Iweala: Stop Trying To ‘Save’ Africa

Vanity Fair’s Africa issue prompted World Hum contributing editor Frank Bures’s examination of the West’s efforts to “save” the continent. Beasts of No Nation author Uzodinma Iweala’s inspiration for a piece on the subject in the Washington Post this weekend was an encounter with a “perky blond college student” who yelled at him, “Don’t you want to help us save Africa?”

Iweala writes:

There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one’s cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head—because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West’s fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West’s prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.

 

 

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