Misrepresentation In Literature

When one allows another person to tell their story, the potential for misrepresentation is enormous, and the same goes the other way. Why has it become so undesirable for most writers to write or tell their own story to make it authentically theirs? As a result of the monopolization of the creative arts sector by Western influence, the number of African creatives that are producing art that is relevant to their continent has diminished. It just so happens that when somebody else then decides to tell our narrative, it follows up with a social media backlash by the people of that culture accusing somebody else of cultural appropriation.

The reason that our culture is being appropriated is that we have given it room to be done so.

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It would be a complete waste of talent to deny your people the privilege to see themselves in a different light because you have chosen to write or paint or draw or create for somebody else. You have chosen to inspire somebody that received their inspiration centuries ago, you have denied the girl just like you, who did not understand why all her school assigned books spoke of ancient Nordic tales and pretended that she did not exist. You have denied the small boy in his room who picks up a pencil and whenever he is asked to draw himself will pick up the peach crayon and colour himself in hoping that in some parallel universe, maybe, just maybe his skin is different.

So creative, next time that you decide to create, ask yourself who are you creating for, and what are you creating for. If you still believe that it is alright to discredit your homeland as the perfect setting for your new comic book, revisit your identity and realize that you have a crisis.
Who else can capture the way the sun splashes behind the horizon into the rippled Zambezi river but you? Who else remembers distinctly what commuters sound like on a Saturday afternoon in town but you? Who else can tell the story of the family of 12 that lives in only three rooms of a ten-roomed house in the dusty outskirts of Harare? Who?
Who is going to give your continent and your country the praise, the recognition and the pride that it