Africa is Not a Country - Part XXVI

This inane report on child marriage in south-east Africa is precisely the sort of thing I was talking about when I favorably contrasted the BBC's willingness to correct its articles to that of the high and mighty New York Times. Reporter Sharon LaFraniere does all of her reporting for the story from Malawi, but that and a claim that Unicef says (where exactly?) that child marriage remains "entrenched in rural pockets throughout sub-Saharan Africa, from Ghana to Kenya to Zambia" is all that she needs to justify making general claims about the entire continent - as if one couldn't find "rural pockets" which practiced such a thing throughout Asia as well. Even assuming that the existence of "rural pockets" of anything in a continent which is rapidly urbanizing was newsworthy, doesn't it occur to Ms. LaFraniere that the causes of the existence of said "rural pockets" just might not be the same from place to place? As I've said many times before, there is more cultural variation in Nigeria alone than in all of India, and yet far too many Western reporters persist in the delusion that "Africa" is one large unvariegated mass whose bits can easily be substituted for each other, however far apart they may be.

For all of the New York Times' liberal self-congratulation, in many ways its reporting on Africa still hasn't moved on much from the days of Henry Morton Stanley "discovering" the "dark continent": everything is generality after generality based on little more than limited personal experience and next-to no understanding of local languages, customs or history, all served with a heavy topspin of negativity: no wonder its readers seem to think all Africans are idiots whose only hope of being saved from themselves is through white largesse.

Comments

[odocoileus]

in sub Saharan Africa?

as if there's no tradition of child brides anywhere else? North Africa, the Middle East, the subcontinent?

What's really funny is that marriage between 13 yo girls and grown men was both legal and commonplace in parts of the US until recently. The country singer Loretta Lynn was married at 13, for example.

There are still isolated pockets in the US where girls of 12 are married to adults. Renegade Mormon sects, as well as the Travellers, a nomadic people of Irish ancestry who travel around the US doing odd jobs and petty crime. The Travellers had and may still have balls where girls as young as 11 are put on display to be chosen as wives by older men.

[Al]

I would like to hear what anyone's take is on the "nude negro law" they want to pass down south.

[Chuckles]

This, despite the fact that the Times has "admitted" questionable reporting on Africa in the past. It quite obviously sees any attempt at change as part of that despicable "political correctness" which it must avoid at all costs, in order to maintain a smidgeon of respectability in certain quarters. It is the Times' hubris and air of sanctimoniousness that prevents them from ever enacting any kind of real change - that and their audiences insatiable appetites for this kind of nonsense.

The NYT's Africa bias has a long and noble history - replete with stock characters, incidents and narratives.

Interesting overview in the following links:

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1155

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36380

[Preetam Rai]

Agree with most of what you have mentioned here. But can't agree with "As I've said many times before, there is more cultural variation in Nigeria alone than in all of India"

I doubt you have traveled to India's Nicobar Islands, North East India or Ladhak. India is one of the most culturally diverse places in the world.

[Abiola Lapite]

"But can't agree with "As I've said many times before, there is more cultural variation in Nigeria alone than in all of India""

I'm not just pulling this out of thin air: look for the dataset to a 1997 World Bank study by Easterly and Levine titled "Africa's growth tragedy" - Nigeria really *does* have more cultural diversity than all of India.

"I doubt you have traveled to India's Nicobar Islands, North East India or Ladhak. India is one of the most culturally diverse places in the world."

I doubt you've stepped foot in Nigeria if you don't believe that Nigeria is even more culturally diverse than India. Your subjective impression is no substitute for the facts, which is that ethnographers have found more diversity in Africa than pretty much anywhere else, which is just as you'd expect given that our species originated on the continent and has lived there the longest.

[Preetam Rai]

I know Africa would have more diversity because people have lived there the longest. But I remember reading somewhere (i think Guns ,Germs and Steel - a Jared Diamond book) talking about the sheer number of languages - he placed India on top followed by Indonesia. I guess the position of these landmasses is such that they saw multiple waves of migrations. There are the Siddhis (originally from Ethiopia) on the west coast of India while some of the people in the North East are closer to the Thais.

Thanks for pointing out that doc by Easterly and Levine, I will look it up.

[Timothy Burke]

The article annoyed me too (and I suspect most scholars who study Africa) but I want to figure out a way where my annoyance isn't voiced as mere pedantry, or worse, as arguing against covering the subject of the article, which I think is where some of my colleagues would land. I'll probably write about this in a day or two.

As far as the Times coverage goes, the worst they've ever had was Christopher Wren in S. Africa; I thought Bill Keller's South Africa writing was fairly good. Norimitsu Onishi filed some good stories from West Africa--good slice-of-life stories that were more carefully contextualized than most, that largely avoided giant generalizations about "Africa".