The Western representation of Africa portrays imbalanced narratives that disavow and belittle the developmental strides of the continent. With the passage of time, these Western framed representations and narratives have become dominant in Western media contents inclusive of advertisements. Western charity advertisements depend on these imbalanced narratives which reflect less of the true realities of the African continent and accommodate negative rhetoric and metaphors to persuade the audience to “grant their requests.” To understand the subtle visual elements deployed by these charity organizations in portraying the realities of the continent, this study examines five purposively selected Western charity print advertisements through the lens of visual rhetoric analysis. Su-Hie Ting’s framework for analyzing persuasive appeals based on Aristotle’s conception of rhetoric is further employed to highlight the portrayals of these Western advertisements. Unstructured interview via social media platforms with participants from the selected ad countries shows the unchanging Western narratives of the African continent.
Keywords: Representation., visual rhetoric, western charity advertisements
