A BBC documentary is accused of poverty po by a Nigerian Nobel laureate:
Speaking to the Guardian, Professor Soyinka said that Welcome to Lagos, the BBC2 observational documentary which follows various people in poor areas of the city, was "the most tendentious and lopsided programme" he had ever seen.Go on.The series of three programmes, which concludes tomorrow, follows groups of people living in three impoverished areas: a rubbish dump, the Lagos lagoon and the city's beach area. The narration from the black British actor David Harewood overtly praises their resourceful resilience.
The 75-year-old [Soyinka], who splits his time between the US and his home outside Lagos, added: "There was no sense of Lagos as what it is â a modern African state. What we had was jaundiced and extremely patronising. It was saying 'Oh, look at these people who can make a living from the pit of degradation'.
"One could do a similar programme about London in which you go to a poor council estate and speaking of poverty and knifings. Or you could follow a hobo selling iron on the streets of London. But you wouldn't call it Welcome to London because that would give the viewer the impression that that is all London is about."UK residents can watch the show on BBC iPlayer here.
2 Comments
Prof is my favourite African writer by a country mile. If you want to get a flavour of Nigeria as it is for Nigerians, look no further than his most recent volume of memoirs: You Must Set Forth at Dawn. Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks for highlighting this and linking to a great article.
Iâm starting to see the phrase âgive a voice toâ, as said by the BBC spokeswoman in defence of the programmes, as a bit of a red flag: a misunderstanding hazard often follows.
Itâs not just pedantry to say that most people already have a voice, that is, the expression âgive voice toâ is not reserved for the speech impaired. Maybe itâs used to mean amplifying someoneâs voice so that more people can hear it; providing a platform in an attempt to elevate the perceived status of the personâs voice and so their views; creating a form around which an audience can gather to hear the voice, a medium or method through which an audience can interact to discuss the views voiced or even a way in which an audience can interact with the owner of the voice. All these things are a form of packaging. If weâre walking down a street and I tell you something, thatâs me using my voice. If you hand me a megaphone and I agree to use it to say the same thing to the rest of the street, what happens next is down to you plus me. My voice is the same but youâve provided a means of presenting it to others â packaging. If the megaphoneâs fuzzy and crackly, itâs disingenuous of you to say âthatâs just her voiceâ.
Saying youâre âgiving voice toâ someone through a film implies that all the choices you made, from deciding medium, location, subjects, through editing, distribution and promotion, really werenât that important and had little impact on the result. When someone disagrees with how youâve packaged something, saying youâre just âgiving voice toâ the person packaged is like saying âyou canât disagree with me because I didnât do anythingâ. Very odd.