As a social impact brand, how do you talk about Africa?
December 9, 2022
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When the conversation about decolonizing the social impact brand space first sparked up between Anne Miltenburgand me, I quickly oscillated from enthusiastic excitement to jump right in, to uncertainty about where to start.
I immediately wanted to brainstorm how we could decolonize everything about the social impact space (a pretty huge feat).
When she shared this video by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), I was elated to finally see a brand taking charge to address it.
Despite the rapid modernization of the continent, colonial Africa was only a few decades ago. This makes it a little easier to understand why inaccurate colonial and neo-colonial perceptions of Africa linger on.
Why they linger, however, despite education, globalisation, tourism, the power of the internet and an endless list of information resources is a bit more complicated.
If we created a spectrum, on one end would be unrecognised unintentional ignorance (to whatever degree that exists) and on the other end recognized and intentional ignorance.
Then something messy in between, where many social impact brands in Africa exist, thrive and benefit from the murky nature of the stereotypes they perpetuate.
Many times, these social impact brands serve as ambassadors between the people and communities they serve and those outside them.
Unfortunately, but quite predictably, they fan the flames of the stereotypical views of a dark, needy, helpless continent on the verge of imminent collapse without the helping hand of white saviours. With good safaris. At least the safaris are always good.
And as explained by MSF in this video, social impact brands find themselves in a catch-22 situation. When they portray the people they serve as looking worse off than they actually are, they are able to raise more money to offer more support.
It’s a grotesque self-serving cycle feeding into itself.
There is an actual need for many of the social impact organisations that exist in Africa and their work is important and needed in these communities. And there is an actual need for the support they seek through their communication and campaigns to the people living outside Africa. Which we desperately need to work on.
I celebrate MSF’s recognition of this unhealthy and inaccurate depiction and the need to bring it to an end.
The bar is low and the burden of change is upon social impact brands.
These brands need to create a connection with their audiences’ desire to support those who need it the most in an accurate, well-informed and dignified way.
This is how we start. Spotting, constructively criticizing and unlearning the decades of misinformation and stereotypes that have been cast around the world about Africa as a continent and its people.
As an African, you bet I have lots of examples to pull from, which I can vehemently condemn but I’m happy to say that this is one I can support and share.
For 2023, my goal is to be better equipped to support brand professionals and social impact brands in Africa to more accurately and ethically represent Africans while communicating their work on the continent.
“Good intentions aren’t enough. They’re not meaningless, but – that’s where we have to start. Not where we end.”
― Claudia Gray
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Co-creating changemaking African Brands.
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