Document Type
Open Access Capstone
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
The purpose if this qualitative research is to acquire new knowledge in the African visual representational landscape, a digital space carefully filmed and edited by some of the most celebrated and acknowledged, mostly Western, NGOs in the world. The most watched Africa-related video from 50 NGOs were selected, downloaded and analyzed. After continuous re-watching of a 3.5 hour long set of visual data tree themes emerged. One segment relates around the NGOs intervention, another about the term or statement ‘help’, and the last theme is HIV/AIDS. The findings include the realization that the beneficiary was never explaining the intervention of the NGOs project itself; he or she, the subject, only represented the need of the intervention. Common words used in the videos analyzed, for example community and help, represents a set of skillfully branded donor-driven words. Controlling their importance and meaning within the system of development allows the development agencies to stay relevant. This analysis proposes a conversation among development practitioners, online and offline, on the topic of mitigating unequal power relations. A set of reverse-representational campaigns have been launched by various NGOs and institutions in the last years; these initiatives paves the way for the future realignment of fighting serotypes in a changing African landscape.
Pages
1-63
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Psychology Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons, Social Work Commons