This archive report was first published on 14 July 2019.
July 14, 2019
It's disheartening to see that, despite the progress made since colonial times, Africa's written history is still often framed as part of other dominant histories. This framing reduces the continent's rich and diverse history to European explorers and colonial narratives.
One such example is the recent job description circulated by The New York Times for its Nairobi bureau chief. The description paints a picture of deserts, pirate seas, forests, terrorism, and a scramble for resources, with the bureau chief portrayed as a saviour documenting unexpected stories of hope.
What's striking about this job description is its similarity to a colonial-era advert from the 1900s. Both fail to mention the human beings who live on the continent – the Africans.
History has shown us that this kind of framing can have damaging consequences. In 2007, Africa Focus raised concerns over a New York Times dispatch from Nairobi, which described the Kenyan electoral crisis as tapping into an 'atavistic vein of tribal tension.' This terminology was criticized for assuming that such divisions were rooted in primitive identities, a notion that would not be applied to other parts of the world.
Carol Sicherman, Professor Emerita at Lehman College, wrote to the public editor of the New York Times to complain about their use of the word 'tribe' when describing Africans. An online petition launched during the 2019 DusitD2 terrorist attack also protested the bias of New York Times coverage, which featured dead bodies instead of First World reportage.
Colonialism inflicted many traumas, including the exploitation of resources and racial subjugation. The New York Times job description sounds like a call for a colonial settler, not a professional journalist.
To recognize history repeating itself in neo-colonial frames, Africa needs to crowd-source a list of historical things every African should know, including the Berlin Conference of 1884 and the role of temperate weather in East and Southern Africa. African history writers can encompass disciplines such as urban studies, climate change patterns, and the economics and population trends of Africa.
Africa needs Third World peers to cite in a field overflowing with Global North 'expertise.' A comprehensive history of Africa by Africans, spanning all geographical areas and periods, needs to be written. Is this too much to ask of our universities, governments, and the African Union?
