The article Imperial Transcultures: From Kongo to Congo stuck out in my mind after reading it. I knew that issues in Africa were linked to colonization, but this article makes it clearer. It discusses the beginning of colonization in Africa, how Europeans divided the established kingdom in the Kongo to tribes, the role photography played in manipulating people's perceptions of Africa and the creation of African art at that time.
I thought of what it must have been like to have been African when the colonists arrived. I think it must have been terrifying to have the colonists come into your home. I tried to think of what it must have been like to be a European at that time. I think that they must have been ignorant, gullible and unaware. The Europeans in power at that time must have been heartless. I thought about how African art at the time expressed some of this oppression. I was surprised to learn that at least some of the African art I'm accustomed to seeing in museums were expressions of colonial powers infiltrating Africa. Even today, most of us do not know about the intentions of those who created the art. Even museum descriptions do not reveal this point of view - http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/2957/Power_Figure_(Nkisi_Nkondi). I tried to imagine being a tourist in Africa, traveling to the depths of rural areas to find the most "authentic" view of "inferior" people. I tried to imagine myself amongst maps and photography manipulating ideas of what reality could be.
Sometimes history doesn't change much, or at least not enough. Currently the Congo is in distress and I would not be surprised to find out that it can be traced back to the beginning of Portuguese "infiltration" in 1483, when the Congo was ruled by King Nzinga. Last year I sponsored a woman through Women for Women International - http://www.womenforwomen.org/index.php after I found out about female war victims in the Congo. Throughout the world, too many people of African decent face some degree of distress and oppression. It could easily be said that racial discrimination is the perpetuation of skewed colonial perceptions.
Another aspect of this article that seemed similar to contemporary times is the manipulation of visual images. I think that today there is much more awareness regarding visual media in certain aspects of our society. There are advertisements and films that aim to reveal social issues that need to be addressed and visual media is often used to educate. However, there is still a large portion of visual media that aims to create an image, while overshadowing certain unpleasant realities. The advertising of big business is often loaded with imagery that entices viewers to buy products without a clear picture of what they are. Coca-Cola is just a drink to most people. Most people do not think about it's original selling point, cocaine. Today, Coca-Cola uses ingredients that are tested on animals, but is able to say that they do not test on animals because a different company does the testing. Most people don't think about the sugar content either. Instead, Coca-Cola is innocently a drink for happy people, according to the visual media that Coca-Cola produces. Another example of visual culture that has been affected by visual manipulation is journalism. When I traveled to Israel, I learned about how photographers stage scenes and crop photos to manipulate perceptions of war experiences. There are even websites dedicated to "photoshop disasters" - http://designcrave.com/2009-09-22/photoshop-tricks-10-historic-political-photoshop-disasters/
National Geographic now shows the perspective of exoticism for all places around the globe. Tourism is a thriving industry and people enjoy visiting all different types of places. This includes traveling to remote areas to view exotic people and cultures as in early colonial times described in the article. Tourism can cause distress to a location in many ways. In the Caribbean and in Hawaii, tourism often exacerbates racial/ethnic tension by segregating the tourists from the locals; where the tourists are offered more luxury. There is also eco-friendly tourism, such as the locally run tours through the Amazon rainforest. I think there are a lot of people who travel today to try and amend atrocities that have occurred due to Western powers. When I traveled to Cambodia, there were many American NGO's helping to rebuild the country from the aftermath the Khmer Rouge. Although the Khmer Rouge was a form of civil genocide, the occurrences can be linked back to the threat of communism that sparked the Vietnam War and the tension that arose from US/Russia conflict. This episode of Globe Trekker goes into the depths of the rural areas of Cambodia - http://www.pilotguides.com/tv_shows/globe_trekker/shows/asia/cambodia.php.
We can only imagine what the world would have been like without European colonization. Some people say that another part of the world may have taken over. Other people say that we would be much more peaceful. Many people don't think about it.
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