David Lammy didn’t cost Comic Relief £8m – its refusal to drop colonial stereotypes did

If there was any doubt that the postcolonial heart of the debate surrounding Comic Relief has been ignored, look no further than continued criticism of David Lammy’s “white saviour” argument.

As soon as it emerged that the charity raised £8m less than last year, supporters of the campaign rushed to place the blame on the Labour MP's outspokenness. Once again, unease over Comic Relief’s portrayal of Africa was shut down by staunch defenders of its “good work”.

But the charity efforts were never really up for debate. The knock-on effects of how they fit into the postcolonial landscape were.

African and Caribbean writers have challenged reductive portrayals of black identity, traditions and communities by western authors for decades.

Defending Comic Relief’s one-dimensional coverage over it being a “good cause” ignores the time-old – and yes, that means pre-Instagram – discussion that Lammy brought up.

Aimé Cesaire, the Martiniquais writer and politician, was a founding member of the Négritude movement which reclaimed and rewrote black identity, too often transcribed from a white perspective.

There are similar approaches like these, in which blackness is stripped of its prescribed attributes, and redefined to reflect the feelings of the people who actually belong to these these cultures.

In Peau Noire, Masques Blancs (Black Skin, White Masks), Frantz Fanon writes: “Often what we call the black soul is the construction of a white man.” His characters’ identities are formed – to their discomfort – by the stereotypes and legends that the white characters view them with.

Senegalese writer Ousmane Sembène learned French at night school whilst working on the docks in Marseille. He wrote in his non-native language, French. “I have a very important job for my society, for my community,” he wrote. “But it isn’t just about writing for Senegal, it is about writing beyond the Senegalese, writing for the whole planet.”

His novel Les Bouts de bois de Dieu (God’s Bits of Wood) draws on trade unions, the railway industry and a Senegal undergoing modernisation. Sembène looked beyond old colonial stereotypes of a backwards Africa and looked towards its future.

Similarly, Mariama Bâ criticised western feminism’s negative perception of polygamy in Senegal. In Une Si Longue Lettre (So Long A Letter), Bâ’s protagonist breaks down when her husband, influenced by modernising western values seeping into the town, starts a secret affair. There is jealousy, detachment and none of the positives that arise from cohabitation.

What these writers have in common is their drive to represent their own communities. As colonial subjects living in a postcolonial world, their societies were defined by Western discourse or ideas. This reinforced stereotypes, saw western society speak for groups and imposed a sense of superiority on one culture over others, often unintentionally.

Now that these ideas have become ingrained in western society, social media seems to have become the vehicle for defending these colonial ideas, which is precisely what Lammy took issue with.

Dooley and her supporters were understandably defensive. But arguing in favour of Comic Relief’s “good” doesn’t answer the time-old question over reductive representation.

In the wake of the controversy, people from a number of African countries on Twitter issued reminders that the real debate was over perpetuating damaging stereotypes.

Music artists Reggie ‘n’ Bollie wrote: “Being Africans, it’s so uncomfortable to see lots of British celebs travel to Africa with the good intentions of comic relief but end up promoting the negative stereotypes about Africa.”

While Comic Relief supporters focused on the western perspective. Journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wrote; “white people with good intentions are not our enemy.”

That much may be true – but arguments like those don’t take away from the fact that white people should still be aware that they might touch a nerve in situations like these; they still risk feeding into the same stereotyping that has plagued communities for years.

Charities like Comic Relief should not stop giving aid where needed. They just need to be more aware of falling into the trap of spreading of prejudice along the way.

The argument is bigger than just Dooley being white, as many have suggested. It is bigger than Dooley being “trolled”, as the BBC suggested. It is bigger than taking money away from a deserving charity.

Postcolonial writers have been fighting the battle of who represents their cultures – and how – for a long time.

And it seems the fight isn’t over yet.