You know I was watching Good Morning America this morning (Hey Channel 7 is my default channel...what...what!!!) and they're talking about Prince Harry coming to NY. Then they go to show him in Lesotho (les-u-tu) where he has a charity of some sort operating. Fine. White folks rescuing black folk some more. Stuff I expect. But then I started getting really annoyed. I was annoyed because Harry had these little black kids in his arms and it was like they were his pets. Seriously. I was like the news coverage of a pet that was lost and found. He's picking them up. They're laughing and grinning. They're sticking their tongues out at him. They're pawing at him. They're dancing for him. They're running around for him. I half expected to see him wave a stick, throw it and say "fetch!"
You know it's like Madonna who seems to have a fetish for Malawian children, some of whom are apparently kidnapped from their parents who've been told all kinds of lies about where their kids are going. And before someone talks about how "oversensitive" I'm being, I'll remind the audience that back at the day, as in at the beginning of colonialism, it was high fashion in Europe to have pet Negroes. I kid you not. So historically, we've seen this before.
I don't have a problem with charity. But this whole treating Africa and Africans as if we're children and pets is really insulting. That's why I have a nice link to the Timbuktu Chronicles (on your right). There you will see grown African people from across the continent who are doing for self. Inventing things. Solving local problems. They are coming up with ingenious means to address issues in their local communities. It's also why The Olatunji Foundation loans to small business in Africa. IF you create an environment where parents can make a living and save money, then by extension you create a better environment for their children. They can afford school. Schools can afford teachers. and on and on.
But anyway, enough with the African children as pets newscasts.
(17 years of informed commentary)