Western Vanity

The sentiments carried over from the Wainaina article, "How to Write about Africa" take a sarcastic stance on common Western cliche's and visions of Africa. It's not hard to see the anger in the author's voice when delivering their speech, particularly in the repetition of the phraise "...Because you care." in reference to what he perceives as an ignorant glory seeker trying to appear benevolent towards equally ignorant Western readers.

Similarly, one is able to see that both Wainaina's article and the movie Bamako get right behind the writings of Cesaire, with seperatist ideals pertaining to the World Bank and Western regulation. If I were to take a cynical stance on writing/cinematic pieces like these, i'd have say that this type of outcry is no different than that of India's push for independance from Britain, or America's bid for freedom from Britain. I also see arguments being made toward the existance of a reinvented, yet still existing variation of the "White Man's Burden" demonstrated in Wainaina's article. I say this in light of lines such as "...Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African’s cuisine of choice..." that serve to demonstrate a marketable stereotype that the majority of African countries and communities are primitive and sub-human wretches that need to be helped or held to a different standard.

I'm not sure how heavily the average American is versed in African (and I use that term sparsely) culture, history or literature. But I think it's safe to say that (in reference to Professor Fiona's previous blog entry consisting of links to the "I Am African" campain and Bono's little adventure with Chris Tucker) that the west continues to romanticize, dramatize and construe conditions in underdeveloped nations for the sake of playing the hero. Playing the role of light bringer.

The only conclusion I can really draw from both works is that they were created with the intention of dispelling Western stereotypes and trying to replace them with a more accurate depiction of African life. Instead of romanticizing the horrors and suffering of the people of Africa as a bunch of helpless degenerates, we see through at least one example in Bamako the truth behind the causes of these struggles as well as the people enduring them.

Therefore, I feel that works like these, as passionate and angry as they are serve to turn the scope of drama and romanticism toward the view of a wronged community of hard working, yet exploited people who, in direct contrast to fighting to gain Western assistance are fighting to gain Political recognition, and independance. Through the ideas conveyed in the film Bamako it isn't hard to compare the struggles of a present day Malian to that of a colonial American. To put it simply, the Malians simply wish to become their own, independant sovereign nation and are facing the same struggles of any other colonialized people in recorded history. Africa, or specifically, Mali doesn't want to be influenced or taxed by the West any longer. Its people want only to be accepted as a sovereign nation, as depicted in the movie.