Misunderstanding Africa: The West’s Misrepresentation of Africa. An Insufficient Notion of Evil Seen Through the Lens of the Rwanda Genocide and Child Slavery in Ghana by Paul Bork A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Approved November 2011 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: William Simmons, Chair Julie Murphy Erfani Akua Anokye ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY December 2011 ABSTRACT Africa is misrepresented and mis-imaged in the western media. Because of this, notions and beliefs about atrocities that take place on the continent lack context, leaving people to think that Africa is a place of misery, darkness and despair; a monolithic land where evil resides. The image of Africa as the "heart of darkness" was conjured following the Joseph Conrad novel and the idea of Africa as the "Dark Continent" still pervades Western thought. This is an inadequate understanding of Africa, and lacks the context to comprehend why many of the atrocities in Africa occur. I will explore two atrocities in Africa, the 1994 Rwanda Genocide and child slavery on Lake Volta in Ghana. I believe that both these examples reflect how the label of evil is insufficient to describe the circumstances around each atrocity. In order to understand such events we must understand the part that colonialism and poverty play in the disruption of pan-African culture. The "evils" of these two phenomenon, are in many cases the result of the Western world's past involvement in Africa and are remnants and extensions of the disruption caused. i DEDICATION I would like to dedicate my effort and work to two people, first, to my wife Linda for all of her love and support and second, to my Papa, Harry Marshall. His support of me and love for higher education have influenced and inspired me to never stop learning. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would be remiss if I did not first thank my committee for all they have done over the past two years. My chair Dr. William Simmons whose insights and discussion allowed for me to think in different ways and to see the world of human rights in a new light. I knew from our first conversation via videoconference that my decision to join the program was the right decision and have been grateful for his guidance ever since. To my committee member Dr. Julie Erfani who introduced me to Hannah Arendt and other philosophers, this allowed for me to broaden my horizon in higher learning. Her class helped sow the seeds for this work and inspired me to think deeper. Our conversations have always been enlightening and thought provoking and I am incredibly thankful for her direction. My deepest thanks go to Dr. Duku Anokye for giving me the opportunity to see a new part of the world and expose me to a new area of study. I have nothing but admiration for her and have learned more than I could ever imagine from her. Her guidance and experience have inspired me to continue seeking my passion of the people and places in Africa. Lastly I would like to thank my fellow classmates for all the conversations, experiences and passion each one brings to the table of human rights and social justice. I have learned a great deal from each of them over the course of this program. I look forward to continuing the conversation with each of them. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE.......................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1 MISUNDERSTANDING AND MISREPRESENTING AFRICA. 1 Somalia Vs Rwanda................................................................1 Hollywood Vs Africa................................................................5 2 COLONIZATION, THE HUMAN CONDITION AND THE IDENTITY OF FEAR AND HATRED.................................. 17 Inciting Fear and Hatred........................................................29 The New Work......................................................................32 The Banality of it all..............................................................41 3 CHILD SLAVERY IN GHANA.................................................. 43 The History and Condition....................................................44 Poverty and its Impact on Slaves..........................................50 Slave Labor...........................................................................52 4 CONCLUSION......................................................................... 58 REFERENCES .......................................................................................... 62 iv PREFACE For many Americans, what goes on beyond their own borders is out of sight and out of mind. The concerns of global problems may not directly affect them and feeble attempts are taken to remain informed; a few hours a week with individuals like Katie Couric or the World section of the New York Times is enough to keep them in the know. What seems to be a pretty standard trend however, is that when the stories broadcasted or printed through the usual media outlets pertain to the happenings in Africa, the narrative seems to be the same, the subjects appear as “an undifferentiated mass of pathetic victims” (Berkeley, 2001) painting the picture of Africa as a monolithic realm of despair, savagery, war and turmoil. The viewers of these stories, often times, take them for ultimate truth informing their only understanding of the continent. For example, during the preceding months of my departure to spend a year in Rwanda as a teacher, I frequently received comments and questions from individuals such as, “are you scared?” “Didn’t something really bad happen there?” or “isn’t that really dangerous?” This is not to say Africa, as the second largest continent, should not share in its tribulations or disasters, rather it should be expected just like any landmass of complex civilizations. What is disheartening and ultimately naïve is to assume, the state of Africa that Americans are presented with, is not a “unitary landscape of unremitting despair” (Berkeley, 2001). The atrocities, war, v and turmoil the peoples of Africa face, continent wide, are not carried out by some untapped reservoir of evil. Cases of chaos abound worldwide; plenty have occurred and some are currently happening, on African soil. “Popular” examples that get a good deal of attention are the use of child soldiers, sex trafficking, blood diamonds, and conflict(s) in Sudan. Another example that is recently getting more attention and will be discussed in the third chapter of this thesis is the trafficking and use of child slaves on Lake Volta in Eastern Ghana. One of the most prime examples of horror however, an event that surely hasn’t helped Africa’s image, was the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. Here was, undoubtedly one of the worst massacres of the modern world, in which, roughly 800,000 civilians were murdered by their neighbors, friends, family and government.1 There is no capacity for understanding how and why this could happen, especially no easy way for the general American population to comprehend such horror. The only explanation in the minds of many is the idea of evil. “Evil” seems to be the only appropriate word to describe the Rwanda genocide, or any genocide rather, but when evil is given as a reason, rather than a condition or phenomenon, explanations and understanding become inadequate. When there appears to be only one 1 The number 800,000 is a ‘popular’ number used by most when discussing the genocide, however, it is contested by some suggesting the number killed was much higher surpassing one million with others suggesting it could have been less. See Mamdani (2001), Rucyahana (2007) and Des Forges (1999). vi negative and static narrative of a mass of civilizations, portrayed as one, “evil” gets tossed around recklessly, and its use ultimately meaningless. African’s have no more of a predisposition to “evil” than any other human society, yet the American medias proclivities for addressing Africa’s plight tends to be unilaterally biased and misrepresented. Western films on Africa use themes of brutality and horror to paint a picture of the continent. The award winning film Blood Diamond does this by highlighting the importance of the film’s white characters while portraying the black characters as savage and brutal. The author Keith Richburg has written about the Rwanda genocide as an event that only un-evolved human beings could make happen. In this paper I will discuss evil and its application as well as the idea of the banality of evil. Banal evil is meant to be any action by an individual where there is a lack of any critical thought or when an individual has no other course of action. Concepts of evil can vary however, it is human beings that commit acts others perceive as evil and human beings are no more evil in Africa than in the Western or Eastern world. In many cases elements like propaganda create fear and lead individuals to commit atrocities outsiders view as evil. It is important to analyze the perception of Africa as evil or “dark” because when we are provided context we can see that the West is not only complicit in the events that take place but that we are not that different. vii The media is not the only culprit either, as I will discuss later, ignorance about Africa and its peoples and places exists and even those in the highest levels of government can suffer from it. A recent example of this occurred on a grand scale in 2008, when Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin did not understand that Africa was a continent and not a country and asked her aides “if South Africa wasn't just part of the country as opposed to a country in the continent" (www.mirror.co.uk). For an average citizen in the U.S. to think South Africa is a region of the continent rather than an actually country is perhaps, understandable. For an individual hoping to be the next Vice President of the United States it is unforgivable. Palin’s lack of knowledge for elementary geography may seem petty to many but is significant because it represents how Africa has little importance to the U.S. I will refer to an “ignorance” held by the West throughout this paper and this ignorance is meant to reference notions held about Africa that are inaccurate and insufficient. Inaccurate notions about Africa are held by many people in the U.S. and have been cultivated through the media’s mis-imaging and misrepresentation of Africa. Those suffering this ignorance can also include many individuals who have paid visits to Africa and possess extensive knowledge about the continent but still hold wild and illogical notions. Berkeley (2001) has written an essay as a counter weight to some of those writings. The authors of these writings should know better than to provide their readers with faulty theories of the African viii continent. For instance, Berkeley writes in response to Robert D. Kaplan, who assumes the civil war in Liberia arose from “new-age primitivism” out of “superstitions” that allegedly blossom in the rain forest. Berkeley adds, that through his own travel throughout Africa, he has “found no evidence of ‘new age primitivism’ or ‘superstitions’ that could explain mass murder (82). It is my attempt to investigate the notions held by the Western world that Africa is a ‘mysterious’ place full of ‘tribal’ chaos related to the ‘evil’ of the Rwanda Genocide and the child slavery practiced in Ghana and to what extent do the writings of Hannah Arendt, such as banal evil, work and labor reflect the realities of the two crisis? ix