Final answer:
The language device used in the phrase about Africa is Parallel Structure, which emphasizes key ideas and creates a memorable, balanced sentence structure.
Step-by-step explanation:
The language device used in the phrase "a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe" is C. Parallel Structure. This rhetorical device involves the repetition of the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. The repetition of the phrase "a single story" is a clear example of parallelism. It serves to emphasize the idea that there's not just one perspective or narrative about Africa, thereby highlighting the fact that simplifying an entire continent to a singular narrative can be misleading.
Parallel structure is utilized in rhetorical language to organize support for an idea, create balance, and make the statements more memorable. When utilized effectively, as seen in the phrase provided, it calls attention to and underscores the key ideas being conveyed. The use of parallelism can be compared to similar devices such as anaphora and epistrophe, where repetition is focused at the beginning or the end of successive clauses or sentences, respectively.