Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 11:46:44 +0100
From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk>
Subject: M-I: the 'starving African' stereotype


>From the introduction to Michael Maren's excellent book The Road to
Hell:

"Our idea of africa had been shaped by years of advertisments and news
coverage that portrayed the continent as poor and helpless. Growing up
in an affluent Western society we were invested with a stake in the
image of helpless Africa, starving Africa. In public affairs discussions
the term 'starving Africans' (or 'starving Ethiopians' or 'starving
Somalis' rolls off the tongue as easily as 'blue sky'. 'Americans leave
enough food on their plates to feed a million starving Africans.'
Charities raise money foir starving Africans. What do Africans do? They
starve. But mostly they starve in our imaginations. The starving African
is a Western cultural archetype like the greedy Jew or the unctuous
Arab. The difference is that we've learned that trafficking in these
last two stereotypes is wrong or, at least, refelcts badly on us. But
the image of the bloated helpless child adorns advertisements for Save
the Children and World Vision. The image of the starving African is said
to edify us, sensitize us, moibilize our good will and awaken us from
our antipathy.

" The starving African exists as a point of space from which we measure
our own wealth, success, prosperity, a darkness against which we can
view our own cultural triumphs. And he serves as a handy object of
charity. He is evidence that we have been blessed, and we have an
obligation to spread that blessing. The belief that we can help is an
affirmation of our own worth in the grand scheme of things. The starving
African transcends the dull reality of whether or not anyone is actually
starving in Africa, Starvation delineates us from them.

" Sometimes it appears that the only time Africans are prtrayed with any
dignity is when they're helpless and brave at the same time. A person
about to starve to death develops a stoic strength. Journalists write
about the quiet dignity of the hopelessly dying. If the Africans werre
merely hungry and poor, begging or conning coins on the streets of
Nairobi or Addis Ababa, we might become annoyed and brush them aside -
and most aid workers have done that at some time. It is only their
weakness, when their death is inevitable, that we are touched. And it is
in their helplessness that they become a marketable commodity."

Fraternally
-- 
James Heartfield


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