Mr. Kristof and the narrative of “Americans saving Africans”

A new article by Kathryn Mathers called “Mr. Kristof, I Presume? saving Africa in the footsteps of Nicholas Kristof” is a scathing – and much needed – critique of Nick Kristof’s reporting. Not only this, but Mathers delves into the deeper history of American relations with Africa, and how we came to the current age of Americans “saving” helpless Africans — the popular undercurrent that seems to run through Kristof’s columns, and much of foreign aid today. Mathers writes:

While many New York Times readers and subscribers read his writing  with enthusiasm, lots of people don’t. Comments on his own blog on the New York Times’ website and other multiple online sources—especially those  interested in how Africa is represented—rail against how often he gets the  facts and even the fundamental issues wrong. These critiques of Kristof  include his seemingly deliberate inability to contextualize or historicize  anything happening in Africa and his obsession with the white, often American, saviors of African sufferers.

Mathers quotes the “starfish” parable that Kristof has often cited. And indeed, I too have found it inspiring in the past. But I am willing to acknowledge the flaws of this story — which features a young girl who picks up starfish one by one and throws them back into the ocean. Someone asks her — why do you keep throwing these starfishes back when you can’t possibly throw all of them? She responds by saying that this is true, but at least she has helped this one. The moral of the story: if you at least help one individual, you’re doing good. But there is a problem with this story — it is too simplistic, says Mathers:

What is so marked about this story, though, is how much it reflects Kristof’s limited approach to global poverty and aid. It also illustrates the extent to which his writing embodies and defends a particular relationship between Americans and Africans—naturalized, individualized and apolitical—that is so prevalent today. First, starfish are washed ashore by an inexplicable random and completely unstoppable force—a high tide, an  ocean without cause or agenda—certainly not worth interrogating about  why or how starfish are being washed ashore. On the beach the starfish are helpless and voiceless, unable to solve or even articulate their problem. One young girl comes along, and without pondering or asking what the starfish might prefer—a nice rock pool or a communal return to the water, for example—throws them one at a time back into the ocean. Especially scary is that her action will inevitably lead to the starfish being once again washed  ashore by a mindless tide, a possibility that Kristof is well aware of.

This model does not question the causes of poverty, either general or specific, for the people it is meant to help. It does not pay attention to what people are doing for themselves or ask what they need. It is founded on a story that treats people as if they were just part of a natural landscape washed ashore by forces that aid agencies do not participate in or have any control over. It offers solutions, often expensive and technological, and therefore measurable, that inevitably cannot be sustained or make any genuine long term change in the lives of poor people around the world. This makes it difficult to tell my students that there is not a single solution to the problems they want to solve—that solutions are multiple and very particular to place, people, and the problem itself. It is not that Kristof’s story is always wrong, but that it is the only one he tells. The stories Kristof tells invariably leave out existing and local agencies and individuals fighting the same fight he is to rescue a woman from violence or poverty.

She has several other criticisms of Kristof’s writing – for example his portrayal of poverty and landscapes/animals in Africa. I agree with her criticisms and urge you to read the article in its entirety. It’s truly amazing and incredibly insightful.

One thing I will say though – how do we strike the balance? I believe it is important to bring important issues to light, such as domestic/gender-based violence, human rights violations, poverty, lack of access to health care, maternal mortality, clean water, and many other issues. Not just in Africa – but everywhere. I think the answer lies in not limiting ourselves to that. Nick Kristof writes primarily about women’s rights violations and poverty — to the point that we might think there is nothing else in Africa. I have not personally been to Africa, but I will say that I bet there is a lot more happening. Just like in India, there is a growing middle class, malls and businesses, gleaming new buildings, new jobs, and economic growth. Why doesn’t he write about any of the progress happening? The dynamism? If we go by Kristof’s articles, we may never imagine urban Nairobi – only rural landscapes with giraffes, elephants and yes– poverty. And this is truly a shame.

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