{"id":17952,"date":"2021-11-21T07:37:16","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T07:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barazalab.com\/?p=17952"},"modified":"2023-09-04T05:44:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T05:44:55","slug":"the-scholarship-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tuwele.com\/baraza_update\/the-scholarship-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scholarship Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a TikTok challenge that has me laughing out of my seat every time I come across it – for those uninitiated into the wonderful randomness that is TikTok, it involves, like many of these do, teenagers and twenty-somethings playing pranks on their parents. This one is called the #scholarshipprank (you can watch a compilation on YouTube\u00a0<\/span>here<\/span><\/a>), and a version of it usually goes like this – you sit with your mum or dad in front of a camera, shooting a video that you\u2019ve told them is needed for a scholarship application, and that it should feature someone that is an inspiration to you.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>You start easy, speaking to camera how much you want the scholarship and how you mum or dad has inspired you, and then you go completely off tangent (still in that sweet and earnest tone), now saying how your parent was in jail or on drugs or a human trafficker, and how you\u2019re so amazed that they\u2019ve turned their lives around. Of course at this point the hapless parent is aghast, sometimes they\u00a0 (mums usually) interrupt the recording and tell their son or daughter to stop lying; there was one dad who painfully let his daughter finish her outrageous story before turning to her and whispering, \u201cHow much is this scholarship offering? I will pay\u2026 I promise I will pay.\u201d My heart!<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>Beyond the laughs, I see these pranks expressing something deeper. It is that younger people can see through the facade of meritocracy, and they know that in order to be \u201cseen\u201d by powerful institutions, they have to play the game of poor-immigrant\/ African\/ Black\/ Indigenous-person-who-really-needs-a-helping-hand-from-a-wealthy-benefactor. Even if they may not always put it into practice so explicitly, they know what to emphasize (poverty, addiction, big struggles) and what to de-emphasize. It is \u201cHow To Write About Africa\u201d all over again, bringing into sharp relief the narratives that the powerful want to hear.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>I\u2019ve been thinking about how so much of our storytelling is circumscribed by these invisible demands, of what stories from our part of the world are \u201csupposed\u201d to be like. I\u2019m thinking of the work that organizations like\u00a0<\/span>Africa No Filter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are doing, to centre stories that bring hope and pride and joy. Or\u00a0<\/span>The Wall of Great Africans<\/span><\/a>, curated by Charles Onyango-Obbo on Facebook, that has been running for over five years now and has featured over 5,000 stories of remarkable and unsung heroes of Africa. And even\u00a0<\/span>Afrobubblegum<\/span><\/a>, coined by Wanuri Kahiu, that curates and commissions fun artistic work, \u201ccelebrating the joy, love and happiness of Africa\u201d.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>I\u2019m looking forward to a time when the #scholarshipchallenge won\u2019t even need to be a thing. In the meantime, here\u2019s:<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n