No, this is not a picture from my private collection. This was a picture which was part of the exhibition that is currently in display in the SOAS library.
And in true SOAS fashion: someone posted this picture on the SOAS FB group, saying that if these have been white children it would have been a case of child pornography, but because they are black it is somehow permissible. And predictably people started adding their views - how this is an epitome of Orientalism - White people selectively portraying non-White people as savage, raw, sexual, the "other" etc - and SOAS grads with rose-tinted glasses bemoaning how the standards of SOAS have fallen and how current students are apathetic to something like this which would have caused an uproar back when SOAS was a reputable institution, etc etc.
I do love SOAS and the intellectual discussions, but sometimes I am tired of how extreme some of these views are and how everything has to be seen through the post colonial lens of Orientalism and regarded as exploitation by the white people. I know I'll be publicly lynched for this - and this blog post will serve as evidence that I am no better than the white people imposing their ideologies on the world.
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