It Is Time to Let the ‘African Mother’ Jokes Go

In recent times, we have been inundated with various social media depictions of African mothers, portraying them as ignorant, irrational, and incoherent. These depictions engender a reading of primitive difference in Africans by reinforcing the trope of the conservative, backward African. 

In 2023, I became troubled by the persistence of short-form videos online rooted in the performance of some purported African parent foolishness for consumption by both Africans and non-Africans. One of the first videos I noticed was on Instagram by content creator Manacious Powers. The video was titled, ‘pov: you go to dinner dressed as African moms with your friends.’ The video followed Powers and her friends as they entered a restaurant. While the fashion choices were gorgeous, I was disappointed by the exaggerated tropes used to portray African mothers. The ‘mothers’ could not open a glass door, struggled over food and spilled food all over the table. But most shockingly, they stole plates, spoons, and glassware. I was taken aback. My mother and the mothers of my friends had never behaved in this way. But I told myself: ‘Chukwuka, stop assuming your life must be everyone’s life.’ So, I moved on. 

However, I would soon come across another short form video. This time, in the vein of ‘what you say’ vs. ‘what African parents hear’. Before I tapped on the video, I asked myself whether African parents had a special characteristic that led them to hear spoken words differently. To the best of my knowledge, there is no such characteristic. When I watched the video, my eyebrows furrowed. Created by PatZMB, its premise seemed simple: parents may react strongly when you share a personal life decision with them. But the execution seemed to support tropes of African backwardness. In the video, he said, ‘Mom, I just got my ears pierced,’ and, according to him, what his African mother heard was ‘I’m gay’...

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