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How to Blog About Africa: travel writing in the digital age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Caitlin Pḛarson
Caitlin Pḛarson*
Affiliation:
Centre of African Studies, SOAS, University of London
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Extract

The impact of postcolonial criticism on discussions about ‘representations of the Other’ has been felt far beyond the academic sphere, and has had significant influence on a wide variety of cultural forms. Contemporary informal writing practices such as those found on travel and aid blogs employ terminology and ideas that stem directly from the theoretical frameworks developed by critics such as Said, Pratt and Spurr (1978; 1992; 1993). The blogs Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like (henceforth SEAWL) and Gurl Goes to Africa seek to highlight and critique examples of ‘orientalism’ and ‘exotification’ found in other travel blogs, and therefore to draw a comparison between the discourse of colonial travellers and missionaries and that of young ‘gap-year’ travellers and aid workers. These blogs form part of a wider internet trend of satirising the pretensions of privileged ‘Western’ travellers. One example is the comedy sketch video ‘Gap Yah’ (which has been viewed more than five million times on Youtube since its posting in 2010).

Type
Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 125: African Trajectories: Travel and the Archive: papers from the 2014 Scolma Conference , 2014 , pp. 87 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2014

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References

References

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Gurl Goes to Africa (2010 onwards) [online]. Available from: http://gurlgoestoafrica.tumblr.com/ (Accessed 20 April 2012)Google Scholar
Shotgun Shack (2011) ‘Blogging for the Folks Back Home,’ Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like. [online] April 11th 2011. Available from: http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com/2011/04/11/44-blogging-for-the-folks-back-home/ (Accessed 20 April 2012)Google Scholar
Shotgun Shack [online] Available from: http://shotgunshackblog.com/ (Accessed 20 April 2012)Google Scholar
Tales from the Hood [online] Available from: http://talesfromethehood.com/ (Accessed 20 April 2012)Google Scholar
VM Productions & The Unexpected Items (2010) ‘Gap Yah’ [online]. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU (Accessed 20 April 2012)Google Scholar
Wainaina, B. (2005) ‘How to Write about Africa,’ Granta 92 [online]. Available from: http://www.granta.com/Archive/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1 (Accessed 20 April 2012)Google Scholar
Coetzee, J.M. (1988) White Writing: On the Culture of Letters in South Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dean, J. (2010) Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of Drive. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Dickinson, I. (2009) ‘Africa in Travel Journalism: A Postcolonial Comparative Study’. Unpublished thesis (Phd), University of Kwazulu-Natal.Google Scholar
Fürsich, E. (2002) ‘How can global journalists represent the ‘Other‘?’ Journalism 3 (1), pp.57–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granta (2010) ‘How to write about Pakistan’ [online]. Available from: http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/How-to-write-about-Pakistan [Accessed 20 April 2012]Google Scholar
Lovink, G. (2007) ‘Blogging, The Nihilist Impulse,’ in Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture. London and New York: Routledge, pp.1–38.Google Scholar
Pratt, M L. (1992) Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rak, J. (2005) ‘The Digital Queer: Weblogs and Internet Identity,’ Biography 28 (1), pp.166–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Said, E. (1978) Orientalism. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Singh, A. (2008) ‘Anonymity, Authorship, and Blogger Ethics,’ Symploke 16 (1), pp.21–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spurr, D. (1993) The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing, and Imperial Administration. London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar