Shades of Black
“White journalists and pseudo-journalists who criss-cross Africa for off-beat stories to make the continent conform with their picture of ugly shades of black will begin to think twice woman who understands the politics of colour only too well.”
Colin Legum is a British Journalist who writes on Africa for The Observer of London. As such, he calls himself an Africanist, someone who claims to know more about Africa than Africans. In that regard, he makes all-knowing noise about the going-on in southern Africa, an area about which he suffers a negative fixation. Legum is a man adroit enough with words that he can find language to explain Ian Smith as a reasonable man. So, that’s your man in a nutshell. Legum is here in Liberia to cover the i6th conference of the Organization of African Unity and, perhaps, at the end of which he will write home and tell about African who couldn’t really get anything together.
But Legum had a bad start. The poor graying man seemed to be familiar only with doting blacks who are in the habit of running around when they see him. But here in Monrovia, he was shown his place the other day. Legum was scouting for a place to put his head for the time he would stay in Monrovia, having just arrived aboard a British Caledonian flight from London. His search took him to a luxury cruise that was converted into a hotel anchored to a pier specially built for the OAU conference by the Liberian government. With Legum was Kenneth Mackenzie, the editor of West Africa magazine. When they got into the ship, they were directed to the reservation desk. The desk was manned by three pretty and delightful black women who were polite and sweet in helping black and white alike. Legum headed for the tallest of the women. In the gruffest and limyest of tone, he told the woman: “I want a decent room because your Minister of Information has promised me the best of accommodation possible.” Getting even gruffer, he told the woman in an obscene expression that he, Legum, would not settle for anything less.
The woman stopped in the middle of opening a file and took off her pair of glasses so that she could get a good natural look at the voice bellowing at her. Seeing what the voice was that spoke in such vile language, the woman told Legum to listen. “I can make you another promise,” she began,” and the promise is that I would not give you a room in this hotel if you cannot watch your language and speak decently.” She further told Legum that as far as she was concerned, he could go to the Ministry of Information and find another accommodation. But, she chastised the blushing journalist: “You cannot speak to me in such indecent language and expect me to put you up. I would not do it.” It was obvious from the embarrassed look on Legum’s face that he was not expecting any black, much less a black woman in Liberia, to give him such a shock, and all for good reasons. The impressive thing about the exchange was that the young lady was a better speaker than Colin Legum.
Finding himself in the unusual situation as the center of a nuisance, Legum then found better words to ask the woman to please find out if he had only reservation on the ship. The lady, still cool but stinging in her calm rebuke of the aging Legum, said she would take her sweet time but that Legum was free to find another accommodation elsewhere if he was important. Legum might have gotten a room on that ship or he might not have, for this reporter had to rush to the conference center a few kilometres away. But it was a nice thing to see that a white man like Legum who expects black people to be polite to him when is rude is shown a proud shade of black. His attitude wasn’t called for and it is really hard to see what on God’s earth he is doing in Africa if he thinks so little of black of people. Legum should have known that Africans who know what they are about would not start running by simply dropping the name of a minister. From his haughty manner, it was certain that he had used the big stick of dropping a minister’s name in many a black country to get through, even if it means breaking the rules of such countries. Legum is a journalist. He is supposed to take his place, calmly find out whether his reservation is in order and, if not, he is supposed to find out what can be done to help.
By invoking the information minister’s name, Legum was giving the impression that he is doing Libearia and Africa a favour by coming down to Liberia. He was telling the woman, essentially, that he had a special invitation from the Liberian government to grace the OAU conference. But this can only be a fallacy and, if Legum really believed that, a delusion. White journalists and pseudo-journalists who criss-cross Africa for off-beat stories to make the continent conform with their picture of ugly shades of black will begin to think twice if only they will meet the kind of proud and sensible Liberian woman who understands the politics of colour only too well.s
©Daily Times, July 13, 1979
(Pp.24-26)
