Commodifying Africa on U.S. Network Reality Television

Abstract

Drawing on postcolonial studies, hegemony theory, Marxian commodification, and previous critiques of Africa’s portrayal in colonial narratives, Western news, and tourism advertising, this qualitative study examines Africa’s representation through January 2008 on three U.S. network reality television programs: the CBS hits Survivor and The Amazing Race and the FOX talent contest American Idol in its “Idol Gives Back” fundraiser. Specifically, I ask whether representations reveal Africa’s continued colonization via commodification in three ways: by erasing or including African specificity, by relying on static voiceless images or allowing Africans agency, and by placing American visitors in varied hybrid encounter roles revealing their complicity with or resistance to colonial and neocolonial Western dominance. As cultural mixture is a central feature commodified in these programs, the postcolonial concept hybridity is a particularly useful analytic tool. The notion of “hybrid encounter” is proposed to more accurately describe the contact represented in the texts. I argue that Africa’s representation on reality television reveals old narrative patterns as well as new ways of commodifying the continent. The programs also reinforce Western political economic dominance at a time of greatly increased tourism to developing countries alongside global product advertising aligned with the trendy lifestyle values of adventure travel.

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