Celebrity efforts may send wrong message about Afrikans

By Zine Magubane

June 13, 2007

In a few days Vanity Fair magazine will debut its first Africa issue -- an
extravaganza of generous glitterati and anguished Africans. Celebrities are
the latest generation of Western philanthropists to take up the "White Man's
Burden." Their activism, although well-intentioned, reinforces the image of
Africans as helpless victims while overshadowing the significant efforts
Africans are making to stem the tide of poverty and disease on the
continent.

Christian missionaries, who came to Africa in the 19th Century bearing the
ideology of "Christianity, civilization and commerce," strategically
packaged and disseminated images of Africans suffering. Ethnographic
showcases, where Africans were displayed as freaks and circus attractions,
were closely tied to the evangelical enterprise. The publicity material for
these exhibits often made reference to famous missionaries and, likewise,
missionaries counted on ethnographic showcases to further interest in their
missionary work. Because publicity was so strongly linked to fundraising,
sensationalism was the hallmark of evangelical charitable appeals.

In ways that hearken back to the 19th Century, current knowledge about
Africa is being produced and disseminated via celebrity-fueled spectacles.
When viewers see "Brangelina" -- actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie -- and
their brood in Namibia, or George Clooney being featured in People speaking
about Darfur, the Africans in question become, essentially, a colorful
backdrop; their only function is to look miserable, as the intensity of
their suffering bears a direct correlation to their utility in helping a
celebrity build his or her brand.

Christian missionaries depicted Africans as primitives who could only be
lifted out of their misery by the charitable actions of benevolent
Europeans. Contemporary celebrities, if they are to capture attention and
enhance their reputation as philanthropists, must also present themselves as
pioneers, bringing ideas about peace, health and prosperity to unenlightened
Africans. As a result, they not only traffic in stereotypes of Africans as
hopelessly mired in poverty and disease, they also ignore the successful
initiatives pioneered by Africans, on the continent and abroad.

Contemporary media coverage would lead a person to believe that celebrity
fundraising and foreign aid are the only source of income for Africa's poor.
Actually, remittances from Africans living and working in the U.S. and
Europe provide one of the largest sources of African "foreign aid." Ghana's
diaspora, for example, remitted $3 billion in 2004, more than 40 percent of
its gross domestic product.

While it is commendable that many celebrities realize that having paparazzi
flashbulbs capture them in refugee camps, rather than in rehab centers, can
play a critical role in raising public awareness, nevertheless one has to
wonder why celebrities are rarely photographed interacting with African aid
workers, doctors, lawyers, social workers peacekeepers or workers from
non-governmental organizations. Watching the coverage of celebrities
visiting Darfur, for example, one would never guess that of the 14,000 aid
workers in Darfur, nearly 13,000 are Sudanese. Anyone watching concerts like
Live 8, and seeing the red-carpet coverage of "Ocean's Thirteen", would be
hard-pressed to imagine that Africa is host to thousands of talented
musicians, actors, playwrights, novelists, fashion designers and models.

Celebrities bring attention to issues that might otherwise be ignored. They
would be of even more help, however, if they showcased the efforts of, and
worked with, Africans. An old adage holds that if you give a man a fish he
eats for a day, if you teach him to fish he eats for a lifetime. Africans
know how to fish -- if only Angelina and Brad would show Africans helping
themselves. ---------- Zine Magubane is a professor of sociology and African
studies at Boston College.
Copyright (c) 2007, Chicago Tribune