The image of Africa in NGO campaigns. From the Shock Effect to Posthumanitarian Communication

Abstract

This article analyzes the dominant images of Africa in the field of cooperation and development NGOs. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and the theoretical framework of humanitarian communication for social change, we examine a sample of campaigns by development NGOs, identifying their main narrative resources and their ethical and performative potential. The results suggest that the portrait of Africa is still in consonance with the so-called “shock effect” and its antagonist: “positive imagery”. However, we observe the emergence of campaigns conceived from cosmopolitan and co-responsability ethical values, based on “post-humanitarian communication” elements such as abstraction, creativity, humor and subversion of hegemonic senses.