People Are Upset About This Photo Ellen DeGeneres Tweeted While Traveling In East Africa

People are saying the image is an example of “poverty porn.”

In case you didn’t know, Ellen DeGeneres just wrapped up a weeklong trip through East Africa.

Giraffes! #giraffemanor #discoverthesafaricollection

The talk show host runs a wildlife foundation and appeared to be promoting the organization’s work as she snapped selfies with giraffes in Kenya and embarked on a mountain gorilla excursion in Rwanda with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

I’ve waited my whole life to make this trip.

“I’ve waited my whole life to make this trip,” she wrote.

But there’s one photo DeGeneres posted from her trip that isn’t sitting well with many of her fans on the continent.

Thank you to all of the amazing people I met on my trip, who helped make it so special.

The image, which DeGeneres tweeted on Tuesday, shows her standing with more than a dozen small children. She didn’t specify where exactly the photo was taken, but wrote, “Thank you to all of the amazing people I met on my trip, who helped make it so special.”

Africans on the continent and across the diaspora immediately chastised her on Twitter for posting the photo, accusing her of engaging in “poverty porn” and focusing on only one aspect of life in Africa.

A trip to Africa is not complete without the trademark poverty porn photo op. https://t.co/RwDcupVcNC

@TheEllenShow U coulda taken pics in rich/tush neighbourhoods. But no. U want to showcase africa as poor and impoverished And they say u have sense o

@TheEllenShow Africa is not jus the jungle you know, you mus reach the cities too, there are people who stay there.

You landed at a nice airport and stayed at a lovely hotel before your trip to find poor African children to take pictures with. But this is the only Africa you want to show the world https://t.co/YTdH1fQAWc

Why do white people love to take this exact photo so much?? Like they liiiive to take this photo and it’s never not bizarre https://t.co/9yLDuhcp98

@TheEllenShow Please don't do this... Don't encourage volontourism... It does more harm than good...

@TheEllenShow Next time you tour Africa, try also showing the world the other side. Not poverty and despair

@TheEllenShow This cliche of Africa is overdone. You could have put in an image of one of countless world class resorts. #povertyisnottheonlyfaceofafrica

@TheEllenShow This is a misfire. White tourist taking a pic with anonymous group of ‘happy but poor African kids’ always is. Examine your motivations in taking this pic- be honest. Showing how ‘real’ your experience was? Did kids consent to this being posted? These kids aren’t props.

One person said that foreigners coming to the continent for “voluntourism” shouldn’t be allowed to take photos while they’re there.

@TheEllenShow I’m starting to feel like phones or cameras should be banned when foreigners are visiting or going for peace keeping missions or voluntary work. 🙄

London-based Nigerian actor Kelechi Okafor posted a thread breaking down DeGeneres’s photo, jokingly saying that she was going to start doing the same thing to white people in England.

I’m going to start going around England taking pictures with white children. Possibly handing them a cube of Maggi.

Okafor added that posting such photos on social media “doesn’t make you look cool or well-traveled, you just look like a dickhead who is deeply committed to their White Savior Complex.”

BuzzFeed News has reached out to DeGeneres’s team for comment.

Topics in this article

Skip to footer