"Suzanne Franks discusses how the visually dominated storytelling of famines in Africa distorted the causes of famine and therefore obscured the most effective solutions. As journalists struggled to document the depths of human suffering, humanitarian communication in these early stages raised compassion, concern, and actions of all sorts, but also helped to extend the conflicts and misled global publics by offering simple explanations for complex circumstances. In addition, it left in its wake a legacy, and a visual convention of stereotypic imagery, of The Starving African; anonymous, vulnerable, powerless, and forever waiting for food from the West." (Introduction to part 4, page 186)