Kagame & DeGeneres’ Poverty Porn

Ellen DeGeneres posing with poverty-stricken Rwandan children.
Ellen DeGeneres posing with poverty-stricken Rwandan children.

President Paul Kagame condoned Ellen DeGeneres’ poverty porn in Rwanda. Poverty porn is defined as follows:

“It is any type of media, be it written, photographed or filmed, which exploits the poor’s condition in order to generate the necessary sympathy…for increasing charitable donations or support for a given cause. Poverty porn is typically associated with black, poverty-stricken Africans, but can be found elsewhere. The subjects are overwhelming children, with the material usually characterized by images or descriptions of suffering, malnourished or otherwise helpless persons. The stereotype of poverty porn is the African child…”

Look at these images of Rwandan children splashed to millions on social media by DeGeneres.

 
 

When I saw these images, I cried for my country.

I cried for two reasons. First, the poverty in which these Rwandan children endure as demonstrated in these pictures is beyond belief. While Kagame builds US$300 Million convention center, and spends US$530 Million on an airline, Rwandan children live in dire poverty. Second, how does Kagame’s fabulously wealthy guest practice poverty porn under his nose? There can be no doubt that the posing with poverty-stricken Rwandan children was intended to increase charitable donations. Poor African children remain the stereotype of poverty porn — in this case, it is the desperately poor children from northern Rwanda that are used to promote DeGeneres’ cause.

The Kagames supplementing DeGeneres’ poverty porn by wearing her NGO shirt.

DeGeneres, for God’s sake, find these Rwandan children and apologize to them for your poverty porn. You splashed their images across the world without their consent. You destroyed what was left of their dignity. As for you Kagame, these images remind us that you are failed leader in every sense of the word. The lie that Rwanda will become a middle-income nation in 2020 — a year and a half from now — is stripped naked.