Introduction

Over the past two centuries, the image of Africa has largely been a negative one. Western society crafted and later absorbed an image of the continent and its peoples as backwards, ancient, savage, heathen, barbaric, uncivilized, unintelligent, outdated, unmodern, and even cannibalistic. Though fallacious, this remains the dominant image of Africa for many people to date. During imperial rule, Africans were deemed unfi t for self-rule, and Europeans actually believed that they were doing the continent a favor by colonizing it to bring it into the modern era. Following the downfall of colonial rule during the 1960s and 1970s, this imagery would remain as African nations routinely failed to develop stable economies and democracies as well as law and order. As a result, the imagery used to describe or depict Africa and Africans remains overwhelmingly negative.