the writing nib

Tag: Africa

  • Revisiting ‘Wakandafication’

    Revisiting ‘Wakandafication’

    In 2020, Jade Bentil, a Black feminist historian, used the term Wakandafication in a tweet during a wave of online discourse surrounding the trailer of the Disney+ film ‘Black Is King’ (I wrote about this here). She wrote, “The Wakandafication of the continent and Black diasporic identities is entirely uninspired. The repeated tropes/symbolic gestures that homogenize & essentialize thousands of African cultures in service of securing the terrain for Black capitalist possibilities & futures is tired.”

    Inspired by Jade Bentil’s tweet, I came to my own explanation of Wakandafication, which slightly deviates from the original. Wakandafication is the selection of desirable fictitious and real African cultural elements and their presentation in mainstream (primarily Western) media as simply ‘African’. Wakandafication perpetuates the misconception of Africa as a homogenous place and capitalizes on the pan-African idea that Africa is or should be one. Looking back, I think there is also a need for me to clarify that pan-Africanism is not simply “Africa is one”, but it is a movement that encourages the unification of African and Afro-descent people, among many other things.

    In this post, I want to focus on the meaning of Wakandafication as tweeted by Jade Bentil.

    Wakandafication post ‘Black Is King’: Young, Famous & African

    Since my previous essay on the issues in portrayals of African culture in international media there have been newer releases specifically targeted towards black people. In this article I want to focus particularly on the Netflix reality TV show ‘Young, Famous & Africa’, henceforth YFA.

    YFA premiered on Netflix in March 2022, with a second season coming out in May 2023. The show follows a group of wealthy African individuals: celebrities, media personalities and businesspeople as they go about their lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is important to mention that nearly half of the cast do not live in South Africa full time (and are not of South African origin). Different African countries are represented including South Africa, where the show is filmed, Namibia, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

    The show starts with one cast member planning a party. She says, “we’re celebrating the continent because it is our time and we want the world to know that we’re also as ‘first world’, even though they call us the third world.” This party, a “flex night” as she calls it, sets the narrative for the rest of the show.

    In both seasons of YFA the viewer is presented with a one-dimensional view of African wealth. Despite coming from different countries, cast members’ display and use of wealth seems rather samey and uninspired: expensive real estate in Johannesburg, lavish parties, boat rides, brunches with no real purpose other than drama, private jets, extravagant (and sometimes impractical) outfits, and Western designer clothing and accessories. It’s considered a negative thing if you can’t keep up. In one scene in season 2, two cast members get into an argument and one accuses the other of wearing fake designer items and not being as rich as she claims.

    This fixation on wealth and luxury, as Jade Bentil wrote, is “in service of securing the terrain for Black capitalist possibilities and futures.” The end goal (becoming rich) is idealized to the point that nothing else matters. The how-tos and the daily challenges of making money as an African artist or businesswoman in a deeply patriarchal society are never explored – not even superficially. This is becoming a major flaw in our society that celebrates capitalistic success through net worth lists and Instagram followings without paying too much attention to the means of obtaining such wealth: exploited and underpaid workers (including children) in factories and mines in developing countries, ever-increasing carbon emissions, and tax evasion through loopholes and offshore accounts.

    Wakandafication is primarily a media-related term and the concept it explains is likely to continue to dominate Afro-centered media in the near future. Shows like YFA validate black/African capitalistic ambitions among young Africans in the continent and those in the diaspora while simultaneously profiting off African cultures presented in an inauthentic or exaggerated way. While I’m excited about more Africa-focused content in international media, I’m ambivalent about feeding into this type of representation that is likely to have negative consequences in the long run.

  • Wakandafication

    As usual, something happens on the internet and someone tweets about it and I say to myself, ‘that would make a great blog post topic’.

    I believe this is related to something Beyonce did or will be doing soon with Disney, but I’m not really a fan or a follower and I do not know anything significant about her work, so I will not comment on that. I’m here to have fun with different (but maybe similar?) arguments.

    If you’re not familiar with the term ‘Wakanda’, allow me to direct you to Marvel’s Black Panther film from 2018. A majority of the film is set in the fictional East African kingdom of Wakanda. Wakanda is exactly what the “Africa isn’t what you think it is” crew try to portray when they tell you that Africa isn’t what you think it is. It’s an African country that is still in touch with its roots because unlike others, it was never colonized. Wakanda still has poweful monarchies with political power and best of all, they figured out a way to use their most precious resource, the metal Vibranium, for their benefit. Wakanda’s technological capability is top in the Marvel universe. It is indeed a pan-Africanist’s fantasy, but that’s all that it is: a fantasy.

    Black Panther came out, many of us (people of African descent) hyped it up, it got an Oscar nomination (which it did not deserve, in MY opinion) and a few of its elements, like the “Wakanda Forever” salute made its way into mainstream media through hashtags, dances and memes. But something about the film lingered and I think it has stayed with us for too long.

    I remember going to Kigali, Rwanda in August 2018 and hearing someone call Rwanda ‘Rwakanda’. The nickname ‘Rwakanda’ was given to Rwanda because it’s said to be a hopeful African country. The cities are clean, things work (allegedly, I don’t know much to have a say on this) and several other progresses that have been made in the country, which are truly remarkable considering its recent history. The adoption of the nickname ‘Rwakanda’, even though not meant to be taken seriously, represents the wakandafication of real places in Africa by Africans (and others) in order to prove to the world that we are worthy of respect. It mirrors the common “we had kings and queens, we had great architecture…before European colonialism” narrative. This narrative tends to overromanticize pre-colonial Africa and glorify things which none of us actually know about very well. For instance, African societies didn’t just have monarchies, we still have them. They too are royal families with titles, but mostly without political power like many other royal families in European countries. The reason why we don’t hear about the African ones is the same reason why we want to prove that they once existed.

    Nigerian author Chinua Achebe wrote what I’m trying to say better:

    I do not see that it is necessary for any people to prove to another that they build cathedrals or pyramids before they can be entitled to peace and safety. Flowing from that, I do not believe that black people should invent a great fictitious past in order to justify their human existence and dignity today.

    Chinua Achebe. Also included in Africa Is a Country‘s post Beyoncé and the Heart of Darkness

    It’s almost as if we only want to be associated with Africa, or bring Africa to non-African spaces, if it is presented in a colonialism-never-happened-kinda-way. Wakandafication ignores the bad stuff, and reality. A good example is how conversations of ‘Rwakanda’ rarely acknowledge the undemocratic government in Rwanda. And for the democracy-doesn’t-work-in-Africa party, the ability to speak does not make you smart. It does, and it should.

    Wakandafication of Africa is the selection of desirable fictitious and real cultural elements, and their presentation in mainstream media as African and not as parts of different cultures in the continent. Wakandafication perpetuates the misconception of Africa as a country with a homogenuous culture and capitalizes on the pan-African idea that Africa is or should be one.

    Africa was never cool until Black Panther. Sometimes I think it still isn’t cool because most of what Africa is presented to be in mainstream media is just select unrelated elements of different African cultures that seem to give the idea that Africa is where it’s at, even though that is not true. (You may refer to a previous article I wrote on a similar topic). African countries, as they are, are not seen as desirable. Africa as a whole is, but only when given to the consumer in a way that makes them feel good about themselves; after wakandafication.

    Spirits, made-up rituals, lions, the savannah plains, rare minerals, etc. These are some of the things that make the cut during wakandafication. If we looked in a bit deeper we would know that spirits are not considered good in many parts of Africa because of their connection to witchcraft, which was never embraced in pre-colonial times, contrary to what some Twitter threads might try to tell you. In my tribe, for example, witches were explicitly bad because of their ability to cause harm to others, and that’s not on European colonialism. Some rituals like the one presented in Black Panther are just made-up and they are meant to be consumed as works of art and not to be brought into the real world as “our roots”. There were rituals before, but most of us don’t even know what they were, some of us don’t care to be honest, and it’s not anyone’s job to create new ones. Lions are being killed by poachers, read the news. The savannah plains are just the savannah plains and animals live there. Most are conservation spaces. Do they look good? Yes, but it’s very important to know the racist colonial history of these places. Rare minerals have become causes of human rights abuses, fraud and other crimes. I’m just trying to show what’s real.

    So, dear reader, things are not how we want them to be. I would love it if there was an African country as advanced as Wakanda. I respect the art that created Wakanda, but I will no longer participate in wakandafication and I hope you won’t either.

  • AfRiCa iSn’T wHaT yOu tHInK iT Is

    At 4:30 am (May 17) I was on Twitter, as usual, trying to delay sleep at all cost (yes, I have issues). I then have a random thought about Nas Daily, so I decide to check if he’s still doing his travel the world project. If you don’t know who Nas Daily is; his real name is Nusseir, he’s a vlogger who’s been traveling around the world for a while now and he makes daily 1-minute videos on his travels, last I checked. He might be doing something else now, but I really don’t care so I didn’t bother to look it up.

    There’s this video he did titled Be Careful in Africa! and basically, he documents some good things about the African cities he’s been to; Cape Town, Kigali, Nairobi, Casablanca, Lagos. He points out the good of Africa; nature, growing economies, there’s even a shot of a fancy car thrown in there and I don’t really get why. His whole point is that the Africa we see on international media isn’t accurate because there are clean roads in Kigali, so duh, Africa isn’t a sh*thole. I think I’ve always had a problem with these kinds of videos (not just his) because they oversimplify the issues that have and continue to challenge almost every country on the continent, since the end of colonialism.

    When talking about Cape Town he shows a clip of a white man next to a van and then an aerial shot of some residential area in the city while saying, “these houses go for $2 million USD each, this is one of the most expensive real estate on the continent!”. Now, this is problematic, even though it is a fact. To put this out there as something we Africans should be proud of and something that non-Africans should find nicely surprising is not a good look. South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. Not even a lifetime ago, the country was deeply segregated. The white minority controlled most of the wealth and their government implemented strict discrimination laws against the black natives and other non-white groups. I’m sure even Nusseir’s life overlaps with South African apartheid. Cape Town is what it is today, expensive and highly modernized in comparison to almost every other African city, because of apartheid. To single it out as “this is the Africa they don’t show you” is just weak. Unemployment rates in South Africa continue to be high, 20+ years after apartheid and many black South Africans continue to live in poverty. Why? Because of the system that enabled Cape Town to be what it is today while disenfranchising, exploiting and marginalizing the natives.

    This Nas Daily video represents everything I hate about Africa conversations in the western world. I’ve had several eye-roll moments when people would talk about how amazing Tanzania is and how living there is like experiencing a paradise. I even fell into this trap myself until one day in 2019 when I was at a dinner party and this man started talking to me about his travels to Tanzania while he lived in Kenya and all I could think of was #cantrelate. Most people who from African countries find their lives unbearable and unhappy because, “we live in paradise, but none of us have the time or the means to actually live here” (Deni, Guava Island).

    I absolutely hate every single “Tanzania” video on the internet that tries to be overly positive about the country, because they oversimplify the issues, just like the Nas Daily videos, and create a narrative that only works for specific demographics. To experience paradise in Tanzania you have to be rich, non-black and if you are black then you need to be a straight man. I’ll give an example from my own experience. Women in Tanzania get mistreated and a good number of us feel trapped and unhappy when we’re there yet you’ll see videos praise Tanzanian women for our decency. But we can’t even wear what we want. We have to be “decent” and cover our knees, etc. so that we don’t get beaten in the street (yes, it’s a thing) or get told that we’re trying to “tempt” men. We can’t express ourselves as intellectual and sexual beings without being called sluts and told that we should know our place in society, because God didn’t create us to equal men and so we can’t have the same freedoms – yes, I’ve been told this very many times by family members. To make a video that ignores the story behind is insulting and careless.

    This is just one example of the many issues in Africa that videos like Nas Daily’s fails to address and therefore, contributes to the same problem he’s trying to “fix” (my choice of word, not his). These videos are presented as content created to debunk myths like the world’s wrong perception of African countries as poor, diseased and with all kinds of evils, including the killings of people with albinism, among other things. Well, the truth is that these issues are present in Africa, very present, and I think it’s time we started being vocal about them on social media. Fearing for your life is a reality for many people, and poor living conditions are basically life in most African countries. I understand why we need to push back against the narrative that Africa is just huts and wildlife and not much going on. But we have to do it in a way that doesn’t downplay the issues that Africans face.

    Fact is, those three skyscrapers in Dar es Salaam won’t erase the unnecessary conservatism that enables inefficient authoritarian rule and misogyny to exist in Tanzanian society. They are there because the government allowed them to be. The same government that will rent them for public office space and restrict entry for women wearing pants and skirts that don’t cover our knees (I am not making this up). We keep saying, ‘Africa is changing’ to mean positive developments, but is it?

  • Time to cancel the white savior complex

    I’m sure you’ve come across white savior films like The Help, Blood Diamond, Green Book, La la land and the latest being The Red Sea Diving Resort. This list is definitely not exhaustive.

    First check out this Seth Meyers parody, just because:

    The white savior complex is refers to the need/desire of a white person to help (save) “people of color” from problems that have been and are still caused by predominantly white societies, structures and practices (slavery, colonialism, imperialism).

    White savior films are the scum of film-making. Not only do they undermine the struggles of people of color fighting against oppression, but they also continue to reinforce the idea that things can only work out if a white person is involved.

    Meanwhile, in Africa, the toughest work clearly falls to the local guides who led the perilous Jewish exodus from Ethiopia to the Gedaref Refugee Camp. Raff composites all these heroes into a single character, Kabede Bimro (played by Michael Kenneth Williams, Omar of “The Wire”), the film’s only nonwhite ally of note.

    From Peter Deburge’s film review of the red sea diving resort for variety.com

    The existence of these films is one of the reasons why white savior practices continue to thrive in the real world. Think of the horrifying case of Renee Bach. This is just one example of the white savior complex going into someone’s head to the point of her thinking she can actually bring change by playing doctor on Ugandan kids from a poor area suffering from all sorts of illnesses even though she has no medical degree. 105 kids died because of her irresponsible actions.

    In his essay The White Savior Industrial Complex, Teju Cole writes, “if Americans want to care about Africa, maybe they should consider evaluating American foreign policy, which they already play a direct role in through elections, before they impose themselves on Africa itself.” I agree with this statement because the politics side of things is often overlooked. We might write hundreds of blog posts condemning white saviors, but the cause actually lies in politics. Western governments usually play roles in all kinds of conflicts and destruction in developing countries: Syria (currently), Cambodia (20th century), the colonization of Africa (Since the 15th century), the colonization of the Indian subcontinent (read on the Kashmir situation today). The result of all this chaos is that these places have become places that now need to be helped through charity organizations from the same countries whose governments contributed to the chaos through evil ideologies such as white supremacy that then led on to slavery, colonialism, etc. Even though lives get saved and significant numbers of people get the help they need, charity is pointless if the politics are all the same. Think about how we have had the United Nations for 74 years and organizations like UNHCR and UNICEF are literally everywhere, but today we have more than 25 million refugees and nearly 300,000 child soldiers worldwide.

    I might have gone on a tangent there, but I hope you get my point: a good number of the world’s problems are a result of evil racist ideologies like white supremacy (colonialism and its effects, etc.) and the funny part is that films and some people try to tell us that the same ideologies are part of the solution. The white savior complex is cut from the same cloth as white supremacy. Thinking you’re capable of saving “people of color” through medical procedures even though you are as unqualified as they are is white supremacy.

    Now back to the white savior films-they are simply a reflection of our world. One thing I feel that people with the white savior complex tend to ignore (in the context of African countries, for example) is that there are locals who can do the exact same thing a western volunteer does. The tough part is that locals are not seen as capable because of many things including the message carried by white savior films and the inferiority complex that many “people of color” still have to this day.

    Also, a message to westerners wanting to spend a summer in some remote African village: there are literally people suffering in your own countries. Think about them before spending thousands of euros to travel across the world to do something that can easily be done by the local population. I’ve lived in Germany for 2 years now and I know western countries also have issues that need normal citizens to help, such as refugee integration.

    Ever heard of ‘charity begins at home’?

  • A Very Short Time in Kampala

    A Very Short Time in Kampala

    TheWritingNib (1)

    It must be amazing to go to bed after seeing a view like this (sorry it’s a bit blurry, I’m not a professional photographer). From the fourth floor of a building in Bukoto area in Kampala, I almost dropped my jaw. I had never seen anything like it, honestly. The part of Dar es Salaam where I’m from is just next to the ocean so it’s pretty plain. So when this photo was taken I realized how “plain” my life had been (I’m so sorry for the pun).

    The city looked back at me on my first night in Kampala, Uganda. I’d spent the day walking around Bukoto area with my friend, who’s also Tanzanian, looking for places to eat. We came across a certain restaurant called ‘Cheese Shop…’ on the way to Acacia Mall for pizza (I’m not a super fan of pizza by the way. Fight me in the comments, or not. Please don’t). Anyway, it was at that restaurant where I had Chips and Chap for the very first time. Chap is Ugandan; very tasty! Unfortunately, I never asked what exactly was in it (I can still google) or took a picture, but egg is the one thing that was noticeable at first sight.

    Aside from a nice experience at the restaurant, having a nice man who help me get my sandal fixed after it broke in the middle of the road and the sight of very many Bodabodas in the streets of Kampala, I enjoyed feeling very welcomed. I believe it is common in East Africa to welcome people from other countries in a friendly manner. People are always curious to know why you’re there. The guy who took us to Bukoto from the airport and back was very happy to help with little things, like directions to places to eat, when he found out that my friend and I are from Tanzania.

    This is the kind of treatment everyone should be getting all around the world. It shouldn’t be that people look at you with scowls on their faces or call police on you when you’re busy doing normal human being things, or you know, hold parades aimed at promoting racist ideologies (“races” don’t exist by the way). If people in Kampala were like this then my friend and I would’ve gone hungry that day, because it was kind of obvious that we weren’t Ugandan, and neither would I have been able to walk back because no one would’ve wanted to fix my sandal.

    Overall, it was a nice experience and I wish everyone had nice experiences in the places they travel to. Also, I hope to go back again someday so I can eat chap and take a photo of it.

    Lake Victoria can be seen in the featured image. Taken on the way to Entebbe International Airport, along the Entebbe-Kampala Expressway.