How Can we “Decolonize” the Humanitarian Image in Africa Through Visual self-Production (photography) in the Cameroonian Context?

This article explores visual self-production (photography) by Africans south of the Sahara, presented here as a tool for emancipation in the face of the phenomenon of humanitarian aid. This visual self-representation constitutes a genuine form of communication that contributes to the deconstruction of prejudices and otherness in Africa. The criteria for selecting and analyzing photographers and photographs are aesthetic, historical, and geographical. Originality of subject matter, representative corpus, concrete illustrations, vigorous and rigorous criticism: these are the qualities of the method adopted in this study. We ask the following question: how does photography constitute an irreplaceable instrument in the process of “decolonization” of humanitarian aid in Africa? To answer this question, we have structured this work around three parts: the first is devoted to the process of constructing the photograph; the second to the analysis of colonial photographs and those produced by humanitarian actors; and finally, the third deals with the photographs compiled in the African visual library.