Briton's African gap year memoir sparks angry Twitter response

[BlueMTexpat]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/05/zambians-hit-back-at-white-saviour-gap-yah-memoir

Gap Year Gaffe

Western writer sparks social media storm over book outlining her experiences of war, spiders and ‘smiling children with HIV’

Westerners writing about their gap year in Africa should be aware of the risks by now. After Gap Yah guy’s satire of his time in “Tanzaniaaa”, “Africaaa”, where he actually saw someone contract “Malariaaa”, travellers have had to think carefully about how they talk about their year abroad.

At best they risk ridicule. At worst they will be accused of colonialism, cultural blindness and perpetuating an outdated narrative of the developing world for their own means.

But no one seemed to have warned Louise Linton, whose article “How my dream gap year in Africa turned into a nightmare” appeared in the Telegraph this week to promote a book about her experience.

Despite being in Zambia, she writes about becoming a “central character” in the Congolese war of the late 1990s – terrified of what the rebels from across the border “would do to the ‘skinny white muzungu with long angel hair’”.

Much more at the link, including links to this individual's memoir and that of "Gap Yah guy."

[Odin2005]

1. Whenever somebody says they took a "gap year" I know I am talking to a wealthy privileged POS.

[rug]

2. Terse and accurate.