Famine Africa stereotype porn shows no letup
The UN takes the photographer to the “hungriest place on earth”, Akobo, South Sudan. Then the aid groups Save the Children and Medair have canvassed the Akobo community over the last week, searching for the hungriest children. And surprise: you get the most horrific images possible of starving children, to be featured, which reinforces the Western stereotype of "famine Africa". An equivalent procedure would represent New Yorkers by the most horrific images possible of the homeless. But we don’t do that because we don’t have the stereotype that typical New Yorkers are homeless. At least now I can update my references for my Africa class on disaster porn, which had relied on an old quote from Alex de Waal's classic book, "Famine Crimes":
Television producer in Somalia in 1992-93 said to Somali doctor - "pick the children who are most severely malnourished" (to be photographed).
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