The President In “Africa”
Noticed? True, that President Obama was in Accra, Ghana was regularly mentioned. Yet in covering the President there, media repeatedly referred primarily to his being in “Africa.”
As if Ghana were merely some “African province.” But that just continues a media trend. In contrast, whenever a U.S. president visits European countries, he is referred to as being in a particular country first and foremost. For example, when the President was in Italy, the headlines were he was in Italy, not in Europe.
Europe is secondary. Not quite so Africa. Media coverage is such that one can almost believe there are Americans who think “Africa” is a single place, broken up into smaller places.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Kenyans are as different from Ghanaians as Bulgarians are from Portuguese. Nigerians are not South Africans as Danes are not Spaniards. To say nothing of the fact that clearly we are talking here about sub-Saharan Africa to begin with, and not Arab, northern Africa.
Moreover, there is also this irritating media habit. Even when seemingly trying not to do so, “Africans” are still too often portrayed mostly as helpless victims. Or they are merely fringe players in someone else’s “game.” Or Africans can “profit” from the U.S. “civil rights” movement.
And the list goes on. That they should be treated on their own terms apparently enters few media heads. Take one CNN reporter, who earlier today obviously was trying to talk up President Obama’s positive influence, in noting that he as president speaking in Ghana forthrightly to “Africans” was very different than any other previous American president’s doing so.
And we know why: because, you know, he has African blood and all that. Yet that President Obama’s “African blood” is Kenyan and not Ghanaian? That did not get a look in. Yet if he were of “Polish blood” and speaking in Lisbon, would that CNN reporter have made the same comment?
Worse, the logical follow on to that inane observation: that Africans are sitting around, waiting to be told by a “savior” U.S. president of half African blood, precisely what they need to do? It is ludicrous. One doesn’t see such treatment meted out in that manner towards any other (three-quarters of a) continent.
Even “half-African blood” President Obama himself, questioned in Italy yesterday, can fall into the trap:
…THE PRESIDENT: I’m sorry, your mic didn’t — it’s not working.
Q Hello? Yes, that’s better. Thank you, sir.
Mr. President, we were told that you made your appeal for the food security money during the meetings personal by citing your family experience in Kenya, your cousin and so forth. I wonder if you could relate to us a little bit of what you said then, and talk about what — your family experience, how that influences your policies and approach.
THE PRESIDENT: What you heard is true, and I started with this fairly telling point that when my father traveled to the United States from Kenya to study, at that time the per capita income and Gross Domestic Product of Kenya was higher than South Korea’s. Today obviously South Korea is a highly developed and relatively wealthy country, and Kenya is still struggling with deep poverty in much of the country. And the question I asked in the meeting was, why is that? There had been some talk about the legacies of colonialism and other policies by wealthier nations, and without in any way diminishing that history, the point I made was that the South Korean government, working with the private sector and civil society, was able to create a set of institutions that provided transparency and accountability and efficiency that allowed for extraordinary economic progress, and that there was no reason why African countries could not do the same…
Interestingly, the President there notes he asked “why.” But he does so here without also noting that his father had left a Kenya that was NOT then an independent country, but was a long time British colonial area. Therefore, what can be stated is Kenya has gone downhill since independence (another “legacy of colonialism?”), compared to (what was then war-ravaged) South Korea.
That is the vital issue that needs answering. Why is that so, and how can we help? Presumably, someone has asked Kenyans?
[Posted 7:10 PM July 11, NY time.]
