We are all guilty of stereotyping, believe it or not, you’re! I am also guilty of this. You shouldn’t totally blame yourself for that, some people probably don't even know they're one. What comes to your mind when I say Africa (if you’re non-African), or when I say “Chinese product” or when you meet an Arabian man in a bus carrying a bag with the inscription “BOOM”?

Not that these stories you often perceive aren't true, in most cases they are but the problem is we only tend to see that side of them. We fail to look beyond the negative stories. People always like to classify and place people into a group. According to a research conducted, it was observed that people like to categorize the world, both the social and physical world, into preferably neat little groups. They inevitably do so (i.e., categorize) for 3 reasons.


1) it’s cognitively efficient - once you have categorized you no longer need to consider information about each individual member of the group.


2) It satisfies the need to understand and predict the social world. You no longer need to wonder what each individual is like, or what he or she is likely to do. All of this is contained in the stereotype.


3) It’s a way to feel better about yourself; we think our groups are better than other groups.


A lot of factors play significant roles in stereotype. Let me simply put that we often learn not just how to talk, walk or eat from our Parent, who happen to be our first teacher. Most parent also make it their responsibility to teach their kid how they should perceive the world.

A girl who’s Mum had been scammed by a Nigerian swindler when she was still single, sand-filled her daughter’s mind with that single negative story about Nigerians. She grew up only knowing she can’t trust a Nigerian.

Another factor is the media, the media is more than powerful, and they control our mind. They play the biggest role in creating stereotype. They tell partial stories about a group of people and gradually turn these into an identity for the group of people.

What do one say about the German Professor who rejected an Indian student's application for internship over the country’s ‘rape problem?’ He probably have seen so many a times the word "rape" put side to side with most recent news about India that he had failed to look beyond “rape” when he received the application..

“The media gives us ways of imagining particular identities and groups which can have material effects on how people experience the world”

Among such other stories also is Africa, Africa my Africa! Bad news as we all know sell faster Mc Donald’s burgers, people feel better when they see other people having problems bigger than theirs. For the westerners, African is better depicted in the dark than the light side of it. Most love the picture of Africa as a continent where a half unclad man speaking weird languages chases after zebras in his wild jungle.

I find it quite difficult not to get irritated when people ask if I lived with lions in Africa, or if we have airports back at home (they probably thought I flew on a bird to Europe) etc. Annoying and dumb these question might sound, not all is directed as a racial slur, some people are truly naïve.

A man who have spent most of his time in his European or Americans sitting room, watching how Hollywood and mainstream media like CNN, National geographic and a couple of others depicts Africans as stone age people with constant tribal war and abject poverty will not have any better opinion about Africa.

Africa might not be as developed as it ought to be, it has its problem like every continent but African isn’t at zero level, we live in big cities, I don't live with lions, though I wish I had one as a pet. Just like you, the only time I saw a lion was in the zoo.

Every country has those areas that are totally backward or ancient. It should not be singled out as an African thing, we aren’t the world’s village

On the other side of the coin, the west is depicted as the heaven on earth, the place where the streets are tarred with hard currencies.
When an African travels to Europe or America, the first thing on his "to do list" is to capture a picture of himself with backgrounds of tall and beautiful European building and surrounding, though the ghettos and dirty areas exist just close by.

You know why? It's because he had all his life only imagined Europe as the heaven of tall buildings and the paradise where rich wine flows through taps.

The white man on the other hand who visits Africa would leave the city, go far into the remote villages... far from civilizations and make sure he gets the “the Mr. white man and in the midst of poor shoeless African kids” picture. Else how will he explain to his white friends he truly was in Africa.

Hollywood, also on their part are very creative, they make the word TELEVISION sound more like TEL LIE VISION, scenes portraying Africa are always about a half unclad man living in huts speaking some thick languages with wild animals as peaceful neighbors.

Even in schools and universities, these half sided stories affects the African migrants who have traveled miles away from home to study abroad. The teacher who most at times already have his own assumptions of what your academic capabilities should be (or what good education can be taught in a hut or to a kid who is hungry and only thinking about food). This makes some of them get very surprised when you exceed their expectations.

A friend of mine told me a story about his dad. A white man once visited the village his dad grew up, he shared a canned pack of sardine to the kids and ask for picture in return.
The interesting thing about this story is, he brought the kid closer to where the garbage was piled up so he could have the perfect "African" background.
This half sided stories are also very profitable. The easiest way to get funding for your new NGO is making a video that will get the world’s sympathy, and where the best place is for that, of course Africa! A European still thinking about how to pay for his mortgage will be more than willing to donate a few dollars when he sees that some kids don't even have a roof over their heads.
Some even think Africa is a country and we all speak Afrikaans.

I attended a lecture on international journalism, where a BBC reporter gave her lecture on mainstream media and its effect. She spoke bravely and passionately about how Africa being always depicted with hunger and poverty, I nodded happily in concordance to every word she spoke and then to sum up her speech, she added: "Africa have beautiful giraffes, lions, tigers and exotic animals, the world should portray that".

At this point, I felt like she just broke my heart and made an ugly mosaic out it, just beautiful animals?

What happened to the big cities with beautiful terrains, landscapes and exciting sights?

Chinua Achebe once said, if you don't like their story about you write yours, I just wrote mine.

culled from:http://www.tlkdrum.com/stereotypes-africa-in-focus/

© Talking Drum 2015.