How Do Children in Africa Live

Throughout history, Africa has become known for being a continent rich with natural resources and history while having various economic connections with countries in western culture. However, Africa has faced its number of hardships; some of which are still taking place to this day. Those who face the hardships especially would be the young generation of Africa: it’s children. As a result, there have been efforts from western cultures to present their struggles and hardships they face in the media. Though the media may have its good intentions in revealing the state of living for African children, contemporary media has portrayed children of Africa as helpless and passive youths needing the help of the more powerful western civilizations. However, media has also has raised awareness of humanitarian efforts by bringing attention to the situations facing the young children.

One of the most common media portrayals of African children is the television commercial—often sponsored by UNICEF—along with a celebrity as their speaker. In the commercials, children of various ages are presented as sad, wide-eyed, hungry, and in “desperate need” of the help of the economically powerful as known advocate Alyssa Milano urges watchers to sponsor a child at the cost of “two quarters a day.” Typically, these commercials don’t encompass all countries of Africa. Specifically, the commercials are filmed in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya (John Prendergast 132). Despite this, those watching the commercials assume the children living in Africa are subject to inhospitable lands. As a result, the commercials attract viewers to sponsor a child (Wa'Njogu 78). In addition to being in UNICEF commercials, western media has portrayed African children being adopted by famous celebrities most notably being Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, and Jillian Michaels. According to Kristen Howerton of the Huffington Post, the adoption of black children “usually takes a cynical tone, as if black children are a fashionable accessory” as initial motivations of a celebrity’s reason to adopt are unknown and speculated to be similar as to why women in general choose adoption. Howerton does state how there is a racial bias in adoption inclination is very frequent, with black children typically waiting the longest out of other races of children to find a family. When adopting, if a celebrity states being open to any race, chances are pretty high that s/he will be matched with a child of color. With that in mind, it would be a sensible reason for a celebrity wanting to adopt a black child especially when most adoption agencies will match a child to the race of the person wanting to adopt.

Though supporting children of Africa isn’t necessarily a horrible thing, the need to help those in need is argued to be as the result of past-generation Anglo-Saxon views of Africa. Most associated with Anglo-Saxon interpretations of Africa would be Rudyard Kipling’s poem “White Man’s Burden.” Kipling’s poem soon became the foundation for imperializing and colonizing Africa. The importation of western culture and beliefs upon Africa resulted in a profits for economic powers advertising support of aiding children of Africa by providing them funds for food and vaccinations. Likewise, western cultures are not just giving Africa means to live; they also giving them economic stability. China has had ties with Africa for over fifty years, most notably in oil and importing textiles. Their relationship with Africa has been one of business, yet China has also provided African people with satellites, public buildings, roads, and railroads. In addition, China held the largest diplomatic event to celebrate over fifty years of relations; topics included were promoting Africa as a nuclear weapons-free zone, assisting in managing natural disasters, combating illegal trafficking of weapons, and countering terrorism acts (Lyman 19-20). As a result, the children of Africa are able to live safely in their native home. Africa’s relations with America are vastly different. America has shared interest with Africa about democratic states and free elections, but is neglecting countries with rampant concerns of corruption and their people, specifically children, living in poverty. For instance, while the United States as allied with Nigeria and Ethiopia on their wars on terrorism, they continue to use Nigeria for its oil resources as Ethiopia continues to have a majority of its people suffering from AIDS and malaria while being in the crossfire of an intense border dispute with Eritrea (Anthony Lake 5, 8, 12). Without the United States taking a more proactive role in the welfare of children in countries of Africa with the most tension, children will continue to live under unsafe conditions.

With selective media attention concerning the welfare of children in Africa, there is a “digital divide” between Africa and western culture. There are myths of Africa where the children are uncivilized, inferior to economically powerful countries, have made no significant contributions to world history, and all black (Wa'Njogu 64, 77). There is the issue of gender inequalities. According to Heike Behrend of Media and Identity in Africa, women are expecting to live pious and pure lives to the extent of regarding the idea of other men looking at their face as shameful while also facing the high possibility of being prevented from attending school. Without media attention, young children will continue to live in such conditions. Likewise, there are children in Africa living comfortable lives without the worry of famine, lack of food and medical needs, and homes torn apart by corruption and war. Nearly two-thirds of the countries in Africa have held free elections while the African Union declared not recognizing governments coming into power by “unconstitutional means” (Lyman 6). Children in Africa are living comfortably in a world of cell phones, social media—Twitter and Facebook among others—satellite and cable television, and income-providing parents. Yet with these positive results, when searching for more information about children in Africa on any popular search engine, the most common keywords found are “starving”, “save”, “charity”, “child labor”, and “poor.” While children in Africa face going without food and unfair working conditions, there is still a lack of equal representation of those living a life of that similar to western culture. Children in pictures are seen smiling with their arms around their peers; not wide-eyed and staring into a camera hoping to see another day, especially when parents in Tanzania are currently facing punishment for failing to put their children in school. Children are now being open to more opportunities to advance in society.

Despite the attention western culture media brings to the situations facing African youth, journalism may be failing in its duty to educate as well as inform those watching. According to Robin Palmer’s article Africa in the Media, this would be due to excess coverage on material to evoke emotion out of the viewer resulting in higher ratings and notoriety. Relying accounts of African children starving, suffering from AIDS, living in countries in times of war and corruption, traveling with buckets to obtain water are meant to invoke emotions, resulting in funds and a spike in television ratings. In relation, the more ratings something receives, the more an idea or notion will be engrained in popular culture it becomes; as a result, it has the chance of being taken as true. Rather than using Africa’s people, specifically their children, as a means to race for ratings and journalism notoriety—so to speak—media can serve as a way to highlight humanitarian efforts. In addition, there can also be media attention on Africa helping its people and opportunities Africa is offering the younger generation to give them chances in living better and more prosperous lives. Media has been used to give African children chances of better lives by appealing to the economically powerful in providing funds for medicine and food, but it has also failed in showing how Africa’s people and resources are being exploited on their natural resources (Lyman 45). There should be media outlets staying in countries of Africa neglected by the media for longer than a day or two. A longer coverage of the area will provide a wider perspective of life in Africa away from hearing how its children are used as labor and starving for food and resources and steer away from profiling Africa’s youth generation and grow as a nation.