Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and Inventions of the American Mind

by Curtis A. Keim

For many Americans the mention of Africa immediately conjures up images of safaris, ferocious animals, strangely dressed "tribesmen," and impenetrable jungles. Although the occasional newspaper headline mentions authoritarian rule, corruption, genocide, devastating illnesses, or civil war in Africa, the collective American consciousness still carries strong mental images of Africa that are reflected in advertising, movies, amusement parks, cartoons, and many other corners of society. Few think to question these perceptions or how they came to be so deeply lodged in American minds. Mistaking Africa looks at the historical evolution of this mind-set and examines the role that popular media plays in its creation. The authors address the most prevalent myths and preconceptions and demonstrate how these prevent a true understanding of the enormously diverse peoples and cultures of Africa. Updated throughout, the fourth edition covers the entire continent (North and sub-Saharan Africa) and provides new analysis of topics such as social media and the Internet, the Ebola crisis, celebrity aid, and the Arab Spring. Mistaking Africa is an important book for African studies courses and for anyone interested in unravelling American misperceptions about the continent.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, History, Academic

248 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1980

Reviews

[Nathaniel K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, seeing the negative reviews of this book rooted in how bad it makes the reader feel is truly disappointing. If you read to learn and improve the way you see the world, this book is for you. It is clear, concise, well-written and comprehensive, and the lessons you learn, while upsetting and haunting, are important ones for anyone who wishes to transcend the limitations imposed by the western view of Africa. If you want to feel nice and cozy, read something else. If you have any real intellectual curiosity or any sense of social responsibility, read this book.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to feel bad about yourself every time you think of anything relating to the African continent, do yourself a favor and read this book. The author makes several good points, namely that different cultures tend to evolve in parallel as an adaptation to their respective contexts, but meticulously points out flaws in Western stereotypes and casts a lot of blame. He basically calls out any reference to the rural or wild parts of Africa, arguing that advertisements and popular culture should instead depict only ordinary urban culture because that's what life is like for most Africans. The book was based on a good premise, but ends up hyper-critical, hyper-PC, and totally unrealistic. For example, he argues that the word "tribe" came to be used during colonial times as a demeaning term that facilitated the artificial organization of Africans into easily-controlled groups. Even if this entirely true, I don't follow his reasoning to the conclusion that even though many Africans commonly refer to their own "tribe" on legal documents and in casual conversation (food, family history, inherited stories), the word should never be used. Yes, Americans are painfully uneducated about most places in Africa. Yes, the majority of popular references to Africa are mostly biased an inaccurate. I've known this since I first came here. But this book takes it to the extreme of making me feel self-conscious about traveling here, buying anything here, or even thinking about here. I guess it did make me think, but this is a poorly written and frustrating bundle of pages.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not exactly a bad work, but very deeply basic in the same vein as a Very Short Introduction booklet. By necessity of the nature of such work, Keim oversimplifies when discussing the geopolitical history and problems of Africa, particularly when pointing to overcentralization and corruption as the immediate problems of postcolonial Africa to which neocolonial programs like the IMF responded rather than a dialectical relationship between the two which reinforced each other. I would say, being nearly two decades old, that this book is outdated, but the stereotypes Keim discusses have at least held up in their widespread nature in the rural areas of the United States in which I've lived and worked.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for Africana Studies class. Shared a lot of interesting information about America's inaccurate perception of Africa and it's people, and was very readable. If you are interested in Africa or the breaking down of societal stereotypes, then i would recommend this.

[Wendelle]

This book disentangles and reveals the various classifications of stereotypes an everyman might possess in mind about Africa, but I truly feel it goes overboard and crosses over to the other end of stereotyping: that Westerners are a uniform bunch, and all they have is malevolence and bloodthirsty desires for conquest and superiority over Africans...

I'll cite a particular example among the many examples, and general spirit that suffuses in this book. He cites 3 reasons for why Westerners had not abandoned the aid model in helping Africa:
"The West complained but nonetheless cooperated because it needed the
support of African leaders in the Cold War, because raw materials and profits
still flowed toward the West, and because Westerners assumed that Africans
were backward and thus unable to manage any better." But the truth is a huge percentage of aid flowing to Africa from the West come from private donations of ordinary American donors who can only be motivated by impulses of generosity and fellow-feeling. Could this not be a 4th reason why the West gives so much aid? Why does the author not even consider this factor? The author himself cites several successful charities, like the Clinton Foundation and two private doctors whose initiative petered the spread of AIDS among young children. But he only cites this in support of his view of the breakdown of the aid model and the paucity of its successes, remaining blind to the proof it provides of humanitarianism present among Westerners, as much as with anyone else.

There are several other mind-boggling attitudes the author harbors that are present in the book. For one, in the same chapter he describes African dictators as lacking ''discipline and skill'' in distributing gargantuan amounts of aid money, ultimately pocketing the windfall--- seemingly unable or reluctant to simply describe them as greedy, malevolent, or possessive of the smallest amount of their own agency or wit in conducting financial atrocities that hurt their countries.

Several times he even issues rebuke of his students for acts that may have innocent rationales behind them-- specifically, for a time when a student cries out "We should help them!" while watching a documentary about Africans building a town, and for a time when students on a tour of West Africa wanted to go on a safari. He views both incidents as confirmations that his students look at Africans demeaningly, when one could be explained by a desire for community participation, and the other by any tourist's desire to see the specialities of an area. Would the French be similarly offended by American or Chinese or Japanese tourists looking for an experience of a magical, sparkling, romantic Paris? Would the Chinese be similarly offended by American or French people looking to experience the Great Wall? Both are tourist-postcard-impressions of France or China that don't reflect their bustling, urban reality, their city battles with environmental problems or financial decelerations. Yet these are assumed to be typical tourist mistakes, not proof of a large-scale, conspiratorial racism, which the author instantly assumes in similar cases of tourist attitudes toward Africa.

There is no uniform West, just as there is no uniform Africa.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my Intro to African History course. It explores many Western stereotypes about Africa that permeate the media and the collective American consciousness. In addition to explaining the origins of these stereotypes, Keim seeks to present alternative images of a contemporary Africa that help counteract notions of the continent as a "primitive" or "exotic" place.

[Freddie Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really informative look in how perceptions and stereotypes have been developed about Africa, and how they are wrong. Only had to read first half for uni work but was interested so read the rest. Really reflective and thought provoking.

[Ainsley]

Read for HST 258

[Lily McDonnell]

---read for class---
great insight into the history of Western myths and misperceptions surrounding Africa

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to force myself to finish even just part I. I found this book condescending to the point of offense. The text's sexism did not help (see page 9 for the disparaging comments about "easy women," vs "desirable" pure women). He does to American cultures what he chastizes "us" for doing to African cultures: he stereotypes and flattens. There is no room for nuance and no cultural crossings here. Yet Disney's version of America is much like Disney's version of Africa; the reprehensible misperceptions that Keim describes (at least in the intro and part I) is not racist America at work so much as the nature of commercialization and pop culture.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is an important read for deconstructing perceptions and stereotypes of Africa that are commonplace in the United States. The language and writing style are accessible, so it's a nice intro for people who aren't necessarily academics. I was a little bothered by the lack of citations, particularly in reference to scientific studies and assumptions. It strikes me as unprofessional. I think the more important purpose of this book is to make people think more deeply about their assumptions and challenge our typical views on Africa, as a continent. I read this for a college course.

[Josh Maddox · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it may be overly sensitive, this book is a well-written introduction to the American perception of Africa and a good first read for Americans who want to know more about Africa. By examining the most popular American misunderstandings of "The Dark Continent," (including that colorful phrase) Keim helps readers understand their own worldview and biases.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read, though there were some factual inaccuracies, particularly on scientific history, that I found alarming at times. In general, a good starting point for evaluations of Africa.

[Mary]

Had to read this book for a sociology/anthropology class. I found it to be pretty interesting and easy to read.

[Brandi Sellers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Want to feel bad about yourself? Read this one.

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for stripping away the misconceptions of Africa.

[Fmbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, since I'm doing so much reading for school, it might as well count towards my 2013 reading challenge, LOL!

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book as a teaching assistant for a modern African history course. Keim makes many interesting arguments in his thematic chapters. However, I found the book to be too general.

[Mills College Library]

960 K275 2014