Stupid headline of the day
Thanks to that pillar of quality journalism, the New York Times, for bringing this barbaric practice to the front page. Just when we thought those Africans were becoming modern, embracing internet cafes and mobile phones, now they think children are witches. I guess some things never change...
posted by p @ 00:27
6 Comments:
But is it true or false? Is it common in rural areas? And if it really is, isn't that as much of a story as 'Africans embrace technology'
Just thinking critically in your footsteps.
Whether it's true or false is beside the point, Harold. It's still a stupid headline and an unnecessarily sensational story.
Some Americans eat placenta, following the birth of their child. What the heck does it mean to plaster that in the new York Times, or in the Lesotho Daily? It means Americans are stupid? Backward? Traditional? Less intelligent?
None of those. It would just be a stupid headline.
But how about: "Americans embrace soccer."
It's not stupid, and it's positive, and it's not sensational (hardly something you'd put in The National Enquirer). See what I mean?
BTW, you'd be surprised at the number of Africans who embraced technology long ago. Don't believe everything you hear.
I disagree about this: the truth of the story is the only important point. I happen to believe it's a big implied fabrication as P implies, but if it was true I'd be very interested.
Africans or Americans may be doing amazing things, maybe good or bad, and it's up to organizations like the NYT to give us the truth, biasing, disgusting, offensive or not.
"...truth, biasing, disgusting, offensive or not."
I notice you didn't include sensational. At least we agree on one point.
And I insist that the truth of a piece of information does not make the news. How the journalist splashes it on a page can make a difference.
Why do they consider them witches? The reporter must say, after a careful fact-finding mission. i'm sorry to keep going back to this, but every culture has its quirks, and usually, all cultures have similar quirks. Think hard and you'll find "true" incidences of some American communities illogically shunning somebody/something as something.
How about this headline: "In America, cars are shunned as modern objects." Of course, it's a small community that does that, the Amish; the headline, however, is phrased to be sensational, and it's not "true", and so it's stupid.
I agree with Rethabile on why the headline is stupid - "In Africa" suggests the article is about a practice that is both common, and continental, of which it is neither. In doing this, it reinforces the incorrect stereotypes that a lot of people have about Africa.
My bigger complaint is that it is not only the wrong headline, it is the wrong article. The New York Times is one of the best newspapers in the world - one expects there to be some kind of standard of relevance for what goes on the front page. Stories about Africa are rare - if you put them together, you should get a broad picture of events on the continent. Instead, we are treated to a menagerie of sideshow tales akin to the cute stories told in the last five minutes of the local news. I expect better from the New York Times, but perhaps I shouldn't.
Whether its true or false does not matter as how its presented. One assumes at least that the author's interviews and statistics are correct. But its easy to take a little bit of information and tell a lot of story. (Take this blog, for instance.)
So let's ask whether children cast out as witches is the correct story.
Is the persistence of stories of witchcraft really interesting? There are churches in the United States where you can have demons cast out of you, and where they believe that Satan acts through the Wicca.
The article in question briefly mentions that accusations of witchcraft rose dramatically since civil war began in that region, but does not pursue the point. We also find that a lot of the accusers are aunts, uncles, step-parents, suggesting the parents of these "witch children" are often absent.
It seems more likely to me that the accusation of witchcraft is a convenient way for adults to rid themselves of once-removed relatives for whom they do not have the resources to take care of. The real story is about war over diamonds and cell-phone materials in the Congo basin, and the effect it has on local social structures. Witchcraft is just a footnote to a much more interesting story.
By making it the story, our reporter is doing a disservice to his readers.
The article is undoubtedly sensational and the article's subject's motivations are probably effects of larger issues (AIDS, conflict, poverty, etc). But to say that witchcraft accusations do not occur frequently and with serious consequences is simply not true. Hardly a week goes by when there is not a case of a woman or child chased from their village, ostracized or brutalized as a result of witchcraft accusations in Lesotho and South Africa alone. Read the Public Eye, Lesotho Times or listen to SABC. Just because people at the MoF find the idea of witchcraft backwards doesn't mean most people in Lesotho, or even most people in rural Africa think so.
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