How African Writers and Western Journalists Have Worked Together to Create Stereotypes of Africa and How They Can Work Together to Eliminate Them

We, as Africans, criticise The West for creating negative stereotypes of Africa and it is partly their fault, but many African writers tend to promote these stereotypes for their personal gain. Sandile Memela and Michela Wrong both talk about the limitations that cause African stereotypes amongst writers. Memela talks about the economics behind it whilst Wrong looks into the systematic side. These passages lead me to believe that stereotypes of Africa still exist because of the occupational requirements of Western journalists and the selfishness of African writers.

African writers aren’t encouraged to challenge stereotypes of Africa because African writing isn’t accepted by the writers’ “market” unless it agrees with Western ideas and thoughts about Africa. Sandile Memela states “African writing and publishing has been systematized to be an extension of Western or European thinking and imagination about the continent and its people”. Memela is saying that many African writers aren’t willing to write about what Africa is really like because their “market”, the Western world, will not buy it or the text might not even be published at all (Why Africans cannot tell their own stories). I agree with Memela completely. As humans, it is in our nature to be unaccepting to change and new ideas and as a result of this we tend to shun new ideas. Another example of African writers promoting stereotypes is how we publish our books. The cover of “Half of a Yellow Sun” in many African countries shows a boy in front of a green background. In comparison, the cover for this same book in Western countries is that of a woman in a burqa walking in a “Lion King-esque” background accompanied by a giant orange sun; and there are many other well known African writers doing this, from the likes of Mia Couto, Kuki Gallmann, Bessie Head and Chinua Achebe. This is what Westerners are used to. Words like “sun”, “great” and “rising” and images of sunsets, wild animals and savannahs are basic stereotypes of Africa, yet many African writers still promote them in their literature so that their books can sell.

Western journalists have created some of the most common African stereotypes over the years but it is not always their fault. There are many different reasons as to why journalists don’t give complete stories, hence, creating stereotypes. Michela Wrong attests “Nor do they face the daily pressure to feed the insatiable news beast with not just articles but blogspots, audio and video footage for their employers’ websites.” And “Academics enjoy word counts reporters can only dream about. Web-based news should in theory have loosened up space, in practice it rarely does, because editors know there’s a limit to how much information a general reader can absorb” (In Defence of Western Journalists in Africa). These quotes discuss the large amount of stress placed on journalists due to deadlines and large tasks and how journalists need to conform to a word limit so that their audience doesn’t lose focus whilst reading. I agree with Wrong in the sense that journalists may leave out crucial information because of their work, schedule and rules which proves that journalists don’t intend on creating stereotypes of Africa but their employers indirectly force them into doing so.

Many may say that Western Journalists are the only party to be blamed and that many African Writers need to promote stereotypes to suit their “market” to survive in the industry but they don’t. Why is the Western world their priority market when they have barely touched their own continent? I believe that African writers have a “get-rich-quick” attitude where they believe that by touching the Western market, they will become famous like Chimamanda Adiche but Chimamanda started with the African continent and addressed pressing issues about Africa. She challenged the Western mindset and it paid off in the end. There are over 900 million people on the African continent and they are trying to reach an audience of 400 million, half of which probably don’t have a care in the world for African issues.

Yes, Western journalists are partly to blame for stereotypes of Africa but many African writers are just as responsible because they feel the need to satisfy the Western world rather than challenge their mindset of Africa. We need to urge African writers to be confident enough to tell the true story of Africa and challenge social stereotypes of our continent so that our continent and its people are empowered rather than discriminated against. We also need to encourage Western journalists to try as hard as possible to write a complete story within their job regulations. Together we can challenge the Western mindset so that negative stereotypes of Africa can be eliminated.

By Oluwadaminiyi Solebo