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Charitable Advertisements On TV: Drawing Sympathy For Money or Demeaning Africa?

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Have you realised how some ‘African begging charitable’ adverts run on TV (I can’t say about other countries, but Europe)? It is always very sick looking kids with flies hovering around them with an equally depressed looking mother who appears to have lost all hope in the world, with the ‘announcer’ saying how ‘Kofi’ will go to bed hungry if £2 is not given OR how people are drinking filthy water etc. .

Quite unfortunately, as if by design, these adverts starts running when you’re eating or just about to eat – whether to draw enough sympathy or to quickly make you lose your appetite if you’re the very empathetic type. I really had not ‘bothered’ much about these adverts until my sister-in-law (non-Ghanaian, non-African, non-white) went down to Ghana as a volunteer to work/assist a charity organisation which exclusively supports children.  Among other things, she asked me a very mind-boggling question:

Why respective African governments allow some ‘charitable’ advertisements to run on TV in Europe which does not portray what is happening in real life? Because, according to her, what she often saw on TV is what she had in her mind’s eye before she embarked on her journey but alas, her expectation of working with ‘hungry, dying’ children in a poverty-stricken country did not materialise.

 

Until I moved to the UK, I never knew about any charity soliciting funds the way I always witness on TV now. I knew about the Red Cross and UNICEF (then) as the only ‘foreign’ charity operating in Ghana. We cannot deny the fact that there are families in need in Africa, but the way television has inundated us with images of hungry and suffering children puts a question mark on anything African. These are the pictures that best describe what the rest of world thinks of Africa.

Africa is being portrayed as a hungry, helpless, desolate place; looking up to the mercy of developed countries for its daily bread just to make money, and it is very unfair. Yes, there is the occasional beggar on the street and some homeless people, but not as bad as it’s being projected to the world by whomever. Africa is doing well for itself in all areas apart from the never shifting corruption, greed, selfishness and power hungry politicians. There are poor people everywhere, but their ‘charitable’ advert is very neat and dignified but Africa’s is so magnified.

Some years back, during elections, a reporter from BBC was standing at James Town (no offence to Gas, I’m one) stating he is reporting from the capital of Ghana, from James Town? What happened to the plush areas?  Our poverty has been magnified by the very well-to-do countries that it has even over-shadowed our progress.

Personally, I applaud the efforts of charitable organisations constantly working to ease the suffering of the less privileged African mothers and children BUT there are better ways to portray Africa to the world. Africa is not helpless.  Africa is a giant, which has just failed to take giant strides, due to sheer mismanagement of resources and greed among its people.

OK, it’s still begging, but there is always something called ‘dignity’. It’s not a matter of a ‘beggar has no choice’, we have a choice but……So just to re-echo the question she asked me “why should Africans allow Africa to be portrayed in a demeaning way?”



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8 thoughts on “Charitable Advertisements On TV: Drawing Sympathy For Money or Demeaning Africa?”

  1. Good observation and good article. It’s always tummy churning when i see things like that on TV. A question maybe we cannot find an answer maybe we cannot find. But the writer stating he/she is a Ga? Come off it, we all know GC is full of Ashantis so please don’t put dust in our eyes.

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  2. I’ve watched a couple of these adverts and they always make me sad. I guess its beneficial  to those organizations in charge and they might not bother to consider the negative impact it has on their country. Demeaning or not, you cant change how some westerners see Africa, some will always see all Africa or Africans as poor, dirty etc…..

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  3. If Africa is a big giant y r people still suffering? Get real ok cos there r worse situations in Africa than u c on tv. Tryna cover de bad really?

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  4. I clndnt believe my ears when a whole Professsor asked me in a Psychology class after introducing myself as a Ghanaian if we have Mcdonalds, cars and roads in Ghana.What pissed me off the more is if its true that we really live in the bush and sleep with monkeys.Then i politely answered by saying “Sir cld u pls google GHANA and learn more abt Ghana for u to know if we really live and sleeps with monkeys?”It was so annoying especially being my first day in school and its like in every class u have to introduce urself and where u come from and it annoys the hell outta me cos I might end up being dismissed for loosing my temper in class over an IGNORANT QUESTION.I don’t blame them cos that’s what they have been seeing on T.V.I told him to visit Ghana and tour places like Regimanuel, Manet Ville and Cottage etc and see things for himself.This happened in Arizona in 2003.I once watched Anderson Cooper live from Nima gutter but why not places like all the plush buildings in Ghana.hmmmmm.God bless our homeland Ghana.Amen.

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