Author & Photographer: Masha
Week Five – Alota Expert
June 2019
Travel does funny things to people. Culture shock does funny things to people. They can change a person’s perspectives for better or worse, reinforcing or challenging their preconceived notions; and, they can bring out people’s strangest quirks…
Travel can also bring out and create what I call Extreme Experts and Alota Experts. An Extreme Expert (one of my professors also calls this group ‘6-Week Experts’), is someone who spends a week, or even a couple of months in a place different from their own, and returns a knower of all things about that place, eager to insert their newfound expertise into any remotely relevant, or non relevant situation. For those of us who have had the privilege to travel frequently, we have all been Extreme Experts at one time or another. During that first trip abroad, the world shifted, and we returned enthusiastically imparting our newfound ‘expertise’ on anyone within ear-shot. Extreme experts, in my experience, also tend to feel more emboldened in their ‘rightness’ of their own culture. For example, after a few weeks in Uganda (where I did my Peace Corps service), the mother of a volunteer wrote the following:
“Africa has not developed into the country that it could be as egos and pissing contests are not working… Men run the country and completely ignore the minds and voices of women…Men are right, women are wrong. Men are in charge, yet they do a disastrous job… I want to bring [the women] to America and save them from this.”
She posted this to her facebook page where she got like and agreement after like and agreement. Another volunteer wrote a brilliant rebuke (see: https://mashafrommilwaukee.com/2018/07/29/in-defense-of-uganda/). And this is a prime example of an Extreme Expert, a little bit of information, mixed with white-upperclass privilege and power, reinforced schemata of what she ‘thought’ Uganda would be like, and she imparted her ’wisdom’ upon hundreds of people; which may be summarized as, ‘Africa is a country, African men are bad, African women are helpless and clueless, and white women like myself need to save them.’ Amazing. In it’s arrogance, racism, ethnocentrism, and assumption that because she is white and American she is automatically in a position to “save them.” It also promotes a deficit-based approach, focusing on the ills rather than the positives. This is the prime example of an Extreme Expert. This is dangerous…
A bit or even a lot of information, without critical reflection, and with the intersection of the power that comes with race, history, and institutional support, can result in the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes and power structures that fuel Extreme Experteeism. Extreme experts further position themselves as the producers of knowledge regarding the community in which they are typically guests, either when they are still there or when they return home. Travel, in my opinion should be humbling, uncomfortable, and challenging. Not necessarily solely physically uncomfortable and challenging, but mentally. You don’t know how things work, you may or may not speak the language, everything works differently enough to be stressful, and you are the outsider. You need to figure it out, make friends, and realize that your way of doing things is not the only way of doing things, and you need to adjust to your environment.
Kenyan novelist, Teju Cole, wrote an essay called ‘White-Savior Industrial Complex’, which I highly recommend reading, and in the essay he writes the following:
“If we are going to interfere in the lives of others, a little due diligence is a minimum requirement.” – Teju Cole
Due diligence means many things. It can mean, basic respect for other people. It can mean asking for consent before taking photos, it can mean not skipping IRB (Institutional Review Board Approval) because one is working in a “Developing Country.” It can mean understanding history and politics. Due diligence means many things, especially challenging your own assumptions.
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Now for Alota Expert. An Alota Expert is someone who could be described as going a mile-wide and an inch-deep, with some variation. Alota Expert is someone who has taken a class or two on a topic, listened to a few guest lectures, or spent two weeks on vacation somewhere, and now proclaims themselves to be an expert in all of these various topics, whether it be a skill, area of study, or speaking a language. An Alota Expert I recently met, lectured on Shamanism one night, calling ‘Africans’, ‘hunter-gathers’ who were not ‘modern.’ The next night, he lectured on evolution (which I was not at), and several undergrads remarked angrily afterwards, “he’s just making stuff up.” He gave more lectures after that. On the night he lectured about Shamanism, he hung up a sign in English, Spanish, and Chinese, which was supposed to say, “All Good Spirits Welcome.” It did in English and Spanish. In Chinese he wrote, “只有之心情”, which does not mean all good spirits welcome. He also proceeded to lead us in prayer before starting his ‘Asain Shaman ritual.’ I, in addition to other students, pushed back on the lecture, and I’ll be honest, we did laugh at lot. We were not invited to the following lecture. What is absolutely amazing about this situation is that he just assumed he would know more than everyone. He assumed no students would be studying evolution, no students would speak Chinese, and when we pushed back, we were uninvited from his lectures. He is a perfect example of an Alota Expert. It’s okay to say you’re learning about something, but it’s not okay to say you’re an expert who should be giving a University lecture. This not only spreads false information but it also is disrespectful to people who are actually experts or at least competent in a topic. This individual also has a PhD and has published four books on his ‘expertise.’
This is very similar to the problems produced by Extreme Experts. Alota Experts also position themselves as the producers of knowledge regarding the community in which they are guests. The Alota Experts and Extreme Experts are often in positions of power due to race, socioeconomic status, occupation, etc, and write articles, books, facebook posts, about their ‘knowledge.’ And the community rebukes are seldom heard on the same scale.
In my opinion, knowledge should be humbling. It’s the case of the more you know the less you know. While some instances, academia in particular, can create an environment in which it is difficult to say, “I don’t know”, I think that’s what we should strive for. There is no way to know everything about even one or two topics, but effort, humility, critical reflection, and thoughtful action matter… What I and many others have found in travel is that we are all far more similar than different, and we have a lot to learn from one another. Thus, I would like to end on a note from Dr. Mkandawire-Valhmu writes in her book, Cultural Safety, Healthcare, and Vulnerable Populations:
“In connecting with those outside our geographic borders, we also recognize how lives that we lead and the choices that we make, or those that are made on our behalf, impact the lives of others in faraway lands. We must therefore find our common humanity across geographic borders while not denying the reality of existing power structures that lead to inequality between one geographic space or another (Stewart & Gachago, 2016, referenced by Mkwandawire-Valhmu, 2018).
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If you’re interested, here are the links to two blog posts about similar topics from my Peace Corps service:
References:
Teju Cole. (2012). The White-Savior Industrial Complex. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-savior-industrial-complex/254843/
Mkandawire-Valhmu, L. (2018). Cultural Safety, Healthcare and Vulnerable Populations, A Critical Theoretical Perspective. Routledge.
MFM 