Writing Africa without clichés
A familiar image can replace observation before the reporting even begins. The author’s lesson about the supposed African sun becomes a wider discipline: name the place, examine the words and resist a ready-made picture of a varied continent.
The essentials
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s idea of the single story helps identify a recurring frame: conflict appears African, innovation does not; suffering is expected, joy seems surprising. Reporting must interrupt this inherited lens through attention to what is actually present, rather than gathering illustrations for an account decided in advance.
Recognise the common shortcuts. A savannah opening erases deserts, forests and cities. Calling a political dispute tribal can replace an examination of interests. Presenting a smartphone beside livestock as a collision between eras denies that people live in the same contemporary world. Decorative exoticism turns sounds and landscapes into props.
Precision provides an alternative. Name the location, describe an action and let people emerge through what they do. Check loaded labels and adjectives. The task is not to make Africa look flattering or to conceal its crises; it is to write the specific reality you have observed instead of reproducing a generic image.
Take it to the field
Replace a general label with a place, an action or a verifiable statement. Then review your adjectives: do they describe what you observed, or an image you had already brought with you?
Your turn
Audit one recent international article and one local article about your city or country. Mark stereotypes, loaded words and lazy frames. Rewrite both openings with specific, verifiable details.