Chimamanda Adichie - The Danger of a Single Story
Here in the UK, mainstream TV programming seems to always have these documentaries potraying Africa from one point of view, a negative point of view and it's really tiring. This short talk by Chimamanda Adichie accurately articulates how I think and feel. I've posted this before and I am gonna post it again, YOU MUST WATCH THIS UNTIL THE END!
1 comments:
The power struggle is where the problem is. But yeah, if we don't tell our own stories in our own version, at every given opportunity, our image will remain, coz that is what people want to see and hear *refer to hip hop documentary above* *grins*.
Having said that, having watched some of the documentaries, i would say that there are some documentaries that have shown respect to our problems eg 'Lost children of Zimbabwe', Micheal Pallin's Sahara travels (don't remember proper title), I loved welcome to Lagos although some will not agree with me, but for me what i saw were the perfect examples of how (atleast the surroundings i grew up in) people have honestly struggled out of poverty and it still continues. I am also very aware of how many Africans those who didn't grow up in such environments and are living in Africa (especially Africans) will make such people feel bad about themselves, and how many of them are afraid to even disclose what they do because they are afraid to be laughed at, especially whe they find themselves away from home and doing 'dirty jobs' with their degrees, yet in real honesty they have done great things for themselves and their families whilst at home or over here.
There are some documentaries that manage to capture something the way it is and it clicks straight away, but there are those that are just a waste of time and just don't click. People have an image that they don't want to let go, and TBH like she said, it is all about power. And they do benefit from the image we have. The other day i was watching the news it might have been CNN or something, any way they were saying that majority of kids in America believed that America was bigger than the continent of Africa in size. Alot went through my mind, i can't even explain it, but yeah, it is all about the image and how we percieve it.
How do we find ways to try and bring that balance without waiting on those who are and have been on a power trip since forever to further it? We are part of the problem in some ways. the sooner we accept that we are the problem and our leaders back home being the bigger problem, the better. Having said that, we are going to have to crawl before we walk or run. Africa is still developing, technology and mass communication is still coming up, education sysytem is alright but needs further improvement and some of them believe it or not have adopted the western ways of education and style of living in their school system especially the private schools and this in some way is destroying the quality of education (focusing on what they wear, children taking mobiles in schools, children cannot be disciplined by teachers ( a real mess), etc).
we still have alot of stabilising to do, we are importing too much of the western culture and conflicting with our own, to many people western culture is still a superior culture and they don't appreciate their own in so many ways.
i could ramble on all day *glad to be back here* but i'll just move on to the next post. *grins*
Post a Comment