Introduction
The world’s societies are characterized by various factors, some of which reside from administrative, economic, and societal realms. An African-American writer of Nigerian origin reveals these factors emanate from the western cultural ideology that is rigid with colonialism and imperialism phenomenon. The writer is Mr. Cole, who raised the concerns, which grew into compromising debates following tweets he posted to react to the production of a Ugandan film titled Konny 2012. The video production was by an organization named “invisible children” with intention of addressing a principal theme centered on aspects of politics in the perspective of imperialism and colonialism. After posting the tweets, they went viral, making article publishers such as “The White Savior Industry” divulge into the discussion scrutinizing the reasons why Cole took the initiative for the world to hear.
Interpretation of Cole’s Tweets
As Cole puts it in the first tweet, there is an emergence of the White Savior Industrial Complex, which is fast growing. This tweet showed how the Americans are inventing projects that grow first while pretending to support the Africans (Cole 1). The second tweet mentions the American’s brutal policies that hypocritically appear as charities directed to supporting the Africans. In reality, these charities are created to make the Americans themselves benefit more. The third tweet reveals the aspects of banality sentimentality as Cole puts it (Cole 1). These banalities are not in any way near to helping the striving Africans ascend to the American and European heights. Thus, predictability is an evident problem in American society, and the only solution is committing to enthusiasm.
The fourth tweet elaborates on the contextual existence of the world, which works to satisfy a few people’s needs. These needs are sentimental to the Americans or the white people and the celebrities such as Oprah. Cole answers why the Savior Industry Complex exists in the United States. The author reveals that the business is not about justice, as some will think. The Whites are using such projects to form significant emotional experiences with the intent of validating privileges. The sixth tweet talks about the Konny2012 film relating him to be an ‘awful African warlord’ (Cole 1). Ironically, the Whites strive to support the Africans, only to focus on a single person such as Konny, while many other peoples are dying from the war America picks.
He mentions 1.5 million Iraqis dying, not because they deserve it but because the Westerners have set war that kills. His ironic speaking is extended to tweet seven, and in the tweet, Cole Confesses that he ‘respects American sentimentality’ (Cole 1). All that the writer is speaking about is cautiousness to the American plans. The author uses this tweet to reveal that Americans’ sentimentality is an ideology that is ready to inflict pain. Through imagery, he admits that Americans’ agenda to the Africans is not intended for good. The Whites act as wounded hippo, which is deadly and thus, urges the Africans to be observant of that which the Whites expose them to. In general, Cole devalues the Americans’ interest in serving or helping the Africans as he said from the start, the intent is evil.
Connection to Ideas Relating to KONY2012 and Kristof
Cole’s tweets have ideas that directly and universally relate to KONY2012 and Kristof. Considering Tom’s thoughts, the narrator argues that the white culture is colonial and occurs as oppressive ideologies mystifying, masking, and rationalizing the people of color. The tweets mention Kristof as the devotee of this White Savior Industry. The main agenda shows Kristof as among the journalists who uncovered the KONY2012’s way of addressing their issues in the Ugandan government. Without thinking constellational, Kristof, as a journalist, overlooks the power behind the acts of KONY2012 and instead sees people with hungry mouths (KONY 2012). That is how colonists’ power work in using such impression to oppress the hungry, who, in this regard, are the colored.
Response to Cole
Cole’s critique of the Western culture regarding the actions is reasonable and thus expressive of the colonialism facets. This author mentions that acting in ethical means in helping people is much more than just making a difference. The whites’ charities, the White Savior Industrial Complex, and other projects which the Americans make in the name of supporting the Africans are nothing but striving to find their privileges. The tweets are evident that the wests are exercising colonialism, political and imperialistic issues towards the Africans, a continent they once colonized. Instead of managing the issues that affect the Africans the Whites are instead utilizing their superiority to disadvantage the lives of their colonies even more.
Relying on Adage
Africa is a liberated space, where nobody from Europe or America can be a godlike savior or at least satisfy their emotions. Such utterances picture the continent as being used as a space for projecting the white ego. Colonial ideology, according to “The White Man’s Burden” by Kipling, emphasizes the aspects of imperialism as determinants of the Blacks’ experience under the whites. The American political circles revolved around imperialism issues, where treaties such as Paris, take the center stage. The majority of these treaties, for instance, the Paris, gave the Americans dominance over the Philippians and Puerto Rico. They used the same ability to overpower the Africans and submit under them in the context that the white race was superior. The African race is despised to the extent of allowing the white to rule over them through exercising historical imperialism practice. The poem states “take up the white man’s burden In patience to abide…” (Kipling stanza 2, line 1). Such assertion indicates the Blacks were supposed to take the white’s demands abidingly and in patience. The poem suggests that the Whites rule the Blacks.
The idea that nobody would come from America or Europe and be a godlike savior in Africa is traced back to modern literature. Chinua Achebe is among the greatest contributors to it, and he is among those who have argued about this ideology by speaking to Conrad Joseph as a racist. In his book Out of Africa, Phillips notes that Achebe decides to set Africa up in a quest to examine Europe. The Africans appear as the antithesis of the Europeans, and in the context of civilization, “It is a place where man’s vaunted refinement and intelligence are mocked by the bestiality that is triumphant” (Philips 2). The above statement is clear that if the triumphant bestiality is Europe and the Africans are mocked in intelligence and refinement, any person from Europe would come to appear as a godlike savior because of their supremacy.
Such mental stand reveals the aspects of imperialism as oppressive to the Africans. The notion ‘a singer might be innocent and not the song’, clarifies interference of the white to the lives of innocent Africans. The song is the actual activity affecting Africans in emotional sight. Cole states clearly, that “if we are going to interfere in the lives of others, the little requirement for this should be diligence” (par. 21). Cole’s statement means that before a singer, who in this regard is white, takes the privilege of superiority to meddle into African’s lives, research about the project’s effect should be the minimal priority. The Americans might be doing a favor to the Africans by helping them in a way they think best, but the effect of the product might be unbearable. Taking Uganda as an example, Cole argues that the American’s help to the Ugandans occurs by natives’ humility (par. 16). The comments about how the country can change itself should be ignored if the commentaries do not add value to the people.
The Aspect of a Metonym
Metonyms are some of the common aspects that recall and substitute a larger phenomenon. Pictures of the children that appear at the end of Lumumba are examples of metonyms associated with the KONY2012 video. Similar images work in the context of their respective texts uniquely. KONY2012 is a story that shows how the Americans did not pay attention to the causes of African people, by scrutinizing warlords such as Kony. By taking the people of Congo as an example, the second film “Lumumba” shows how Whites utilize the plight of the Africans to promote their privileges in the name of aiding them. Such reveals the aspect of post-colonialism, which involves aspects of continuous colonial rule over the African continent. The images of the children and the military people at the end of Lumumba and KONY2012 videos show the undermining of the countries’ abilities. In KONY2012, he uses ‘trained’ kids to showcase the country’s weakness and inability to safeguard the lives of the young, who are the next generation.
The same applies to Lumumba who uses juveniles to display the oppressive experience this young group is subjected to. The children are the most vulnerable because they perfectly send to the world the message of the need for liberation in any given crisis (Lumumba 1). The two leaders wanted to receive freedom from their situations. Kony and Lumumba used children to gain an advantage by causing more empathetic scenarios in the film, or the world to see. When children are used in such a manner, the message to the world is that the children become the most affected whenever a disaster or war ensues in a nation.
Although the images are from different places, contexts, and times, they speak to each other in a certain way. The faces are sympathetic icons that occur in a multidimensional way so that viewers can see them as pleading for quick intervention and as wrong people used to benefit warring situations. They contextually narrate almost the same ordeal and thus speak to each other in terms of representing the plight of African children. In the event, they send a cautionary tale to the world. For instance, they say that in every problem that occurs, whether severe enough to cause liberation or just about seeking help, children are the most affected. Many Africans experience issues that do not favor children but instead put them in hazardous situations. Such actions will help reduce the threat of misusing children by making them soldiers, but empower them to support the wellbeing of a country’s future. Children are being neglected in various ways, especially Africans.
The Close Reading: Analysis of passage A
The passage comes from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness referring to the death of Mr. Kurtz. The character speaking is Marlow who is recounting Kurtz’s last words. Kurtz succumbs to a spear injury while serving as Marlow’s boat rower traveling to the next trading station. Marlow, morns his native African helmsman in a manner that shows his lamention. He confesses to missing his helmsman, “I missed my late helmsman awfully” (Conrad 1). The manner in which he speaks shows that even though he was sympathetic to Kurtz’s death, he reveals facets of colonial manipulation of the Africans. The Whites did not care about the sacrifice Africans made to help them achieve privileges they get subjecting Africans to colonialism.
From the story, Marlow appears as a captain of a steamboat for a trading company that belongs to the westerners. It was unfortunate that Kurtz was an agent to the company, which was well known and bound to be successful. The tradeline of this company was ivory, where the traders were taking the product deep into Congo, an African country (Conrad 1). It is evident here that the company was utilizing African resources and much worse, using the Africans to carry their resources to a company operated by a European. The reality of colonialism and imperialism is noted here, where the Africans are oppressed by being made to submit to the colonial powers. The company was exploiting Congo’s resources with the use of machinery that are not only destructive but also exploitive of the country’s resources and people.
Marlow appears to be indebted and compassionate for this native African helsmam as Conrad calls him. He shows his empathy by saying that the helsmam steered for him, “He steered for me—I had to look after him” (Conrad 1). The impression here is that Mr. Kurtz mirrors the European power towards the Blacks as unpleasant. In his loyal service to the European, the helmsman still faced the European’s coercion, a fact that reveals the Whites had an oppressive agenda towards their colonies. Marlow says “…will think it passing strange this regret for a savage…” (Conrad 1). The utterance is of a racist that instead of valuing the travel companion goes ahead to degrade him through racial statements. By speaking in such a manner to his native companion, it is clear that Marlow was revealing the war that is played between the Americans and the Africans. This is still a problem today, as it was in the past when colonialism was more directly subjective to the Africans.
Conclusion
In conclusion, colonialism and imperialism ideologies have controlled the well-being of the Africans for a long time. The white would undermine them to the extent that a worthless person from the American or European region would be a savor in African land. The aspects of racism, colonization, and controlling the Africans’ decisions are still evident even to the current generation, which is why Cole mentions Oprah as the beneficiary of the white’s savior industry. Much worse, the superior people awkwardly use Africans in the name of helping them. The films of Lumumba and KONY2012 show the whites’ readiness to exploit the Blacks as a way of offering assistance, but in reality, causing aspects that are more emotional. Africans are trying to elevate their identity to reach to the European or American’s levels, but the Americans’ superiority will always control them. That is why there are incidences of post colonialism even today.
Works Cited
Cole, Teju. “The White-Savior Industrial Complex.” The Atlantic, 2012. Web.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Drakness. CreatSpace, 2018.
“Lumumba, The Death of a Prophet.” YouTube, uploaded by The New Anticapitalist Film Gallery, 2017. Web.
Kipling, Rudyard. “The White Man’s Burden (1899).” The American Yawp Reader, Web.
“KONY 2012.” Vimeo, uploaded by Invisible Children, 20020. Web.
Phillips, Caryl. “Out of Africa.” The Guardian, 2003, Web.