Book Review: How to Write About Africa in 8 Steps by Rebecca Pointer.
An Ethical Storytelling Handbook.
Introduction
The handbook was developed to address the rebalancing of the stereotypical narratives about Africa that persist in the development community and outlines how to write about Africa for development community in hopes of educating and changing the usual behaviours that lead to biased stories about the continent.
The Book
Book Title: How to write about Africa in 8 Steps
Author: Rebecca Pointer
Research support from: Shamiso Moyo and Veneka Paradza
Editor: Liz Sparg
Artwork: Mxolisi Gumbi
The handbook is based on interviews with filmmakers, photographers and writers working in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with the purpose of educating and changing the usual behaviours that lead to biased stories about Africa.
In just eight well-explained steps with examples, the book tries to remedy the usually unintended consequences of unethical practices of donors and Western storytellers.
Interesting extracts from the book
- Research has shown that the prevailing stories and frames about Africa focus on poverty, poor leadership, corruption, conflict and disease. These lead to narratives about an Africa that is broken and where its people lack agency and are dependent on outsiders.
- To overcome unethical storytelling, we need to understand what leads to this way of telling a story, and how to develop new practices. Importantly, all staff and contractors involved in the project need to undertake ethical practices throughout the process.
- Most people who work for donor or development agencies are privileged (for example, well-educated, middle-class background/lifestyle, white, male, and fluent in European languages). This sets up unequal power relations between development organisations and those they claim to be helping. Such power dynamics are particularly dangerous when privileged people feel entitled to wield power, and when aid recipients feel obliged to those providing aid.
- A key part of ethical storytelling is gathering the story in an ethical way. Unequal power relations often become obvious when storygatherers do not show respect to the people they are interviewing.
- “Communities have lived through their problems and know more about the solutions than outsiders. They may have also developed unique and innovative solutions to problems.”
Read: How to Write About Africa in 8 Steps: An ethical storytelling handbook.
Take Aways
Ethical storytelling means adopting a new approach that consciously tries to move away from harmful, stereotypical narratives.
Getting ethical storytelling right means:
- Creating better, more authentic stories that connect people of different backgrounds and disrupt inequitable power relations, such as those around race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality;
- Representing lived experiences more accurately;
- Encouraging mutual respect; and
- Preserving the dignity of those whose story is being told.
Conclusion
I found this guide to be very informative and as I was reading another book called The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge by V.Y. Mudimbe, I realised just how true this guide is.
