Encounter images in the meetings between Africa and Europe

Abstract

In 1995 the Nordic Africa Institute initiated a research project on cultural aspects of development and Nordic-African relations. One of the aims was to contribute to providing other images of Africa than the negative images of misery, war and catastrophes often conveyed by the mass media. Another was to encourage cultural aspects of change in Africa, and the dynamics of cultural production itself. It is indisputable that negative images of Africa increasingly dominate everyday reporting and therefore public opinion too. The generalised pessimistic pictures are in stark contrast to what those of us have experienced who have had the opportunity to visit Africa and work there. It was important not only to encourage alternatives to stereotypes and generalisations, which portrayed Africans as helpless victims, but also to try to understand how and why, and to what extent these images had developed. This was the theme of the first conference organised within the new project on culture, coordinated by Mai Palmberg. This research project was called "Cultural Images in and of Africa", and the seminar dealt primarily with the images of Africa developed in Europe. A selection of edited papers from this seminar is presented here.

<p>Contents: Questioning the Origins of the Negative Image of Africa in Medieval Europe / Annemette Kirkegaard -- An Eye-Witness, Hearsay, Hands-On Report from the Gold Coast: Ludewig F. Rømer's Tilforladelig Efterretning om Kysten Guinea / Selena Axelrod Winsnes -- Hottentot, Bushman, Kaffir: The making of Racist Stereotypes in 19th century Britain / Bernth Lindfors -- Labor Laws and Stereotypes: Images of the Khoikhoi in the Cape in the Age of Abolition / Zine Magubane -- "A Gentleman went to Zanzibar". Racism and humanism revisited / Mai Palmberg -- A Voyeur's Paradise... Images of Africa / Yvonne Vera -- Representing the Past in the Present: Memory-texts and Ndebele Identity / Björn Lindgren -- Gender Dimensions in the Images of Africans in Commercial Works of Art / I. Bolarinwa Udegbe -- Jungle Drums Striking the World Beat: Africa as an Image Factor in Popular Music / Johannes Brusila -- Beyond Black and White. Reinterpreting "the Norwegian Missionary Image of the Malagasy" / Karina Hestad Skeie -- Gendered images of Africa? The writings of male and female missionaries / Hanna Mellemsether -- Encounter Images in the Meetings Between Finland and South-West Africa / Namibia / Raisa Simola -- Monkey business in the Congo / Nicolas Martin-Granel -- The Development Gaze. Visual representation of development in information material from Danida / Hanne Løngreen -- I Often Tell People I Have Been to Africa... Swedish-African Encounters through the Aid Relationship / Anna Wieslander -- Africa remains the absolute difference. An interview / V. Y. Mudimbe -- I did not set out to deconstruct. An interview / Terence Ranger</p>