Agency Beyond Agents: Aid Campaigns in Sub-Saharan Africa and Collective Representations of Agency

Abstract

Drawing from postcolonial theory and subaltern studies, this essay contributes to research in communication on humanitarian aid to Africa by using methods of rhetorical criticism to analyze how 3 popular viral video campaigns represent African agency. I argue that although representations of agency in the campaigns differ, they all reinforce Western assumptions about Africa to varying degrees, and entrench imperialistic power relations by portraying African agency in Western-centric ways. I examine absences and silences in the aid rhetoric with a focus on alternatives to current representations of agency, and propose that placing an emphasis on representations of collective agency could provoke a shift away from Western-centrism in aid campaigns and reinvigorate theoretical discussions of representation.