Jeremy Clarkson and the Africa they always show you

I should begin with the disclaimer that this piece is not a defensive rant, but rather, the written expression of an exasperated African individual who has had it with the perpetual (and quite frankly, calculated in many instances) negative reporting on Africa.I’ve written on this subject numerous times before, but I told myself that for every negative story that got my attention, I would take pen to paper and in some miniscule yet tangible way, contribute to countering the barrage of doom and gloom reports on Africa. Or at least attempt to.The latest such article that paints Africans as hapless humans with no hope of a future whatsoever, is from none other than Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame. He really is an entertaining character. I actually watch this BBC TV show not because of my fascination with cars (nonexistent by the way) but because of the sharp wit of this Clarkson fellow and his team. The Top Gear team was last week in Kampala, much to the excitement of city residents, quite a number of whom I’m sure are avid Top Gear fans. I spent quite awhile following the team’s visit to Kampala, via pictures on Facebook and Twitter taken by some friends in the country.What really got my attention (and bits of my weekend tranquility) was an article he wrote during a visit to Kampala last year with his daughter, titled, “My daughter and I stepped over the body and into a brothel.” Definitely screams for your attention, that title does. How I even missed reading this last year is a puzzle. I’ve often read his articles in the UK’s Sunday Times, but this was simply new for me. It took me a few minutes to register that he was serious about everything he said in the article, and even worse – believed it and told it to his readers as if his opinions and those of a tour guide constituted cold, hard facts.The aim of this particular visit last year was to educate his daughter about those less fortunate in the world, and a slum in Kampala was the perfect schooling ground for this lesson. He was actually dead serious when he said, “In a two-hour walk I didn’t see a single girl under the age of 18.”They don’t survive,” said our guide. Which, when translated, means they are either raped and then murdered to shut them up or they are beheaded by witch doctors in the daily child sacrifice ceremonies.” First of all, how would he know if the girl was 18 years or not? Second of all, he inferred his reasons on their murder and rape, based on what exactly?His article went on and on describing the hellish conditions of a Kampala slum, and subsequently equating those conditions to the entire African Continent, stating that, “deep down we all feel very sorry for the starving masses but the compassion is buried under the blanket of certainty that Africa is basically screwed… It’s just a question of what wipes them out first: starvation or AIDS.” I’m just relieved that many across Africa do not share his hopeless and fatalistic view of our future.Reading his words reminded me of the term ‘poverty porn’. This is any type of media which exploits the poor’s condition in order to generate sympathy for selling newspapers or increasing charitable donations or support for a given cause. Clarkson’s article had all the attributes of this term, in addition to selective observations, mentioning very briefly more pleasing places they visited in Kampala. Otherwise, it seemed that the summation of his visit to Kampala was based on a slum, giving the impression that that is what Uganda and Africa in general adds up to. While he is entitled to his opinion, his article doesn’t even bother to factor in realities such as six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies between 2001 and 2010 were in Africa, nor that the economic potential of this Continent is on the rise, and it isn’t just a cesspool of AIDS, cholera, rape and murder. Why China recognizes this and many parts of the West continue to regurgitate an outdated interpretation of the Continent as a humanitarian haven only, is befuddling as it is unintelligent. It is simple today to form an opinion not based on lazy second-hand information, but genuinely learning about the state of affairs of a region before spewing all sorts of nonsense to audiences across the world.We have many problems in Africa and I admire and applaud those who expose the ugly underbelly of African governments, whose corruption and greed paves way to the slums that Jeremy writes about. But it is frustrating to see this view of Africa as one of “Dante’s seven circles of hell” is the only and correct worldview, constantly propagated by Western media. At the end of the day we need to get off our laurels and generate content of our continent that not only inspires us, but changes the global narrative and perception of Africa. Otherwise we run the risk of the Jeremy Clarksons of this world owning the African story.