Trying to follow

This is not meant to be directed at any particular blogger, writer, podcaster, or reader; It’s probably as much something I need to hear as anyone else.

I was listening to a podcast today and the people kept talking about “Africa.” They said things like, I have a heart for Africa, I’ve been really interested in Africa, I looked into going to Africa, and so on. Now, out of full disclosure, when I was in sixth grade and I did a family album and I wrote down the place I most wanted to visit, I wrote down Africa. So, here’s were I have a problem…

Africa is a BIG place. It’s not a people group, or a village, or a town, or state, or country, it’s a gigantic continent! The coninent of Africa is nothing like the United States where you have 50 different states under one central government, and most people living there generally speak the same language but with different accents (broad generalization). Africa is 1/5 of the world’s total land area, and 12% of the world’s entire population. There are 61 territories, many different religions and thousands of languages.  Yet, us naive folk in the U.S. of A. keep on acting like Africa and African’s are a niche we’re interested in.

Before I go off in that direction too much more let me say, there are some collective elements of Africa. Being a connected land mass has it’s collective impacts. The AIDS pandemic knows no country borders as it spreads through Sub-sahara Africa. Imperialism and the wicked oppression of the land and the people through out the continent is another shared experience of many in the continent of Africa. There are collective elements, but I think it’s best for our own well being that we stop talking about are interest in such naive general terms.

And here’s where it get’s a little gritty… I think most of the reasons we talk in generalizations about “Africa” are inherently racist. You might have scene a infomercial about starving children, full of young dark skinned children longing for help, and you decide something must be done for those Africans (little did you know all those kids where from the Carribean). My point is that far too many of us and our ignorant generalizations on race see a dark skinned person and place them as being from (recently, or ancestorally) Africa.

In our ignorance African’s are in a terrible dilemma: They all have AIDS (thanks for letting us know Bono), they are starving (infomercials), they just got through a genocide (Hotel Rwanda) and now they’ve got another one going (Save Darfur). We think African’s live fairly unciviled lifestyles (National Geographic), they get their hands chopped off in the diamond trade (Kanye West), they still haven’t dealt with racism (Aparthied), They send their children into war with guns (Invisible Children), they are uneducated and need sponsorship (World Vision), and they are all “African.” Do you see the problem with lumping ever person and issue of an entire continent into one category?

Maybe, I’ll start doing a spotlight on Africa post highlighting a different country each week and what is unique about their people.  Anyone care to inform us of the uniqueness of a country they’ve been to?

I heard about and read some commentary concerning a recent ad campaign I thought I should share with you.

From
Mixed Media Watch - tracking media representations of mixed people

I was surprised to learn that supermodel Iman is behind those “I Am African” ads fetauring Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and other, mostly white, celebs in faux tribal makeup. As Global Ambassador for Keep A Child Alive, an organization that provides medication to African children with HIV/AIDS, she created the campaign to call attention to the plight of those who cannot afford lifesaving drugs. She states on keepachildalive.org that “each and everyone of us contains DNA that can be traced back to our African ancestors.” So this is why we should care about the issue? What aboout compassion, empathy and commitment to social justice?

It’s not my best work, but it might peak your interest in the story. I’ve got a copy of the DVD so if your interested in doing a screening, let me know and I’ll pass it along. Tell me what you think of the review too.

At the beginning of 2006, I joined forces with my friend, Peter, to start an initiative to raise funds to help address the AIDS Crisis that is facing a small village in South Africa (and the rest of the world). The team now includes Josh & David. We are trying to make the needs of these communities available through video, pictures and stories. We want you to be able to see the needs there are and then pool your resources to address it and then see that need met.

It’s an exciting project to be a part of and I’d LOVE for you to subscribe to the Eikon Project Blog. Please visit the site and help spread the word.

I figured I needed to get this posted sometime soon. This is my friend, Peter. He’s some what of a celebrity in China these days. You see he went to South Africa and saw first hand some of the ravaging effects of AIDS in that country. Then he went back to China and started telling folks about it. He’s taught his classes about it (He teaches English at one of the Universities). He’s talked to lecture halls full of doctor’s and nurses.
All that to say, Peter really cares about helping fight the pandemic of AIDS. I’m hoping to help him do that. Sometime this summer or fall we’ll be launching a non-profit focused on addressing just that issue.

Currently, the website is just for collecting email addresses of those interested in our progress. If your interested, please stop by and sign up.

http://petersaidsfund.org