Branding Africa

By: Carina Ray 

In 1963 the respected Oxford historian, Hugh Trevor-Roper, made the outrageous claim that Africa's pre-colonial history consisted solely of "the unrewarding gyrations of barbarous tribes." Europe, he argued, had "shaken the non-European world out of its past – out of barbarism in Africa." It is precisely the continued pervasiveness of Trevor-Roper's contention, rather than the preposterous claim itself, that merits our attention. Indeed, the way in which mainstream Western media outlets present Africa does little to challenge the assumption that the only thing the continent has going for it is the West.

While the West likes to believe it has evolved morally in its engagement with Africa, it continues to present the continent as both victim and perpetrator. Notwithstanding the cultural exports from Africa that occasionally capture the attention of European and North American consumers, what we see, literally on our television and movie screens, on billboards, and in magazine ads, coming out of Africa are the all too familiar images of HIV/AIDS, famine, war, refugees, genocide, and corruption. We also see something else: the West intervening to save Africa.

Yet nowhere in the recent "lend a helping hand to Africa" frenzy have we been allowed to glimpse Africans helping themselves. For instance, late last year Anderson Cooper 360 aired "The Killing Fields: Africa's Misery, the World's Shame." Prominently featured were Western aid workers risking their lives to bring relief to thousands of displaced people fleeing the genocide in Darfur. Glossed over in a few lines, however, were two striking statistics: first, of the 14,000 aid workers in Darfur 13,000 of them are Sudanese. Second, of the twelve aid workers killed in Darfur all have been Sudanese. The latter point was made to highlight the dangers posed specifically to foreign aid workers, rather than to underscore the strong sense of selflessness and self-responsibility amongst Sudanese citizens that drives relief efforts in Darfur. This kind of skewed representation perpetuates the false perception of Africans as helpless victims.

There is something else at work in the West's recent philanthropic engagements with Africa that also deserves our attention. Thanks to the well-intentioned efforts of a number of celebrities, chic is no longer defined solely by aesthetics, but also by social consciousness. Donning a PRODUCT(RED) t-shirt from the GAP or watch from Armani, for example, allows consumers to "instantly become…Good Looking Samaritan[s]," in the words of Tamsin Smith, (RED)'s president. Corporations are quickly catching on to this new breed of humanitarian fashionistas' desire to do-good, while looking good. Aid to Africa, in turn, is arguably being morphed into a trendy accessory that manufacturers use to increase the desirability of their products. The danger inherent in such highly commercialized aid initiatives, what I call "Brand-Aid," is that they perpetuate an image of Africa as a crippled continent.

While there is no doubt that (RED) and other philanthropic campaigns raise much needed funds for various kinds of relief efforts, it is imperative to ask whether in the long run they hurt more than they help. In other words, it’s a question of execution and outcome rather than intent. When visitors to Times Square gaze up at a (RED) billboard are they provided with an image that allows them to imagine Africa as something other than a tragic continent whose only hope lies in the pockets of western consumers? More importantly, when the (RED) trend is over, will its contribution to improving health care in Africa outweigh the consequences of stigmatizing Africa as a dependent and disease-ridden continent in the global imagination? If the answer is no, we need to come up with better, more sustainable ways of presenting Africa to the world.

We can't afford to turn a blind eye to the challenges facing Africans, and equally we can't continue to brand Africa, as The Economist infamously did in 2000, as "the hopeless continent." Rather, we need to begin highlighting the significant contributions Africans make everyday to shaping their own destinies for the better. Give serious airtime to the thousands of Sudanese human rights activists and aid workers in Darfur, rather than just the handful of foreigners among them. Instead of solely featuring Hollywood celebrities in the next (RED) advertising campaign, also include the heroes and heroines of Africa who work tirelessly and often at great cost to themselves to improve conditions in every corner of the continent. My nomination for (RED)'s next model: Patrick Chamusso, the real-life hero in this award season's most underrated film, "Catch a Fire." After being released from prison for his involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle, Chamusso built a home in South Africa for AIDS orphans, which today houses over 80 children. Now that's inspi(RED)!

Carina Ray, Ph.D. Cornell University, works on Modern African History and is particularly interested in the racial and sexual politics of colonial rule; the comparative histories of race mixture in Africa and the African Diaspora; the African Diaspora and reverse migration; and the relationship between race, ethnicity, and political power in post-independence Africa. She is currently revising her dissertation, Policing Sexual Boundaries: The Politics of Race in Colonial Ghana, for publication.