Put the Brown Baby Down!

A chubby cheeked brown boy smiling with food on the side of his mouth, wearing no shoes with a torn t-shirt barely covering his full belly. What a sight! For most westerners, the urge to pick this little boy up and show him to the world seems irresistible. As someone who was paraded around in Europe as a “poor African war child”, I can say this with confidence, please stop picking poor children up for photos. In 1998, renowned opera singer Pavarotti along with some of his wealthy and famous friends hosted a concert to benefit countries affected by war (see photo below). At the time, I was a happy almost 10-year-old student in Liberia. My school offered numerous extracurricular activities and chorus was one them. I joined chorus and got the opportunity to travel to Europe to sing. After preparations for the trip, we finally arrived in Modena, Italy. There I saw white people obsessed with “poor African children” every stop we made during the days leading up to the concert. People came up to take photos with us, even picking us up and happily smiling while holding “poor African children.” Luckily for us, this was before hashtags so there might not be traces of these on social media platforms, but that experience stayed with me. Today, nothing truly happens unless you post it, snap it or tweet about it. Social media make us want to show the world our “perfect” lives. We select, organize and present images and stories that we want others to see. In doing so, we sometimes expose other people and cultures in ways that can leave lasting consequences. We travel to places nowadays not because of our exploratory curiosity, but because we want to show the world that we are world travelers or inherently good people helping disadvantaged people. That is the narrative we want to tell with our photos. But imagine seeing a child walking in Walmart alone, Will you A. pick the child up B. Run away C. Look for the parents? Chances are you will look for that child’s parents. Now, after finding the parent, do you A: smile and walk away B. take a photo of their reunion C. hold the child and take a selfie ? I would guess you will politely smile and walk away. This same principle should apply when you travel. As much as poverty makes us reflect on our own life, poor people do not want to be poor. Sharing photos of poor people with the world (consciously or unconsciously) is wrong. What you will not do at home should not go abroad. Another thing to think about is the danger of a one-sided story, as narrated by Chimamanda Ngozi the Nigerian writer. Ngozi warns that these types of stories are incomplete and make one side of the story seem like the only side. In the case of the lost child in Walmart, what if you posted it with the caption “Lost child in Walmart. Please help”. In the moments before you saw the parent of that child, they might have been lost. Right? The child needed help, but to tell the world (or your followers) that story will be only one side. What if the child ran ahead of the parent or this is their routine of hide- and -seek? We must learn what is unacceptable here at home is unacceptable in other places, even if they have red dirt roads and fit our notions of “poor people”. Consider before picking a child up for a photo or taking random photos during your travel: these are real people with real lives. Would you want to be documented doing regular things too like drinking coffee or holding your cellphone? Although the people and culture might be new to you, this is an everyday experience for people.  We must refrain from posting it and captioning it the way we want others to see it. When in doubt, always ask if it is okay to take a photo and when you do, do not share without their consent and or never makeup captions or try to tell stories of places with your own labels. Ex: “Poor people are happy people.” Is that so? Did you attend a poor people convention and learn that? We must be considerate and compassionate about our words online. To name is to claim power, even as Jamaica Kincaid observed in her work A Small Place; we should avoid trying to possess other’s histories. If you find yourself abroad armed with good intentions ready to save the world, please try to remember even superheroes have restrictions. You do not need to travel across the world just to appreciate the privileged life you have. Experience with a poor person should not validate you. But, if you find yourself in Africa (Any of the many countries on the entire continent) and feel the need to pick up a baby or children, here are some other alternatives:

1. Eat Plantains! They are like the noble cousins of banana, but tastier

2. Eat exotic fruits. Did you know that Uganda (where most people go to pick up Orphans or go on a safari) is known as the Tropical basket of Africa?  Pick up fruits and try them

3. Do you know there’s a place called Banana Island? Off the coast of Sierra Leone (I’ve never seen more gorgeous waters!)

4. Boulder Beach (Known as the Penguins colony!) you can see thousands of penguins and take their photos instead

5. If you are really into taking photos, what is more majestic than Mount Kilimanjaro? Come back and brag to your friends about seeing the highest free-standing mountain in the world!

  Thanks, Retried brown baby