The One Sided Narrative About Africa

In the West the majority of people have two uninformed views of Africa. The prevailing image is that of poverty and death continent-wide (which is certainly not always the case). The other is of all the resources and exotic animals. Somewhere a few facts are being overlooked.

This is not the entire reality but unfortunately it’s all you’ll get from the narrative that the many western media outlets have chosen to tell about the continent. This is why journalism by Africans about Africa needs to made a priority (by Africans). It’s also why African blog aggregators like Afrigator and Amatomu are important at shining much needed light onto the ‘dark continent’ and the conversations it has within itself. Yes, I realize that the very fact that I’m talking about this issue is a conundrum (I’m a westerner born and raised in America my entire life until now) and very much an example of the problem, not the solution. However, I will say I started Appfrica because I now live in Kampala, Uganda and if I wasn’t planning on living here for the next few years (by choice), I wouldn’t have become involved in quite the same way.

That said, it’s important to highlight some of the discussion Africa has been having related to journalism across the continent:

The 2008 Kwani Lit Fest kicked off on Wednesday night with a talk on How foreign correspondents have formed the literary image of Africa with a panel consisting of Steve Bloomfield (The Independent/Monocle), Binyavanga Wainana (Kwani), Jonathan Ledgard (The Economist) and Mary Anne Fitzgerald (London Times)

- Foreign correspondents write for a foreign audience
- African newspapers who can (Daily Nation, Mail & Guardian) don’t use local correspondents. They pay Reuters to cover other African countries yet local expertise is plenty
- While it’s not appropriate for a news organization to have one person cover the entire continent called Africa, there is only room for two stories a week from Africa in many organizations. And they are often about misery
- Kenyans are as ignorant about Somalia as Americans
- Africa is still the place where young journalists are sent to the vast continent to cut their teeth in journalism.. It is where many careers are made
- African countries should not be treated with kid gloves, and foreign reporters should not shy away from writing about the ills of Africa in the interest of positivity or pan Africanism. E.g. Kenya went though a violent period this year and it was a much more advanced society than Yugoslavia a decade ago

Via Bankelele