Images Of Africa Research Paper

As people are born and raised in the Western world they come to form their own image of Africa. These images formed come to us from things seen or heard about Africa. Places such as TV, magazines, movies, photographs, and songs are the ones shaping this image. The things depicted by these sources and the misconceptions they form isn’t Africa’s reality. These images make people in the Western world believe all of Africa is a barren wasteland with dangerous animals. When the people are depicted they are shown to be poor, malnourished, savages, tribal like, and AIDS-stricken. Unless people are taught or have seen otherwise, this is the image they are stuck with and continue to believe. Showing Africa in this way isn’t anything new. A TIME magazine …show more content…
Not only will the red capture attention, but it will also put a sense of urgency in people’s minds. Red is a symbol for something urgent, especially if that something is written is large, bolded text. Examples of things that demand attention using red are red alerts, red flags, stop signs, and stoplights. “Africa” being in red will add more false assumptions into people’s minds. Since red means urgency, people will believe all of Africa needs urgent attention and care. People may not realize they are assuming this, but our mind processes red to mean urgent. In turn, that’s how Africa will be processed. With that said, I’m sure choosing “Africa” to be red, bolded, and almost the largest font on the page didn’t just happen. “Africa” is placed and looks the way it does to capture people’s …show more content…
When looking at the child, it looks like they are crying. When a child is crying, it too is a sign of urgency. People don’t want children crying from pain, sadness, or “agony.” They want children to be happy and smile. This is showing that this isn’t what children in Africa are doing and its using Africa as its background. We don’t see much because a lot is blurred in this image, but we can see that in this area there is little vegetation, no housing, and the land is dry. An example of using Africa as a backdrop is also shown in Heart of Darkness. Chinua Achebe pointed this out in An Image of Africa. Achebe says, “A Conrad student told me in Scotland last year that Africa is merely a setting for the disintegration of the mind of Mr. Kurtz. Which is partly the point: Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African human factor” (1727). I wouldn’t say this cover is eliminating the African human factor, but it is using Africa as a backdrop. It is using Africa as the literal background of this crying child and it is showing all of Africa to be this pitiful, barren wasteland, which it is