How to Blog About Africa: travel writing in the digital age

The impact of postcolonial criticism on discussions about ‘representations of the Other’ has been felt far beyond the academic sphere, and has had significant influence on a wide variety of cultural forms. Contemporary informal writing practices such as those found on travel and aid blogs employ terminology and ideas that stem directly from the theoretical frameworks developed by critics such as Said, Pratt and Spurr (1978; 1992; 1993). The blogs Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like (henceforth SEAWL) and Gurl Goes to Africa seek to highlight and critique examples of ‘orientalism’ and ‘exotification’ found in other travel blogs, and therefore to draw a comparison between the discourse of colonial travellers and missionaries and that of young ‘gap-year’ travellers and aid workers. These blogs form part of a wider internet trend of satirising the pretensions of privileged ‘Western’ travellers. One example is the comedy sketch video ‘Gap Yah’ (which has been viewed more than five million times on Youtube since its posting in 2010).