mandevu.net

In a seeming last gasp from her supposedly euthanized blog, Maytel points to a really neat essay with great tips about how to write about Africa.

Your African characters may include naked warriors, loyal servants, diviners and seers, ancient wise men living in hermitic splendour. Or corrupt politicians, inept polygamous travel-guides, and prostitutes you have slept with. The Loyal Servant always behaves like a seven-year-old and needs a firm hand; he is scared of snakes, good with children, and always involving you in his complex domestic dramas. The Ancient Wise Man always comes from a noble tribe (not the money-grubbing tribes like the Gikuyu, the Igbo or the Shona). He has rheumy eyes and is close to the Earth. The Modern African is a fat man who steals and works in the visa office, refusing to give work permits to qualified Westerners who really care about Africa. He is an enemy of development, always using his government job to make it difficult for pragmatic and good-hearted expats to set up NGOs or Legal Conservation Areas. Or he is an Oxford-educated intellectual turned serial-killing politician in a Savile Row suit. He is a cannibal who likes Cristal champagne, and his mother is a rich witch-doctor who really runs the country.

Why is this pertinent? As with Africa, journalists covering Cambodia seem to suffer from the same need to trade in stereotypes, and fascination with timeless peasants (either caught in primordial rice-farming village purity or, struggling in the present day unable to escape the trauma of the Pol Pot Regime). While these certainly do represent certain facets of the country, they overlook a lot.

Doubtless there are plenty of exceptions to this criticism. I try to cast a wide net, but likely miss a lot. I just had to vent a little bit. I am also a little late to the table in this discussion, as the links in Maytel’s post reveal. Check it out for broader coverage of the issue.