Review Essay: Picturing Benin: Where Insiders and Outsiders Lenses Converge and Diverge

Abstract

Europeans imagined Africa and its peoples long before they started plying its coasts, and centuries before Nichore Niepce invented photography in 1816. The images of Africa were positive until the early Middle Ages, then they progressively became negative, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries at the height of European imperialism, although the 16th and 17th centuries saw a combination of positive and negative images (Nederveen, 1992). In the 20th century, the advent and popularity of television and mass media, including the Internet boom certainly have provided Africans with a few opportunities to project their own images, but denigrating and distorting images continue, unabated and unstoppable. Over time, the European image of the African has evolved from that of the savage brute, demon, close to nature and pagan to the simple-minded savage and eternal childish jester who never matures. S/he is incapable of governing her/himself, is genetically or culturally corrupt, ready to kill his or her own, promiscuous, and carries diseases.