Look guys, this is going to rub you the wrong way—but I have no apologies. First, let me thank Khadijja for making the point about Africa’s image, albeit majorly through other people’s lenses. (Were you avoiding responsibility Kay?).
I will begin with the discourse by Khatu Mamaila on the image of Africa as represented by the media. He does mention that Africa has received to a great extent ‘negative press’ and silently roots for more positive coverage.
He (and many others in this thought school) says Africa has a load of many other great things that can be covered and a more appealing image of the continent created.
Let me state this first; I am an African and very proud of my roots and heritage. I have never known people warmer and more hospitable than Africans. That many of us still preserve extended family systems just shows how we are ready to stand by each other.
But to me, that is all there is to ‘celebrate’ about being African. Real life in Africa tells another story. I love Saffiya’s review on “Clouds over Conakry”. She points out the cancers that define Africa; tribalism, contemporary standards of modern day world (what is this Saffiya?) and religion. My diagnosis though would expose more tumours; hunger, HIV/AIDS, greed and megalomaniacs.
So, where should the press’ loyalty lie? In exposing the malignant evils of this continent or celebrating the limited pluses? I go for the former. And this has its roots in the age-old maxim about what makes news: If a dog bites a man, that is no news, but if a man bites a dog—surely that is a front page headline.
Look, we are expected to have sufficient food, our leaders are expected to respect their countries’ constitutions, jobs should be offered on merit, resources must be fairly distributed. That is the normal world. But these are hard by to come across in this continent.
For some of us, who gravel through to the middle class, we enclose ourselves in our apartments, watch our TVs and soaps, sip wine and assume the over 70% wallowing in poverty out there do not exist.
Our leaders, with impunity, plunder our resources, detain opponents, defile constitutions and we just cheer on.
Let me just put my theory to test here.
South Africa, the leading economy—we saw xenophobic attacks recently. The true story is that Mbeki’s economic policies have alienated many poor people.
Egypt; supposedly a flourishing economy--- President Mubarak is preparing his son to undemocratically take over power.
Botswana; great democracy and economy---about 47% HIV/AIDS prevalence rates.
Kenya; the beacon of East Africa---recently rigged presidential elections and tribal clashes.
Nigeria; leading oil exporter; the world champions in corruption
The list is endless!
Look, unless we style up (which I don’t see in the near future), Africa deserves no positive press---I mean there are no positives to ‘press’ in this continent.
I will begin with the discourse by Khatu Mamaila on the image of Africa as represented by the media. He does mention that Africa has received to a great extent ‘negative press’ and silently roots for more positive coverage.
He (and many others in this thought school) says Africa has a load of many other great things that can be covered and a more appealing image of the continent created.
Let me state this first; I am an African and very proud of my roots and heritage. I have never known people warmer and more hospitable than Africans. That many of us still preserve extended family systems just shows how we are ready to stand by each other.
But to me, that is all there is to ‘celebrate’ about being African. Real life in Africa tells another story. I love Saffiya’s review on “Clouds over Conakry”. She points out the cancers that define Africa; tribalism, contemporary standards of modern day world (what is this Saffiya?) and religion. My diagnosis though would expose more tumours; hunger, HIV/AIDS, greed and megalomaniacs.
So, where should the press’ loyalty lie? In exposing the malignant evils of this continent or celebrating the limited pluses? I go for the former. And this has its roots in the age-old maxim about what makes news: If a dog bites a man, that is no news, but if a man bites a dog—surely that is a front page headline.
Look, we are expected to have sufficient food, our leaders are expected to respect their countries’ constitutions, jobs should be offered on merit, resources must be fairly distributed. That is the normal world. But these are hard by to come across in this continent.
For some of us, who gravel through to the middle class, we enclose ourselves in our apartments, watch our TVs and soaps, sip wine and assume the over 70% wallowing in poverty out there do not exist.
Our leaders, with impunity, plunder our resources, detain opponents, defile constitutions and we just cheer on.
Let me just put my theory to test here.
South Africa, the leading economy—we saw xenophobic attacks recently. The true story is that Mbeki’s economic policies have alienated many poor people.
Egypt; supposedly a flourishing economy--- President Mubarak is preparing his son to undemocratically take over power.
Botswana; great democracy and economy---about 47% HIV/AIDS prevalence rates.
Kenya; the beacon of East Africa---recently rigged presidential elections and tribal clashes.
Nigeria; leading oil exporter; the world champions in corruption
The list is endless!
Look, unless we style up (which I don’t see in the near future), Africa deserves no positive press---I mean there are no positives to ‘press’ in this continent.
Don
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1 comment:
Don, not quite avoiding responsibility. More like, ringing in the reinforcements :p
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