Pop culture and humanitarianism

The Onion investigates:


How Can We Let Darfur Know How Much We're Doing For Them?


Thanks to John Drabinski for the link to this video.


In related news, MTV is hosting a benefit telethon for Haiti. I recognize that for the most part, any attention is good attention, but I can't help but be critical of the use of pop culture for humanitarian issues. Maybe the larger problem is that so many signs around us point to pop culture being the pinnacle of "cool." Celebrities and pop stars are who we look up to and aspire to be like, and in order for catastrophes to be significant in our lives, it takes these role models to tell us that it's moral to stop thinking about shopping and focus on Haiti--except during the commercials.

For more on the history of benefit concerts, check out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jul/16/archive-missionary-zeal-1985

I think UR a contra, Vampire Weekend.

While reading Susan Sontag’s “On Photography,” I listened to the new Vampire Weekend CD, Contra. At the second song on the album, “White Sky,” I perked up noticing that the instruments are exact copies of West African rhythms, melodies, and sounds. The majority of the album, in fact, is almost entirely appropriated from different types of African music. I realize that all of rock and roll and therefore the genre’s that have come out of rock and roll are the results of appropriate African music, but this album unabashedly plays African styles of music. Granted, Vampire Weekend is honest about African music being a huge influence on the band’s songs, I just can’t help but thing Susan Sontag is talking about the music streaming into my ears rather than images when she writes,

“The limit of photographic knowledge of the world is that, while it can goad conscience, it can, finally, never be ethical or political knowledge. The knowledge gained through still photographs will always be some kind of sentimentalism, whether cynical or humanist. It will be a knowledge of bargain prices—a semblance of knowledge, a semblance of wisdom; as the act of taking pictures is a semblance of appropriation, a semblance of rape. …By furnishing this already crowded world with a duplicate one of images, photography makes us feel that the world is more available than it really is.” (24).

While the quote doesn’t fit exactly in describing the CD, it does address my immediate response to it: It’s great that Vampire Weekend like this music, but at what point does their appropriation become a mockery of African music? Like Paul Simon’s “Under African Skies,” which may be referenced in the title of the VW song “White Sky,” I wonder who is missing out on the benefits of this musical mélange.

In contrast, a musician like M.I.A. brought African musicians into her music and included names on tracks. In some cases, she was more of the “back up” in songs. Those musicians have gained greater recognition as a result for being good musicians. Interestingly, there’s actually a snippet from an M.I.A. song on the track “Diplomat’s Son” from the Vampire Weekend CD. The song also features Caribbean and West African piano parts, singing parts, and bass drum rhythms.

It is definitely an interesting reminder to me that Africa is not only represented to American through images but also (possibly subconsciously) through music. What differentiates it though is that while Africa is labeled numerous negative identities through images, the more positive (though still relatively sparse) identities espoused through music are often appropriated and therefore not even recognized as being African.

Anyways, I would rather be listening to West African musicians play this music…except maybe the song “Horchata”—that one’s kind of catchy.

You can listen to some of the CD for yourself here.

Haiti, Aid, and The Big Picture

Here are two interesting articles related to media attention about Haiti:

http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/14/catastrophe-haiti

http://gawker.com/5448124/an-etiquette-guide-to-pushing-your-cause-on-twitter?skyline=true&s=i

Invisible Children Exhibit

I went to New York Saturday to see the Parc Foundation's Invisible Children exhibit, From Darkness to Sight. With all of the reading I've been doing about representations of Africa, I expected to see images that showed impoverished victims looking vulnerable and sad. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. There are plenty of challenges for Northern Uganda considering the conflict that the region has faced for nearly 25 years, yet somehow this exhibit managed to capture both the horror and the humanity of the situation.

Whereas marketing for humanitarian causes often targets potential donors or participants by means of guilt, this exhibit seemed a bit more humble. There are two films showing in the first room (as well as the projection of night commuters in the front entrance). Both tell the stories of people in Northern Uganda and their experiences with night commuting and living in Internally Displaced Persons Camps. Though the night commuting has stopped and there has been relative peace for the last 3 years, there are still huge numbers of people living in IDP camps. I appreciated the the exhibit included images of the living situations of people in the camps while reminding viewers that this is not how people normally live in Northern Uganda without objectifying people as mascots of poverty.

This dynamic also carried through the photographs in the exhibit which showed a range of emotions and settings. One photo, of two children trying to sleep on the floor of what may be a church, gave insight into the amount of fear the night commuters carried with them every day. In contrast though, a photo taken outside of a hut encompasses many of the stereotypes typical in photographic representations of Africa. Two children are almost entirely naked. The older child, perhaps 5 years old, is running into the hut but is simultaneously looking back at the camera with a huge mischievous smile on his face. The other, perhaps less than a year old, is naked and crawling to a plastic bucket on the dusty ground outside the hut. Somehow, this photo resonates with the viewer without making the children victims.

The second room, brightly lit with up beat music playing and a wall of brightly colored prints, is the hopeful side of things--the present and the future. It showcased Invisible Children's Schools for Schools program and designer Marie Havens' bag company MEND.

There aren't a huge number of reviews of the exhibit but check out the Huffington post review here.


Thanks for reading!


Julia


*Credit to Steph Walker (http://www.designispeople.com/2009/11/photos-invisible-from-darkness-to-sight.html) for the photo.

"Suddenly, Africa is Everywhere"

The New York Times recently had an article entitled, "Designing to an Afro Beat" (Ruth La Ferla, December 30th, 2009). My initial response to this title was "wow! the New York Times is featuring African fashion designers!" Upon reading the article, I quickly realized that this is the epitome of exotification and appropriation. As a Hampshire student, I realize that these words can be overused and misused (or may sound totally pretentious or obscure), but hear me out:

As for fashion, I've seen this trend emerging over the last year or so. American Apparel serves as a great example. (see image to the left). This print is available for numerous items titled either "White Black Afrika" or "Red Black Afrika." Perhaps the "Afrika" print issue is best described by freelance writer Juniper Russo Tarascio when she says,

"To fully understand the implications of racism that some say are rife in the line of clothing, it's necessary to look at the stereotypes that some say are being associated with Africa. It is a common myth within mainstream America that Africa--a continent composed of over fifty culturally independent, sovereign nations--is a single area that can be readily lumped into a monolithic categorization. Not all of Africa has zebras, and not all of Africa is tribal. Reducing "Afrika" to a single, stereotyped concept tends to further dehumanize all the people who are native to the continent. Considering all of Africa to share a culture may well be considered degrading. To dress a model in a fake kimono and call the line "Asia" would be no less offensive. This might be seen as a mechanism for Americans to view Africa as primitive and exotic: an oversimplification of an entire continent of culture and history for the sake of profit."
(see article posted)

The New York Times article says all of this explicitly without much consciousness that there are major issues with making money off of stereotyping. It evokes quaintness of a "mystic," far-off land full of poor and savage peoples.

"Now another Afrocentric wind is rising. “Its beauty is in having crossed all sorts of racial barriers,” said Malcolm Harris, the creative director of Unvogue, a popular fashion-focused Webzine. “It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from. People are incorporating bits and pieces into their wardrobes and their lives.

That may be because in the popular imagination, African jungles, deserts and plains retain a near-mystical allure, which the reality of the continent’s political turmoil and poverty have never entirely dispelled."

I get that here in the U.S. we really like things. I'm sure some would argue that this is a great opportunity to open free trade with African countries that produce items like bangles and beads and perhaps those people are right. Why not make the market for the goods? My concern is that, like the American Apparel "Afrika" line, the market is host to clothes not produced or designed in Africa that are sold on the premise of stereotypes and the exotic other.

More to come. Comment. Read the links.

Julia

*I am yet to see Avatar so I don't know how much I can say about it. I'll save that one to tackle at a later point.

The Beginning...

Dear blogosphere,

This is my first blog and I'm not entirely sure how to introduce myself but I'll give it a shot:

My name is Julia. I'm a Division III (senior) at Hampshire College currently working on my Division III project (senior thesis). I've spent most of my time at Hampshire studying political science and sub-Saharan Africa, both of which led me to a semester in Uganda and Rwanda studying Post-Conflict Transformation through the SIT last spring.

I'll be using this blog to document interesting "artifacts" i.e. news articles, images, essays, and videos that relate to my thesis. I don't expect anyone to read my posts, but if you do please feel free to comment, question and share other links.

Now might be a good time to describe the thesis itself. I'm writing 3 essays on humanitarianism. The first (now in rough draft form) is on the morality behind giving.
-How does the donor see her/him self in relation to the recipient of aid?
-How was the western humanitarian conscience constructed?
-How has humanitarianism become something viewed as being a-political?
-And ultimately, why do people give?

The second essay explores the ways in which humanitarianism is marketed. This includes news media, humanitarian organization marketing, and art images.
-How does the donor view the recipient?
-How do image and media representations of African peoples establish an over-generalized and victimizing understanding of an entire continent?
-Is the urgency to take action on behalf humanitarian causes dulled as a result of the U.S. understanding of Africa as a place in a perpetual state of poverty, chaos, and conflict?
-Is it possible to "market" Africa in a new way? (this is the hard part. suggestions?)

Essay 3 will be titled "marginalization" but I won't know the specifics until essay 2 is done. This blog will be most useful for essay 2 since it's so visually based.

Well, thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for lots of really interesting things to think about!

Cheers,

Julia