What Melania could have seen

While the first lady, Melania Trump, zigzagged across Africa last week, the trip, at first, seemed largely without fanfare.

She held round-faced babies in a Ghanaian hospital and distributed books and footballs in an overcrowded Malawian school. She listened with solemn horror to the guide telling him the story of Cape Coast Castle, a fort of slaves in Ghana, and laughed almost to be spilled by an elephant baby that she was going to feed bottle in a sanctuary in Kenya.

And then she put on the hat.

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While Mrs. Trump was preparing to board the safari vehicle that would take her to Nairobi National Park last Friday, she donned a white helmet, a fashionable dome-shaped hat among European settlers in Africa and Asia. (Think Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa.")

Immediately, the Internet was stunned. Did the first lady just wink at the good old days of colonialism, at the sight of the world?

The next day, in front of the Egyptian pyramids of Giza, she tried to reorient the conversation.

"I want to talk about my trip and not about what I'm wearing," Trump told the group of journalists traveling with her. "It's very important, what I do, what we do with [development agency] USAID, my initiatives and I wish people focus on [that]. "

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "In a sense, Trump was right to be irritated Critics have been searching for days that the first lady did not care about Africa, a region that her husband has& nbsp;most of the time ignored – and sometimes mocked – during his presidency. They scrutinized her scripted visits to schools, tourist sites and presidential palaces, where she was a discreet and elegant visitor whose most common expression seemed to be: "Thank you for inviting me." "Data-reactid =" 19 "> In a sense Trump was right to be irritated. Critics have been searching for days that the first lady did not care about Africa, a region that her husband most of the time ignored – and sometimes mocked – during his presidency. They scrutinized her scripted visits to schools, tourist sites and presidential palaces, where she was a discreetly gracious visitor whose most common phrase seemed to be "Thank you for inviting me".

As a journalist working in Africa, I felt a glimmer of sympathy for the first lady. His choice of hat had been deeply stupid, even offensive. But it was probably a gesture of ignorance, not malice. It simply reflected the level of knowledge of most people in the country where she lives – people for whom the history of the helmet was so unknown that it simply would not occur to them that it should not be carry.

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Similarly, we often speak about Africa in this way, arm's length terms that we might not be able to pause when even thoughtful journalists refer to a country that she has visited, Malawi, as "obscure". (Obscure, who is it?) Or when all of Africa – a continent of fifty countries and one billion people – is called "Vast and poor" or when the people who live there are "loved and admired to have deep joy and resilience, & nbsp; facing problems such as widespread poverty, disease and technological isolation, as seen in some African countries. "" data-reactid = "21"> In the same way, we often talk about Africa in such terms. Very long and arm's length terms that we might not be able to interrupt when even knowledgeable journalists describe " from obscure "a country she visited, Malawi. (Obscure, who is it?) Or when all of Africa, a continent of 50 countries and a billion people – is called "vast and impoverished", or when the people who live there are "loved and admired" for their deep joy and resilience, facing issues such as widespread poverty, disease and technological isolation, as seen in some African countries. "

Indeed, one of the most difficult things for me about reporting on this continent is that we have the tacit permission to be simplistic, because few people dispute this point of view. And whenever a representative represents charities and is interested in wildlife, he reinforces these perspectives. I suspect that Africa has long been a popular destination for first ladies, in particular, as it appears on the surface as a backdrop ready for American goodwill. In some ways, it looks like an entire continent populated by poor and poor countries eager to receive American goodness. Often, as in the case of Trump, these recipients are children, a particularly nice group. (Her trip is organized around the "Be Best" campaign for the promotion of children's well-being.)

As I watched Trump's trip from my home in Johannesburg, I wanted to be able to take him on a different trip to Africa. In the Ghanaian capital, Accra, for example, I might have suggested that he leave the presidential palace and visit some artists' studios in the Teshie neighborhood. There, she could have seen the sometimes far-fetched fantasy, sometimes deep, of the country's famous coffins makers, who carve coffins ranging from cola bottles to lions to human-sized cell phones. In Kenya, instead of spending the day visiting orphanages – a first for elephants, then one for humans – Trump could have made a detour into the suburbs of the capital to meet Tegla Loroupe, the tiny center of the city. a woman who broke almost record distance in the world, and when she finished doing it, just as quickly started giving money. (Philosophy, could have pointed Trump to Americans who look at home, can also be a home.)