Reporting the ignored
Seeing the Unseen: The Changing Face of Africa
TOPE ORIOLA
“Do not look for the changing face of African politics in the media: good
news about Africa does not sell.”
Benjamin Mkapa, Former President of Tanzinia
In a lecture given at the University of Manitoba this past May, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa reiterated the reality that news about Africa is distorted, often ignoring efforts being made in the continents economic, political and social development. It should be no news that good news about Africa does not sell. What western-based media organizations prefer to report are issues that, in the words of Mkapa, “conform to an Africa of 4 Ds — deaths, diseases, disasters and despair.”
That there was negligible media coverage for Mkapa’s lecture is in line with a well-established tradition. If the issue for discussion had been about breakdown of order or the ravages of HIV/AIDS in a fictitious African community, people who hoped to benefit psychologically from more tales of woes from abroad would have filled the auditorium. At least they would have left feeling more privileged than they really are.
Not to be left out would have been those supposedly helping to solve social problems in Africa in their air-conditioned offices, riding in SUVs, attending innumerable talk-shops and consuming sumptuous dinners. Problem solving has never been easier!
The persistent, deliberate and quasi-scientific “problematization” of Africa and everything African has become a subsector of western economies. Many would loose their jobs should Africa progress more on the path to development. Whatever is being positively achieved in Africa is treated with skepticism, cynicism and crass pessimism, if reported at all.
Most people, of course, readily believe that bad things happen all the time — preferably on distant shores. The reality of Africa as Mr. Mkapa pointed out, is that it is a highly diverse continent with 53 sovereign states. Most countries in Africa are not war-torn and never will be. Sudan and Somalia, where ethnic conflict persists, are subsets of Africa, where hopefully the interest of humanity and the fear of God will prevail.
However, for the most part, westerners will hear more negative and blood-chilling news about parts of Africa where people actually live normal lives, in all the media’s culture-specific ramifications. This is not to deny the genuine efforts of a few organizations who are truly concerned.
A friend forwarded a joke from theonion. com titled “Thousands Feared Born in Nigeria’s Population Explosion.” I thought that was funny. What I did not find funny was another “joke” titled “Nigeria Chosen to Host 2008 Genocides.” Such are not mere jokes. They reveal the perceptions and expectations of the author.
Similarily, the film Tears in the Sun, starring Bruce Willis, released shortly before Nigeria’s 2003 general elections, apparently attempted to predict what the producers thought would happen — chaos and absolute lawlessness. African countries have grown beyond that. The producers might have wished their prophecy would be fulfilled. They were grossly disappointed.
Also, those who were mapping out global futures for America’s National Intelligence Council in 2005 forgot to map out the consequences of basic problems facing Americans, but channeled their energy on the negative events they thought were waiting to happen in other parts of the world. Charity does not begin abroad, but at home.
The problematization of Africa conceals the ingenuity of Africans at home and in the diaspora, creating the myth that Africans cannot survive without foreign aid and NGO spending. Hence, someone at Mkapa’s lecture who was obviously alienated by capitalism and had probably never seen an international airport, asked an international student if he had an address! Obviously, the poor, over-zealous worker thought all Africans were poor and thus homeless. Never mind that international students pay more than double what Canadian citizens pay!
Africa has come of age. Liberia now has a female president, a feat the acclaimed bastion of equality, the United States, has not achieved. Time will reveal the impact of the restoration of peace on a people who endured over a decade of mercenary warfare.
Botswana is a middle income country though largely ignored. The level of education and health care in Seychelles would stun any European. Ghana is growing at an unfathomable rate, while Nigerians recently stoically opposed a constitutional aberration. Libya’s system of “Jamahiriya” (state of the masses) should command the respect of priests of “the invisible hand.”
Consequently, those whose livelihood depends on conjuring and peddling a hapless and helpless image of Africa are employed in an endangered field. It is time to begin to look for real employment.
Clearly, no society has a monopoly on order or disorder. There is no single reality anywhere. African leaders must desist from misconstruing gerontocracy for democracy. Mr. Mkapa, when his term was completed, did well by handing over power peacefully. Those in power should be wary of western propounded models that have no relevance for Africa, and so must not be adopted hook, line and sinker. For Africa, things are getting better, albeit unreported.
Tope Oriola is pursuing a masters degree in sociology.
