The second most frequently asked question I've encountered in South Africa is “What do you think of it here? Were you surprised there aren’t lions and tigers walking down the streets?”
Actually, no. But this question is remarkably astute in its characterization of South Africa, no, Africa, in the Western imaginary. Throughout my history text books, the western literary canon, and of course, pop culture, there are numerous portrayals of Africa as the ultimate opposition to the west; a vast and homogenous place frozen in a state of both savagery and child-like innocence. This standard trope enables a de-politicization of the continent, distancing the viewer or the consumer from the colonial encounter. In fact, I never really learned about African history or European colonialism until I reached college, despite my “alternative” and “liberal” educational background. The brutalization of Africa was a dirty secret which is only addressed through the lens of American history when we atoned for our sins by reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” and celebrating Martin Luther King’s day. My sense of world history only acknowledged the depredative effects of colonialism as they directly pertained to the American, and the rest was ignored and discarded. In fact, I distinctly remember a high school classmate claiming that Africa was itself a country.
God! See, at least me and Regina George know we're mean! You try to act so innocent like, Oh, I use to live in Africa with all the little birdies, and the little monkeys!My point is that no other continent in the world has remained as mysterious and inscrutable as Africa in the Western Imaginary. While I can’t imagine anyone lumping together all Asian or European cultures, saying someone is simply from “Africa” goes unquestioned. Take the movie “Mean Girls”, where the protagonist, white home-schooled female from “Africa” is introduced going through a ritual that most American kids experience when they are 6: the first day of school. In short, Cady is shown as child-like and innocent, due to her unconventional upbringing in “Africa”. Despite numerous references to her previous home, no one ever asks where exactly Cady is from, which either satirizes or simply underscores the American refusal to acknowledge Africa as a concrete place with multiple histories and culture rather than a vast concept. Due to references in the film to Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Ndebele tribe who reside in South Africa and Zimbabwe, I assume that the Cady is from Southern Africa. For fun let’s assume she’s from South Africa. What bothers me is how, in her analysis of social segregation, she uses examples from the animal kingdom rather than ever referring to the VAST social and racial stratification in South Africa (and I’d imagine Zimbabwe as well). Yes, her parents are research zoologists so of course she’s grown up around animals, but the conflation of Africa with wild animals serves to reinforce “Africa” as a place without people, and therefore without conflict. Moreover the only mention of African people refers to Cady’s mother’s fertility vase, given to her by the Ndebele tribe. Never mind that the Ndebele people don’t make fertility vases, they make fertility dolls. In the universe inhabited by Mean Girls, all Africans are pretty much the same, so accuracy in representation isn’t much of an issue.
Never mind how I ended up on the American Apparel website, I was a little disturbed by their new
“Afrika” collection, which features emaciated Aryan models in zebra and “tribal” print leggings and bandeau bras. In this instance “Afrika” symbolizes something exotic, wild, and of course, transgressive but apolitical. While patterned leggings and mini-dresses try to telegraph “COUNTERCULTURE”, no explanation is given as to which cultures the patterns belong to or why most of the models are white. Instead, the trope of “Afrika” is employed to sell. I guess this is commodity fetishization at its most blatant, where what the product is supposed to symbolize has absolutely nothing to do with its reality. Maybe when African cultures can be recognized as legitimate and African history is taught in schools the term “tribal print” will be questioned and viewers of Mean Girls will ask where Cady is truly from, but until then the trope of “Africa” will be effectively used to obscure the connections between colonialism, exploitation of people and natural resources, and me. Or you.
P.S. The question I am asked the most is: "Who are you voting for?". Most South Africans can spout out numerous facts about the American presidential candidates while the average American can't name the president of South Africa, much less the man who will most likely succeed him.
