Poverty voyeurism is an obnoxious behaviour that produces negative psychological, economic, and social consequences.
In 2018, Aljazeera carried a story of tourists visiting the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. These tourists had travelled several thousand kilometers to watch and take pictures of the disadvantaged like wildlife. No consent given; no respect offered. People were just objectified and ‘productified’ for consumption by addicts and new customers who wish to donate after amusing themselves with ‘poverty porn’. There is something incredibly beyond bizarre about being obsessed with watching the wretchedness of others in order to feel good about yourself. If this is not a symptom of superiority complex coated in bedrock nastiness, then what exactly would prompt another grown human being, who is rich, or otherwise well-off to go and watch the poor as a form of amusement? A poverty voyeur is eerily akin to a shameless peeping Tom.
Consider this: All over the world, people dress their kids in almost regal super-dignified way to take group photos at school and on occasions. Hardly do they seek to show-case their worst side. The case is no different for Africa, but perpetrators (both Africans and others) are silent about the indignity suffered by those whose images they exploit. This is nothing short of a war in which imagery, symbols and actions are weaponized against Africans. Exploiting poverty comes at a massive cost to the dignity of the affected people. Such evil but lucrative behaviour is now dubbed ‘black trauma porn’, where people produce such imagery of other people’s pain for others to watch while making lots of profit. Now we can explain why those who are in this image producing department of the poverty industrial complex hate to see or hear about any change in narrative about Africa.
People make laws to protect cats and dogs but fly 7000 km to kill a zebra and take a selfie with it. If you think this is super-weird, you will be surprised to know that such premeditated cruelty is just a symptom of a much deeper problem with imperial origins – the image of the civilized vs the savages. It is not only a cringy crime against logic, but it is downright unethical and against any thought of human decency.
The racist roots of poverty
It takes a great deal of institutional effort to cover up any positive news from Africa – millions of dollars. Who is really behind Africa’s emotionally taxing, one-sided narrative and biased news? Who benefits and why is this indignity visited upon Africans? Does any good thing happen in Africa? The coverup of progress has always helped to justify the civilizing mission, neocolonialism, and modern institutional capture. The endless discussion about racism, lack of diversity, etc. is meaningless if we do not revisit the roots of the economic/psychological warfare. People face hardships and difficulties across the globe and Africa is no exception. However, for horrible stories to make the headlines they must contain the picture of the black and brown child or mother. Africans are not entitled to all the charity and pity in the world. Others can have them, too if that is a good thing.
Nothing defines weakness and spiritual emptiness than needing to belittle others in order to feel superior. However, the psychological wages of feeling superior leads many down this maniacal path. It started with those who needed to court home support for their proselytizing missions. Imperialists took over but cast sand into the eyes of European citizens that they were on a god-sent mission to do philanthropy and civilize the savage. The atrocities committed are now claimed to be a mere comma in the past. Why were these kept out of the books? Had the genocide in the Congo and others been taught in schools, perhaps other subsequent tragedies could have been avoided.
The institutional effort from academia has been enormous. Some scholars claim to know that the ‘negroid’ is at the bottom of a racialized caste hierarchy with a very low IQ, irredeemably wretched as shown on TV. The divisive ideas about colour and otherness are transferred to impressionable kids at the dinner table and such racist attitudes end up being the side shows in football stadiums and workplaces. Things will be back to normal as we enter the post covid era. Over time such ideas that blacks are underserving attempt to delete the humanity of black people from the minds of others, hence the violence and discrimination. It seems that a major therapy for personal problems is to compare oneself with Africans. But as the famous Finnish comedian Ismo Leikola intellectually put it, how does eating all the food on my plate really help any starving child in Africa?
It is exhausting to see how we claim to live in a knowledge society but for some strange reason fear to know anything new and good about a place and people we constantly need to compare ourselves to. This trained ignorance where people know nothing good about Africa and still feel no need whatsoever to learn, further clarifies why critical thinking must be the bedrock of educational systems across the world, otherwise people will only see and hear what they want to see and hear – confirmation bias.
The costs of poverty voyeurism
Africa is a continent, not a country. In Africa there are the poor, billionaires, millionaires, and millions of happy people who are doing just fine because they are entrepreneurs and are not begging for handouts. If anything, they seek extra capital infusion or partnerships to scale-up their ventures. Whoever partners with them can expect a handsome return on investment rather than psychological wages. They do not need the imposed victimhood because it destroys their brands (people think nothing good can come out of Africa). Such views take priority from those who require actual help everywhere – like the homeless in America. It tends to erroneously take the shine from rich Africans who are generously giving to their fellow men. Those who are obsessed with such voyeurism must know that it is unhealthy to watch these pictures devoid of the beautiful things on the African continent that cannot be found anywhere else: Lake Victoria, Lake Congo and the longest river in the world, the Nile, not forgetting the pristine flora and breathtaking vista of a wide variety of fauna in their natural habitat. There is good food, great and diverse cultures, warm and happy people breathing fresh air where the sun shines.
Furthermore, what our Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls ‘the single story about Africa’ disrespectfully miseducates and misinforms the Western consumers and investors and that in turn affects Africans on so many levels. Poverty voyeurism does not only affect the dignity of the people we seek to demean and pejoratively speak about for profits but also those viewers in the industrialized nations.
Is it any wonder that when people eventually find things out for themselves, they no longer trust the governments, some NGOs and certain philanthropists? The poverty industrial complex negatively portrays Africa so that some folks can claim sainthood and a badge of saviourism while bumptiously laughing their way to the bank. They profit from exploiting imagery and single stories. The reputational damage and economic costs caused by their adverts are way greater than any gain. As Magatte Wade puts it, for any container of Tom shoes sent to Africa, hundreds of shoemakers close their enterprises. That translates into lost jobs and income. Moreover, images of poverty torture the minds of African children both in the diaspora and at home into self-hate (and bullies have a field day, too). The results include skin bleaching, abandoning of great African traditions and creating too many traitors because of an identity crisis.
Certified exploitation in the name of philanthropy
Let us not get it twisted. Gifts and philanthropy have no doubt changed the lives of many. Countless underprivileged people or folks who have fallen on hard times or are living in economically underdeveloped communities have benefitted enormously from the kindness of others everywhere. While such benevolent gestures are useful, hardly do they bring about any structural changes. They are not meant to be permanent since they also have the potential to create dependency. This is to suggest that no nation has developed based on handouts. Proper macroeconomic management and accountability in investments in health, education, infrastructure, and general economic development have brought results. Vaccine research and various scientific and technological advancements have for long depended on foundations and philanthropists. This means, there is time and place for everything. But at no point should our kindness undermine the dignity of others or their ability to progress. We cannot be fixated on pseudoscientific theories of superiority by constantly reinforcing them with dirty images and poverty voyeurism.