Kuljeet Singh Sarah PaynterGeography 1100#Student ID-300288660 White Man’s Burden” and “Kony2012″The feeling of superiority complex in the minds of white people among people of various races and image of people of other races is like a physically disabled person who is unable to help himself to move forward. The believe that god had sent them to civilize other people by colonizing them and doing this is their moral duty. There is a Burden of civilizing others on the shoulders of white man.
In 2012 on March 5, A video named Kony2012 became very famous which was released to make Joseph Kony famous, who for power killed, raped and abducted thousands of people in Uganda. In video a father is telling his son about Joseph Kony which is a bad guy. In it people of Uganda are shown helpless and sympathetic who need help of white people to get out of this. “Any African watching it feels very strongly like we’re not in the picture—there’s no African complexity, and there’s certainly no African agency.” King stated (1).
By not showing any their person they showed that only white people can help others and black themselves cannot help their community. This showed a racial stereotype that kony is not in arrest yet because most of them in western world have not known him. They believe that for any big change or any big decision their presence is must and no other race has the ability to do so.
“Joseph Kony has evaded arrest for one dominant reason: Those of us living in the western world haven’t known about him, and because we haven’t known about him, no one has been able to stop him” {Dinaw Mengestu stated) (2). Image of Africa is shown equivalent to an infant who always needs help of others. White want to be the leader of each and every big decision and they have the believe thatOther races are at mercy of them and they have to go and take decision on their behalf. A lot of people criticized that a false image of Uganda is shown in the video that the new conditions are quite improved than which are showed in video. Africa as a continent is showed as helpless which always need help of American continent. Videos does not showed about the local initiatives that are done by the people of Uganda to make the life of their people prosperous.
The local government is showed powerless in tackling with their issues and without the need of America Govt support they will never be able to solve the problem. They tried to show miserable condition of the Africans. If they have no believe in the power of people of Africa then there is no need to support them. Africa is always showed as poor and helpless continent who needs to be civilized and is inferior to the continents of white people. White people always viewed Africa with the eye of sympathy and tried to help the people by having in mind that helping inferiors in upliftment is their moral duty. A video was made by Norwegian Aid Agency called Radi Aid in which they gave very deep message that the developed countries should not represent single sided story of Africa that is a place of poverty, crisis, AIDS etc. They want their positive sides to be published also so that people of world can have exact idea of the situation of Africans in the present time not the image of Africa which was centuries earlier.
In video they are requesting people to help Norway people from severe winters by donating radiators to them which is quite meaningless and similar to their single sided image of victim. The tried to show that how developed countries have destroyed image of Africans by continuously and repeatedly showing their only bad side to people. They showed that they too have the ability to help themselves as well as to others and don’t need sympathy of anyone for their development. It was able to make a good impact on the people that how Africans image is ruined by their media and writers by just focusing on the one aspect. As one sided story is never enough to make a proper judgement of something, we must know many stories from different aspect before judging someone. The one sided story of always showing Africa as place full of disasters, poverty, dreadful diseases like AIDS is always problematic. The people who had never visited the Africa and which do not have enough knowledge about Africa have a totally different and sympathetic image of Africa as a continent.
This dreadful image of Africa is not an unknown response but is a result of continuous high lightning of one sided image of Africa over all the major medias. People of Africa are shown uncivilized lacking even basic educations and still living with their old traditions and still fighting with one another as tribal communities far away from the lights of knowledge and technology which is not the real truth. The real and current situations are quite different one but the conditions which are shown in media are of Africa centuries back. The famous alumni of Africa who did great works in their perspective fields are never highlighted among other people. There is a big myth still existing in the minds of many white people that only they have the knowledge, ability and courage to do and lead any work or decision. “we believe that nothing in the world happens unless we know about it” (stated Dinaw Mengestu)(3).
This comment resonates with me a lot because this means either they don’t have knowledge about the famous leaders like Nelson Mandela of Africa who are recognized worldwide for their leadership and their sacrifice for their race or they don’t want to glorify them for their own sake. They were not supported by any white man and still they have enough knowledge and power that they brought revolutions throughout Africa. From all the information it is concluded that the image of the Africa needs to be improved a lot in the minds of people through promoting stories of all aspects of Africa and the white people have always seen them as inferior and thought that they have to help them to civilize.
But now slowly with the coming of mass media image of Africa is changing and the feeling of oneness is growing rather than differential.Works Cited1)King, Jamilah. ” Kony 2012’s Success Shows There’s Big Money Attached to White Saviors news for action”. 2012.
pg 3. Retrieved on June 12, 2012 from http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/kony_2012_white_saviors.html2)Mangestue,Dinaw. “Not a Click Away: Joseph Kony in the Real World (2012): Pg-3.3) Mangestue,Dinaw.
“Not a Click Away: Joseph Kony in the Real World (2012): Page-3
