How Americans Views Africans and Asians

Essay Instructions:

Please answer only five questions. Where necessary, refer to the texts, documentaries, or movies used in class.   
1. In “The Gods Must Be Crazy” the Coca-cola bottle dropped from an airplane altered the 'contented' life of Xi and his people inside the Kalahari Desert. Xi’s effort to return the bottle to the Gods by traveling to the end of the world to throw it off brought him face to face with a world that he did not know existed. How is Xi’s journey similar to the journey of Sade in Rahman Oladigbolu’s movie, “In America: The Story of the Soul Sisters” and Okey Ndibe in “Never Look an American in the Eye”?
2. Using the experiences of Asians in America during this COVID-19 pandemic, imagine what would have happened to Africans in America if the Ebola outbreak in Central and West Africa from 2014-to 2016 had been as devastating as the COVID-19 pandemic. How does that bring home the perils of stereotyping people?
3. Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk, “The danger of a single story,” is an expansion of Binyavanga Wainaina’s concerns in "How to write about Africa." Using examples from texts, documentaries, and everything you have learned in this class, explore the importance of a divergent, expansive, and wholesome view of a people and their narratives.
8. Using “I Will Marry When I Want,” as a reference point, how does marriage impact the lives of immigrants? You can cite the stories of Ifemelu or Aunty Uju in Americanah or the story of Sade in Rahman Oladigbolu’s movie, “In America: The Story of the Soul Sisters,” or the story of the unnamed narrator of the short story, “A kernel for a fowl” in “This American Life Sef.
9. How is “Just Before You Kill Your Wife” similar to Binyavanga Wainaina’s “How to write about Africa”? What was Okonkwo’s motivation in deploying that figure of speech to address a serious topic of spousal abuse amongst African immigrants in America?
What does Dike's suicide attempt in “Americanah” say about the pressure on first-generation immigrant children in America?
, "The Gods must be crazy."
https://www(dot)facebook(dot)com/pageco1221/videos/511782765988174
SOUL SISTERS
Password (case-sensitive): COVID-19LockDownShow04
Link: https://vimeo(dot)com/192410540
How to write about Africa, Kwani Trust, 2008 Link https://granta(dot)com/how-to-write-about-africa/Words Characters Reading time

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Afrodiasporic
Name
Institution of Affiliation
Date
Afrodiasporic
Q1. Like Xi, Sade arrives in America and is introduced to a world she has never experienced before. She comes to America in search of her dream job but is caught up in the immigration politics of America, which leaves her not sure what way to take in her life (“In America: The Story of the Soul Sisters”). The same is also witnessed in Okey Ndibe’s narrations dubbed “Never look an American in the eye.” Ndibe faces racism in America and narrates the differences between his African world and that of America. The differences are so large that he could not understand why a human being could racially profile an individual. In one instance, he was mistaken for a bank robber simply because of being black (Ndibe, 2016).
Q2. The view on Asians changed dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic as people formed a very negative attitude towards Asians simply because the virus began in China, an Asian country. Had it been the case with Ebola, probably no African could have been allowed to travel to America. Every African could be subjected to extremely rigorous health check-ups to ensure they do not carry the virus. The treatment would be worse given the racial profiling of Africans in America.
Q3. The view of Africans in the eyes of Americans is very single-sided. However, interacting with Africans can change one’s beliefs about Africa. It helps get a diversified and true view of Africans as progressive human beings and not the stereotypic view that people have been fed. For instance, in Sade’s story, Sonya Mohammed got to know Africans better through Sade when they became great friends (“In America: The Story of the Soul Sisters”). This changed their view of Africa as a continent.
Q4. Just like Kĩgũũnda and Wangeci were planning to use their daughter’s marriage to a white man as an avenue for wealth (Ngũgĩ Wa Thiongʼo & Ngũgĩ Wa Mĩriĩ, 1986), many immigrants use marriage as an easy ...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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How Americans Views Africans and Asians

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