The following video was discovered via our friend Jeff Liou, and strikes a chord regarding African culture and stereotypes. Our hope is that, if you have been reading our stories and thoughts for a while, you have come away with a more well-rounded picture of life in Africa and African people.
I don't know anything about "Mama Hope", the organization that put this video out there, but the set of young men could easily be Kenyan, and interestingly, they are mostly students in medical professions. Thus, they could easily be a group that we worked with or will continue to work with in Burundi.
(note: if watching with kids, there are a lot of guns in this video)
- I think it's funny that they provided English subtitles, though I'm sure some people were grateful.
- I have seen most of the movies referenced. Some are terrible, but some (most notably Blood Diamond) are quite good and even recommended, though it's true that the portrayal of African men is quite one-sided.
- It's worth thinking about what it would be like as an African man to grow up with the powerful Western world thinking that your only career option or character type is some variation of the "Rebel warlord/child-soldier/purely-physical aggressor.
- I think we could easily substitute each of the guys in this video for people that we know, and have been a blessing to know.
1 comment:
Prejudices are here with us, created by racial extremists and magnified to un-imaginable proportions by the western media. Sad indeed but majority who've interacted with the real Africa will tell you many positive stories. When all is said and done we are all created in God's own image and I do think once we appreciate this then its much easier for us to focus on God's purpose in our lives.
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