Refusing myths and stereotypes of Africans on TikTok
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6030246 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rowland Chukwuemeka Amaefula (0000-0001-7012-2239, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1-12 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-05 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Identities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14725843.2024.2399662 |
| OpenAlex | W4402266176 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
Social media provides African youths an alternative platform for, inter alia, engaging and reconstructing taboo subjects, including harmful myths and stereotypes. They exploit the medium to refuse misconceptions and re-make perceptions of their lived experiences. With the increasing availability of web 2.0 channels to Africans, youths have taken up these spaces to express their talents. Recently, a new generation of young women has leveraged TikTok to circulate performances that spark multi-continental conversations, pushing back negative/unfounded narratives of Africans propounded by non-Africans. The study examines this form of online refusal, focusing on the dramatic aspects of such TikTok videos. Specifically, one such woman, Charity Ekezie of Nigerian descent, produces hilarious TikTok skits owning up non-Africans’ primordial view of Africa as a continent lacking internet access, running water, and other basic infrastructure. Through analyses of selected TikTok gigs produced by the young woman, I argue that her content deploys humor to reject typecast narratives pigeonholing Africans to barbarity. Although Ekezie playfully embodies these negative conceptions of the continent, the undercurrents of her acts counteract these self-identifications. I read them as acts of refusal that dismantle deleterious notions of Africa, foreground the naivety of accusers, and make them the butt of laughter
Mythology · Theology · ICT in Developing Communities · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology
Thoughts and Utterances
For You, or For"You"?
Algorithmic Folk Theories and Identity
The sound of sarcasm
Additive Effects in the Perception of Sarcasm
Representation of Africa in the Western Media
No Longer a Laughing Matter
Digital methods I
Understanding the popularity and affordances of TikTok through user experiences
Colonial legacies, postcolonial ‘selfhood’ and the (un)doing of Africa
African chiefs
An Image of Africa
Black and Slave
Black visuality and the practice of refusal
The Insta-Gaze
The Romance of Resistance
Theorizing Refusal
Why's Everyone on TikTok Now? The Algorithmized Self and the Future of Self-Making on Social Media
| Highly cited | No |
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