Africa has been portrayed as the dark continent in need of civilization, and its heathen people in need of enlightenment through enslavement and colonization. Africa has been presented as a continent in the difficult throes of trying to become more like the societies of the Western Hemisphere. From the era of Africa’s enslavement and colonial rule, traders, missionaries, adventurers and explorers have all played a role in perpetuating and disseminating certain images of Africa. These images have overall been negative. Whilst from the 16th century to the 19th century, colonial administrators, missionaries and merchants were largely responsible for disseminating ideas about Africa, today this dissemination is carried out by various forms of print and electronic media: newspapers, television, radio and the Internet.
Misinformation about Africa has become a growth industry in the western world. A vocabulary of metaphors is used in describing Africa. For example, “black on black violence” is a euphemism the Western press used in writing about South Africa in the 1980s, yet British journalists do not report on “white on white violence” when reporting the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Most Westerners have never visited Africa and may never visit the continent. Yet there is an image of Africa in the Western mind. When one is asked to think of Western images that come to mind when thinking of Africa, the overall mental images are of primaeval irrationality, tribal anarchy, hunger/famine, civil war, managerial ineptitude, political instability, flagrant corruption and incompetent leadership.
These mental images of Africa have their deep roots in a historical relationship of slavery and colonialism which was imposed on the continent. It was a relationship which defined Africa and Africans as culturally, intellectually, politically and technically backward and inferior. These ideas continue to permeate the minds of Western journalists, editors and academics adopt, when writing about Africa.
According to Kayode Adeyeye, a Social Reformer; Western media only come to Africa to do business. Because of the negative coverage about Africa, it discourages investors who want to come into the continent and invest. Africa needs to be rebranded; He continues; the story of HIV/AIDS in Africa especially countries in sub-Sahara Africa were blown out of proportion by the Western Media. For example, for the past 30 years, HIV/AIDS has been a global challenge both in the social and economic development of the human race.
Record by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other health agencies suggest that most HIV/AIDS carriers are from Africa. According to statistics out of 42 million HIV patients worldwide, 30 million are said to be from sub-Sahara Africa without having a thorough statistics of it. As a result, HIV/AIDS is now seen as an African inheritance; Tokunbo Ige, a Veteran Broadcaster said, as Africa detests the ugly painting by Western media, the continent has a responsibility to play to enhance coverage. Despite the technological backwardness of the continent, there are needs to establish a good training environment for the journalist in order to have seasoned and tested media professionals that can compete with their western counterpart.
He continues; the government should create a good policy for free press freedom so as to have an enabling environment for private ownership of media which will help train upcoming journalists and for accurate news dissemination. In as much as there is a regulatory system in place, the government should avoid using it as an avenue to intimidate broadcasting owners and journalists; Tade Adeyanju, a profound Journalist said; There are many different and often positive stories to be told from Africa’s 54 diverse countries. But the continent currently has no microphone of its own on the global stage, no loudspeaker with which to tell its stories the way it wants them told. It must wait in line hoping others lend it theirs from time to time. That won’t do; He continues; Al Jazeera has succeeded in giving Arabs a voice on the global stage. Where is Africa’s answer to Al Jazeera? Ultimately though, it is only irrefutable and irreversible economic development that can transform global perceptions about African countries. Nothing burnishes reputation quite as quickly as a success.
It will take a fine-tuned knowledge and tactical approach for Africa to confront biased and unfair media reportage by Western media. African people need to discover themselves and get the world to know about Africa from Africans. There must be a serious commitment by individuals, Government, Africa Media to recover the continent’s correct image. Once the structures are put in place towards this goal, what will emerge in the final analysis is a media of Africa by Africans and for Africans.
THINK TANK
OLAKUNLE AGBOOLA
