Forget it, Africa is not the dark continent

Daisy Osakue had egg on her face, not figuratively, but in the literal sense. Some assailants had pelted her with raw eggs, one of which struck her in the eye and caused a debilitating injury. The incident would have passed unnoticed but for the fact that Daisy is no ordinary person. She is a champion discus athlete who hopes to represent Italy, her country of birth and the only country she has ever known.

Ms Osakue is also black, a detail that seems to have inspired the unprovoked attack. This incident has not only generated debate on racism in Italy, but has also made it across the ocean to the United States where the New York Times has described Ms Osakue as “the bandaged face of Italy’s explosive debate on race.”

But incidents of racism are not just prevalent overseas alone. Even here in Africa, black people are routinely discriminated because of skin, hair and eye colour.

Chandarana, a Kenyan supermarket chain, recently stirred up the racist pot through a leaked internal memo that called for the targeting of white people as the preferred customers. Chinese contractors working on Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway are alleged to have dehumanised Kenyan workers. But what causes racism? What drives one human being to consider another to be inferior based on complexion?

Cultural roots

Professor Catherine Adoyo of Georgetown University in the US opines that “society’s conventional correlation of complexion to goodness, beauty and virtue on one hand, or evil, ugliness or vice on the other hand, has such deep iconography in cultural roots that it generally goes unexamined.” According to her, churches have for millennia, codified the theological allegory of light and dark in paintings representing “God, the saints and the hosts of heaven in pallid hues, while casting Satan, sinners and demons as swarthy monsters.”

Accordingly, white is then good while black is evil. Adoyo cites the example of the Meredith Kercher murder case in Italy, where the press consistently employed glowing references to a white blonde female American student describing “her pink-cheeked, blonde, blue-eyed stare” and her “wholesome erotic appeal.” She was the murderer. Falsely accused was an African man who the press described as “menacing”, “diabolic” and “depraved”.

So ingrained is this imagery of white and black representing good and evil that many people of African descent subconsciously denigrate themselves, even within their own countries. We may have left behind the treacherous minefields of racial discrimination of the ‘60s but the vestigial remains of segregation still abide as a constant reminder of how far we still have to go.

For instance, in a five-star hotel in Kenya, a white person is likely to be served better than a black one. Skinny girls in tight jeans and long faux weaves hope to attract white male suitors while many men have a predilection for light-complexioned women, never mind, that they are artificially bleached. All these negate the fact that black is indeed beautiful or attracts, even intelligent.

Riparian lands

But there is a way out in draining this swamp of prejudice. The first step is in changing the perception that Africa is a dark continent. Kenya has taken a bold step in fighting the darkness of corruption. Decades of malfeasance are being rolled back in the recovery of illegally acquired lands and the destruction of properties built on riparian lands. The only caveat would be to have all action undertaken within the rule of law.

There must be a determination not to give in to short-term expediency particularly because of popular pressure. The second step would be to create an affirmation of blackness as being desirable. Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali spoke of his love for all things black. He talked of black being strong and white weak. He further said that white milk added to black coffee made it weak.

Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i’s recent decision to review work permits for foreigners could not have come at a better time. It has been a national shame that jobs, for which there is an abundance of skilled local labour, are given to expatriates, who contribute precious little by way of value.

Changes in our foreign policy are now beginning to reflect our pride for being Kenyan. Recently, Kenyans who were being held in Sudanese and Ethiopian prisons were released following intervention by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We look forward to the day when no Middle East employer will dare lay a finger on any Kenyan lest they incur the wrath of the country. That day is not a long way off.

Mr Khafafa is Vice Chairman, Kenya-Turkey Business Council