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Nigeria, Ebola and the myth of white saviours
Robtel Pailey
Last updated: 1 hour ago
Contrary to the dominant Ebola foreign intervention narrative, Africans are not waiting to be rescued by white saviours.


In a 2012 article published by The Atlantic, Nigerian writer Teju Cole exposed the white saviour industrial complex for what it is: a pathology of white privilege.

According to Cole, white saviours fundamentally believe they are indispensable to the very existence of those on the receiving end of their "interventions". Like some potted plants, they tend to bloom in "exotic" environments far removed from their natural habitats.

At the height of Ebola, the myth of the white saviour has resurfaced again and again, framing Africans as infantile objects of external interventions. The white saviour complex has placed a premium on foreign expertise, while negating domestic capabilities.

We've been assailed with images of mostly white foreigners flown out of the Ebola "hot zone" with the promise of expert care abroad. As spokespersons for the thousands "left behind", they have been catapulted into the heady limelight of overnight stardom.

We've been bombarded with a cacophony of non-African "expert" opinions about how to "save" Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone from Ebola. Yet, Ugandan and Congolese specialists, who contained the virus repeatedly in their own countries, have been sidelined in the mainstream international press.

Deliberately silenced

Indian writer and human rights activist Arundathi Roy once said, "there is no such thing as the voiceless, only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard". Indeed, narratives about African ingenuity, African agency, and African heroism in the age of Ebola have been preferably unheard. As an African proverb aptly puts it: "Until the lion learns to write, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter."

Most recently Nigeria positioned itself as a lion that completely unsettled the narrative around Ebola and the white saviour complex. As the regional West African hegemon and Africa's fastest growing economy, Nigeria contained Ebola in three months without foreign intervention.

While the US has been scrambling to address the few cases of Ebola on its shores with a series of policy missteps, Nigeria showed that it could be done by an African country on its own terms.

With 31 percent of overall healthcare spending accounted for by the federal government in 2012 alone, Nigeria used infrastructure and systems already in place to fight polio, to contain Ebola. Institutions such as the Nigerian Center for Disease Control, the Nigerian Field Epidemiology Training Program, and the Lagos State Ministry of Health responded quickly by quarantining and treating suspected Ebola patients, tracing the contacts of those infected, and launching a massive public awareness campaign about how to avoid further transmission of the virus. With more doctors than Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone combined, Nigeria also galvanised the support of healthcare workers who had previously been on strike.

Beyond Nigeria's technical expertise and rapid response, equally important is the country's unique brand of superiority that fundamentally challenges the white saviour complex.

Quite naturally, detractors attempted to undermine Nigeria's success. When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the country Ebola-free a few weeks ago, the fanfare around this feat was short-lived. I even sensed some unspoken incredulity. Folks were quick to react that Nigeria wasn't completely out of the woods yet, that there could be a resurgence of Ebola.

Local, not international efforts

Some narratives erroneously attributed Nigeria's success to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the WHO, and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Yet, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie responded with a sharp smack-down of this "lie". She openly criticised The Washington Post and The New York Times for deliberating concealing the fact that local, not international efforts, had contained Ebola. For instance, it was a Nigerian woman, Dr Ameyo Adadevoh, who insisted on isolating the country's first Ebola patient before eventually succumbing to the virus herself.

Less incredulous individuals praised Nigeria, wondering why they weren't being consulted about the do's and don'ts of Ebola containment. Consultations with Nigerians were largely shirked to the side because they invalidated the white saviour complex.

One thing Ebola has exposed about the white saviour complex is that it is voracious and unapologetic. It simplifies complexity, appropriates ideas without crediting the source, upstages local efforts that preceded it, thrives on "I" statements, and soaks up media attention.

In her celebrated essay, "Can the subaltern speak?", Gayatri Spivak rails against the problematic narrative of "white men saving brown women from brown men". In actuality, no one has the capacity to "save" another human being. Believing that one can is the greatest form of self-delusion and narcissism.

Contrary to the dominant Ebola foreign intervention narrative, Liberians, Guineans, and Sierra Leoneans are not waiting around idle, eager to be rescued by white saviours. While we welcome genuine collaboration, we remain our own heroes and heroines. The fact that more than 200 local healthcare workers died from Ebola is a testament to that heroism. They risked their lives long before international actors woke up from their slumber.

No externally driven intervention narrative can change that fact, as Nigeria has proven. So, thank you, Nigeria, for completely exposing the white saviour complex for being a figment of western imagination. Like other psychological disorders, it must be treated with regular doses of reality, now and after Ebola.

Robtel Neajai Pailey is a Liberian academic, activist, and author based at SOAS, University of London.

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i think I like this. But e remain Boko Haram.

Never underestimate this nation NIGERIA. We will rule the world soon.

Chai this thread must enter frontpage or else i will break my iphone 6.

Aljazeera telling Us what we already know.

Ok

I like this
Until the lion learns to write, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter

We must build world class independent media houses to tell our stories

Yori Yori

These people are talking nonsense

Buffer:
I like this
Until the lion learns to write, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter

We must build world class independent media houses to tell our stories

I think TVCNews is trying in that aspect.

Op that's a good article. On a serious note Americans always believe that they have every measures to tackle every problems arises or they are better than any other countries or no other countries can be better than them. Take china & japan for instance with there massive development without any foreign intervention.the whites has always treated us like an animal since d 1st day God has make the difference between us.I wonder when Africans can unit & fight the failure syndrome.but it start from u & me.God bless Nigeria,God bless Africa

Very interesting write up.this should b in front page

Best thing I've read from a pseudo-western media. How they managed to give that article a full page beats my imagination, knowing Al Jazeera to well. They are simply not the best for this, some editor must be questioned somewhere in Doha as I'm typing.

Nobody's gonna help us. How many of us determines how far we go.

Soon, Ebola will be history.

People wonder why ebola was contain easily?

Because the useless politicians knows this is one sickness that do not know the rich or the poor, so the bast@rds came together, not minding thier party affiliation, to contain the virus.

There are other deadly diseases in the country that they don't care about, e.g Lassa fever it kills as fast as ebola, they don't care because them and their wards are protected.

If you all believe that the useless politicians both the northern elders and pdp/apc cabals really want BH to end, then you need to have your head examine, both apc/pdp jonathan and his service chiefs including the northern elders are benefiting from BH, they use our best security men and weapons to protect themselves and family, while the hard working nigeria army are left with antiquity guns and hilux to face BH with superior weapons, today Nigeria troops make gain and we think we are defeating the bastards, tomorrow they claim another territory, this is how the politicians will keep playing chess game with peoples lives and their mad followers are on this forum shouting GEJ till 2019/APC sai buhari and all nonsense they can think of

BedLam:


With 31 percent of overall healthcare spending accounted for by the federal government in 2012 alone, Nigeria used infrastructure and systems already in place to fight polio, to contain Ebola.

.

The Federal Government should be ashamed of this statistic. 31% of a nation's healthcare spending came from the government. The remaining 69% came from the pockets of Nigerians in 2012. Big shame.

PaulJohn1:


I think TVCNews is trying in that aspect.

TVC ko NBC ni.

Is it the APC propaganda network or is there another?

Only Channels comes any close...

True talk. We need to engage harbalist and gifted men of God.

I remembered when I suffered from appendix problem. I had no operation but made use of herbs that was revealed in a dream. The owner of herbs knows all disease that could ever affect man and has provided the cure already.

We should not always chase after technology ignoring knowledge.

Well well, even fashola gave credit to the help given by foreigners
They didn't actually save us but they helped. The polio team funded by the Bill and melinda foundation were redeployed from fighting polio. The US centre for disease control were also part of the initial team .Especially ,important when most of the salary chasing doctors were too scared.
If you want to talk about Afrocentrism , let us start with the real problems.
Christianity and Islam

Obiagelli:
Never underestimate this nation NIGERIA. We will rule the world soon.

I believe u

maestroferddi:
TVC ko NBC ni.

Is it the APC propaganda network or is there another?

Only Channels comes any close...

I mentioned TVCNews because of this

We must build world class independent media houses to tell our stories

Is TVCNews not a world class TV station?
Is the station telling African stories?
If yes, then I don't think I'm wrong mentioning the station.

PaulJohn1:


I mentioned TVCNews because of this



Is TVCNews not a world class TV station?
Is the station telling African stories?
If yes, then I don't think I'm wrong mentioning the station.

I can see that you were taken in by the TVC jingle in which they claim to be telling the African story through African eyes.

I don't know what a world class institution connotes in your book, but in mine objectivity and fairness are among the unimpeachable qualities.

maestroferddi:
I can see that you were taken in by the TVC jingle in which they claim to be telling the African story through African eyes.

I don't know what a world class institution connotes in your book, but in mine objectivity and fairness are among the unimpeachable qualities.

Going by your "qualities of world class institutions", the likes of BBC, CNN and other western media setup to propagate western superiority and talk ill of those states seen as a threat to their dominance or the Chinese CCTV are definitely not 'worldclass', right?

My own quality of a world class TV station is simply how wide the coverage is and how detailed those coverages are. And believe me, none of our indiginous stations covers Africa better that the said TV station.

NB: Channels TV is indisputably Nigeria's fairest station in broadcasting local news.

Only if we can recite our National anthem regularly and ensure we follow its tenets; even America will bow to us.
With no APC,PDP and corruption.