Description:
One of the first topics we covered in one of my courses, titled Geography, Environment and Globalization, was the concept of “Imaginative Geographies”. During this unit, I learned that an imaginative geography is essentially what an individual or a collective group recalls when they think of a place. This means that everything a person is exposed to in relation to a specific place will affect their imaginative geography of that location. These constructs can be easily skewed by the media, peers and personal experiences. This topic has become of increasing interest to me as I have come to realize just how much my personal life and everyone’s lives are affected by imaginative geographies on a daily basis. We are surrounded by a society that self-categorizes everything into groups, always creating an “us vs. them” dynamic. It is interesting to study how these constructs affect how individuals perceive the world and how the world perceives them.
In this assignment, I analyze a piece of media and how it plays into an affects its viewers’ imaginative geographies. This video that I chose is called “Meet Nzilani, a 6 Year Old Girl Living in Kenya” posted by the Canadian World Vision channel. This video is not of my making, it is simply the subject of my report. The video is posted below:
Imaginative Geographies Assignment
“Meet Nzilani, a 6 Year Old Girl Living in Kenya” is a video made by a popular private relief and development agency called World Vision. This video outlines a Kenyan girl’s life emphasizing her daily hardships; the main goal being to persuade people to donate money towards World Vision’s Sponsor a Child Fund. Every detail that a person acquires about a place, whether it be from a firsthand source or secondhand source that has been through a series of political filters is added to that person’s understanding of the life and culture in that given location. This set of knowledge is called an imaginative geography as it is the information a person recalls and takes to embody the entire geographical or conceptual territory. The images and ideas conveyed through this video are a distortion of Kenyan culture and life and contribute to a negative imaginative geography of Kenya.
The video starts with footage of a young Kenyan girl walking, with a seemingly young voice over actor narrating in first person “I feel sad today. My teacher sent me home again because I didn’t have any money for school fees.”(0:00). Immediately, a disconnect is created between Nzilani, the girl featured in the video and the viewers. This video is posted by World Vision Canada meaning that the targeted audience is Canadians, who would not encounter the same issues that face Nzilani. For example, in Canada, it is mandatory for children of Nzilani’s age to attend school and the education system is government funded. Throughout the entire video this dynamic stays constant- “Nzilani” recounts elements of her daily life that most likely evoke shock and empathy from the viewers as they are accustomed to a different standard of living to that of the girl in the video. Thus, a power dynamic is developed and increasingly legitimized as the video progresses continuously portraying Nzilani as a poor and helpless little girl. This power dynamic is especially strengthened when it becomes evident to the viewer that they are the one who has the power to “save” her. At the end of the video, “Nzilani” says, “I just wish I could have water that is clean and doesn’t make me feel sick, that would be good. But these things are just my wishes, I don’t know if they will ever come true. All I can do is to hope that it is so.”(2:10). If we accept that knowledge is a form of power, then viewers of this segment are automatically placed in the position of power and are consequently held accountable for their actions regarding this child’s future.
The tone that the voice actor uses to portray Nzilani is grave and helpless throughout the entire segment. Her life and daily regime builds on the imaginative geographies that the viewers have constructed of Kenya. Nzilani is the only individual portrayed in the video which insinuates a certain level of loneliness and enforces the idea that there is a lack of community in her life and therefore, perhaps Kenya. The idea that there is no sense of community originates from when “Nzilani” mentions, “Since Momma died, my three sisters and I are all alone. We don’t have a house of our own. A lady in our village lets us stay with her, the four of us are allowed to use one room if we do chores for her.” (0:30). The simple use of the words “lets” and “allowed” makes it seem as if the lady is not welcoming or caring of the girls when this may not be the case. Another piece that might be left to misinterpretation is that a cultural difference exists in that it is more common and expected of children to help out and do chores in rural Kenya whereas in other, “more privileged” cultures, this would be less common. Additionally, the video further separates “us” the viewers from “them” the Kenyans by using a stereotypical but exotic African symbol, the elephant as one of Nzilani’s many perils.
While Nzilani may unfortunately encounter all of the complications and hardships portrayed in this video, Word Vision’s media fails to encompass many, if any of the socio-economic, political and cultural intricacies of Nzilani’s world. The cultural difference that exists between the viewers’ culture and the one that is portrayed in the video is the driving force behind the viewers’ actions to help. This form of media, while effective does an injustice to not only the individuals, cultures and nations in question but also to the viewers whose imaginative geographies are subject to over simplification.
References:
Meet Nzilani, a 6 Year Old Girl Living in Kenya. Youtube. World Vision Canada, 19 May 2015. Web. 1 Oct. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zpm2ljx60>.