On October 26, Madam Secretary, the new CBS show starring the lovely Tea Leoni as an affable, idealistic secretary of state, aired its sixth episode titled The Call. IMDb lists the episode’s synopsis as “Elizabeth faci[ng] unexpected consequences when she makes a plea to the President to help with a dire situation in Western Africa.” Looks and sounds all good until you realize that the country in question is a made-up country called Republic of West Africa. This isn’t the first time Hollywood has made up an African country. Because, why should it be bothered with geography? Currently, Wikipedia lists 96 fictional African countries in its list of fictional African countries. Close to twice the number the continent has in real life.
It was not the fact that Madam Secretary writers made up a new fictional country that made us uneasy. But, the expectation of more dished Hollywood stereotypes and inaccuracies. We were right! The first couple of questions that sprang to mind during the first few minutes of watching the broadcast were: where on the map is the Republic of West Africa? Which countries surround it? Will Ebola be involved? Thankfully, Ebola was not mentioned. And, we were given the answer to the first two questions. Republic of West Africa is “wedged between Gabon and Cameroon.” Wait, isn’t that Equatorial Guinea? Of which, that means Republic of West Africa is located in Central Africa, to be exact the west border of Central Africa. The frustration of geography is something we all understand. For all our lives, we can’t figure out how a Central African country can be called a West African country. Without any doubt, the Madam Secretary writers could just not be bothered to research the fictional land they are depicting to make it believably real. Was the research team sleeping on a bicycle? Seems so.
If the above can be forgiven, we are introduced to Father Laurent Vasseur’s niece, Komoyo, who is played by MaameYaa Boafo. You know her as Nana Yaa on An African City. The problem? She speaks Igbo, Chineke, multiple times in this fictional land of Republic Of West Africa. To understand how huge this gaffe is. We have to go back to geography. Republic of West Africa, like the countries which surround it, was colonized by the French. It would make more sense for the people of the fictional country to be speaking French, since it would be an official language. Two, Igbo is one of Nigeria’s 521 languages. Nigeria is a West African country. Igbo language is a native language of the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria. But, to play devil’s advocate for Madam Secretary’s writers, Igbo is also a recognized minority language of Equatorial Guinea. But, it is still much of a jump to dump Igbo as a language in the fictional land of Republic of West Africa. The linguist consultant on the show needs to be fired! The show would have done much better if it made up a new language to go with its made-up country. Also, the pronunciation and translation of the words, well, next.
Lastly, the plot was a classic unimaginative “Heart of Darkness” cliché: genocide in “the country” of West Africa. In the Republic of West Africa, a militia is threatening woman and children and thousands of woman are in danger of genocide. Kinda sounds like Boko Haram but with another name. But, what do we know? It’s a thousand and one overused cliche of Africa. At least, they didn’t show or infer that the militia has children soldiers.
Here are some clip shots of some of the reaction to the episode culled from the Our Africa Blog and Twitter.
#MadamSecretary‘s plot slips in unimaginative “Heart of Darkness” cliché: genocide in “the country” of West Africa pic.twitter.com/lCoQjwbnDa
— Mo Keita (@mohkeit) October 27, 2014
#MadamSecretary tonight: genocide and warlords in Republic of West Africa. Rather watching @marwanbishara‘s “The New Scramble for Africa”
— AFRICA IS A COUNTRY (@AfricasaCountry) October 27, 2014
AMericans don’t know African Geo enough, so fake country ok #MadamSecretary tonight: genocide in Republic of West Africa. @AfricasaCountry
— lisa talmadge (@LisaTalmadge) October 27, 2014
@LisaTalmadge @AfricasaCountry Also helps avoid insulting a nation. It’s why they have Kreplachistan & Latveria.
— John Anthony (@JohnWMAnthony) October 27, 2014
Author: TSSF
The Single Story Foundation is a nonprofit organization which provides storytelling opportunities for Africans at home and in diaspora.
We seek to change the stereotype through visual art, literature, and performing art. At The Single Story Foundation, we believe that storytelling is one of the ways we can fix the damage caused by Western storytelling.
This show are written for uneducated Americans so why bother? Besides if they had used a real country and described it in such a manner I Think the leaders of said country would be upset. Later on in the show she speaks some sentences in very poor French and yet earlier she states that she is fluent in French, hardly.