting these weights as art, we are doing something new with them…” These days art is defined to be a certain way and look a certain way. It can’t just be anything, it has to have an aesthetic value to be considered art and to fall into the “guidelines”.
In the 21st century, slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade are viewed as immoral and quite possibly the most horrifying treatment known to man by society and foreign leaders but, was the same view regarded in the 17th century? The short primary sources, “Nzinga Mbemba: Appeal to the King of Portugal”, and “Captain Thomas Phillips: Buying Slaves in 1639”, enables individuals to identify how foreign leaders, specifically the kings of African nations, conducted the issue of slavery and the slave trade. In the words of Nzinga Mbemba and Captain Phillips, the kings of Congo and Ouidah both knowingly accepted slavery in their country but, had strikingly opposing views concerning the Atlantic Slave Trade; King Mbemba prohibited the trading of slaves whereas the King of Ouidah welcomed slave trading.
The inception of the Pan-African movement was motivated by colonialism and racism faced by African people living in Europe, West Indies and North America in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Through this, leaders of African states originated this movement to unite people of African descent to fight against racism and colonialism (Schraeder, 2000:126). The Pan-African movement was initiated by significant figures such as William Dubois and Marcus Garvey. The concept of this movement started outside of Africa. Africa was later included into this movement as it became the continent of concern of the movements vision. The African demand for colonization to end erupted a war between Africa and its colonizers. This war indicated a certain awareness and importance of uniting people of Africa together which is the initial Pan-African vision. (Schraeder, 2000:127)
When the Age of Imperialism began in 1875, it effected Africa in many ways. Nowhere was the competition for colonies more intense than in Africa. Europeans went after North and South Africa splitting up the continent. Egypt and Sudan were taken over by Britain to obtain the Suez Canal. Imperialism helped to develop Africa’s economy and turned it into a continent of colonies.
When considering what the African diaspora is, there is one period of time that people commonly refer to. This period of time is the Atlantic Slave Trade. While not the only diaspora of the African people in history, the Atlantic Slave Trade is most commonly thought of due to the scale at which Africans were being emigrated, with around 10-15 million Africans being brought over to the Americas, as well as the effect it has on us today. When looking at the experiences of Africans, they greatly differed dependent on where they landed. These experiences affected later generations of Africans, forcing them to adopt their own culture based on their surroundings and what they were accustomed to from Africa.
Imperialism in Africa took root in the late 19th century when European nations divided up the continent for their own benefit. Each nation practiced a certain type of rule over the Africans of which they conquered. For example, the Germans, the Dutch, and the French used the practice of Direct Rule over their colonies in Africa. This system is characterized by the colonizers need for the colonized to become assimilated into their culture. The purpose of this was to make the African people “civilized” and act like Europeans. The governing administrations forced on the native inhabitants by the colonial power were meant to undermine those institutions set in place by the indigenous people. By taking over the community’s government on all levels,
The African empires, kingdoms, and cities had many achievements before the arrival of the Europeans. Some of these achievements had influences many other places in the world. Three major achievements were the trading systems, their military forces and strengths of its people, and the wealth and success.
Prior to the arrival of European traders, the continent of Africa had developed sophisticated society as it demonstrated its ability to maintain advanced civilizations, withhold three major empires, and gain wealth through trade. Although European traders did advance organized society in Africa, it would be false to say that prior to their arrival Africa was underdeveloped.
The savageness of wars created a permanent scar in the people. While the rest of the world advanced technologically, Africa is still full of underdeveloped tribes STILL at war with each other. The slave trade is largely responsible for the condition of Africa. The wounds of treachery, wars, and raids still last to this day. Africa is literally fighting with itself. Largely underdeveloped, many Africans are depicted as in poverty and weak. Those in tribes are considered to be mindless “savages.” As a result of the slave trade, Africa is now only seen as a self-destructing continent full of primitive people that fell behind in technological advancement. All things considered, much of this resulted from the slave trade and the cracks it created in Africa’s
The imposition of colonialism on Africa drastically reconstructed the continent. All over, European powers attempted to “assimilate” countries into their own, all the while exploiting and victimizing their people, culture, and resources. However, if there was one aspect of colonialism that provided a fertile ground for conflict, it was the unknowingly insidious method of introducing religion, specifically Christianity, into African families. This is particularly exemplified in the novels Things Fall Apart, Houseboy, and Weep Not, Child. Throughout these novels, the assimilation of Christianity within the protagonists’ not only results in a destruction of their sacred and traditional values, but also their well-being and those around them.
Throughout history, imperialism has led countries to extend their rule over weaker countries and then colonized those countries to expand their own power. Imperialism allows the ruling countries to use the weaker countries for their resources. Colonizing other countries would then lead to growth and a better reputation for the dominating country. There are many examples of imperialism throughout European history. When many European countries “scrambled” for Africa, it seemed as though Africa had no say in anything. During the 19th century, Europe found a way to use Africa for their own growth and power. Using Africa for their resources, the Europeans colonized Africa without a second thought. European imperialism in Africa had a negative impact because of social disarray, cultural loss, and death it caused.
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, was one of the most controversial books in the world at the time of its release. The book seeks to argue that European exploitation and involvement in Africa throughout history. This is the cause of current African underdevelopment, and the true path to the development is for Africa to completely sever her ties with the international capitalist economy. Rodney describes his goal in writing the book in the preface: “this book derives from a concern with the contemporary African situation. It delves into the past only because otherwise it would be impossible to understand how the present came into being and what the trends are for the near future” (vii). Rodney writes from a distinctly Marxist perspective by arguing that the inequalities inherent in European capitalism and required exploitation of certain countries in order to sustain capitalism.
(a) Africans and Europeans have relations that date all the way back to the origins of humans and human migrations. Scholars have hypothesized that Homo erectus found in Europe about 800,000 years ago originated and migrated from Africa Europeans and Africans also had religious relations; which is evident from the spread of Christianity, introduced by the Byzantines, throughout Africa specifically in North Africa, the Nile Valley, and the Horn of Africa. Aside from religious relations, Africans and Europeans also had economic and political relations as a result of European colonization and conquest of the African regions. Economic relations were a result of Europeans coming into Africa and taking natural resources to benefit from in the production of goods and trade. Another specific example of economic relations between Europeans and Africans is the practice of mercantilism, in which European nations were the mother countries and countries of Africa were the colonies. As the mother country, Europeans, would take natural resources from the colony, African regions, to produce goods, which would then be sold back to the colony. This also attributed to the political relations between Africans and Europeans because the economic desires of the Europeans often led to them controlling the Africans to maximize profit and their own personal benefits; which is directly related to slavery, one of the biggest relations between Africans and Europeans. Slavery and the slave trade in turn created social relations because slaves were considered to be a class of their own. Another social relation that resulted from slavery was the creation a “new race” known as the...
There is no doubt that European colonialism has left a grave impact on Africa. Many of Africa’s current and recent issues can trace their roots back to the poor decisions made during the European colonial era. Some good has resulted however, like modern medicine, education, and infrastructure. Africa’s history and culture have also been transformed. It will take many years for the scars left by colonization to fade, but some things may never truly disappear. The fate of the continent may be unclear, but its past provides us with information on why the present is the way it is.
The craftiness of colonialism on Africa changed its history forever but there were good and bad effects because they built schools and improved medical care but they also had segregated benefits and resource drainage.