Business Daily (Nairobi)
Liz Ng'ang'a
11 May 2008
opinion
Nairobi — Summer time, which is slowly but surely setting in, is fieldwork time for many scholars from western universities. Many of them are now packing their bags to head for developing countries.
I sat in a pre-departure briefing by one professor to a batch of students destined for Africa. After the standard methodological and logistical details, the don launched into a few 'don'ts'.
His forewarning included images not to be used in the dissertation. These comprise photos of a researcher in safari attire, surrounded by his objects of study, or a scholar waving to miserable-looking villagers, as he or she boards a plane to return to Europe. "And", emphasised the lecturer, "if you use phrases like 'those people are poor but happy', consider yourself failed."
Of course, the good professor has nothing against poor people being happy, or posing for photographs with hosts. But in his own words, he can no longer stomach this 'man from the North' perspective of Africa.
I found it quite sad that these seemingly frivolous tips, which might well have been relevant to the Late Victorian explorers, are relevant today. Indeed, you could see the students' faces fall to their feet as if to ask, "Then what else is there left for us to show and write about?".
I have seen presentations on projects in Kibera illustrated with photos of Maasais roaming in the wild. 'Why, why', I hear you wail. Well, as a good scholar will easily tell you, it is because that is the image of Africa people know.
No one captures this frustratingly clichéd reporting on Africa better than Binyavanga Wainaina in his classic satire 'How to Write About Africa'. "Always use the word 'Africa or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title.
Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu'.... Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'", Binyavanga advises: "... any work you submit in which people look filthy and miserable will be referred to as the 'real Africa'."
I was gratified to hear the afore-mentioned professor put his protégés on notice. Hopefully, this trend will catch on. But in the meantime, what can African countries do? Ideas such as 'Brand Kenya' are good, what is not is the continued use of the old marketing gimmicks.
Daily Nation columnist Rasna Warah critique of the continued use of 'shuka-clad' Maasais for tourism marketing gets to the heart of the matter. We must not package to suit the world's expectation. Indeed the idea of the Maasai as a 'nobel savage' is itself a creation of western ethnographers. Let's define our own image.
Ms Ng'ang'a is a postgraduate researcher in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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