Here is a warning to Africans viewers, avoid watching CNN news coverage of Africa, it can be bad for your health. Bad for your health because its portrayal of Africa is more often than not, in a negative light and may leave you mad, angry and frustrated. I know the temptation to watch 'Inside Africa' is especially strong for those in the diaspora, since it is one of the few visual links to the place you call home. But you stand to be disappointed more times than you will be pleased.
To think CNN believes this weekly 30 minute programme, dissected all the way by ads, is meant to provide a holistic overview of a large continent like Africa is quite laughable. Even the occasional injection of bits of good news here and there cannot camouflage the overall theme of the coverage. Neither does the clever use of mainly African presenters disguise the underlying desire to depict Africa as a tragic and wayward continent unable to fend for its self. A continent with a major chunk of its inhabitants dying of hunger, AIDS and war.
Ofcourse the Western media has every right to report Africa's problems to the world. However its reporting tends to be grossly unbalanced and ever focused on the negative, giving scant regard to areas of notable progress, development and achievement. Almost like there's a desire to maintain an archaic and dire image of Africa. An image which it helped establish in the minds of its viewers since pre-slavery times. The Western media continues to have a field day at Africa's expense, doing a great disservice to the efforts of many Africans who have made significant changes and progress in their respective locations. Undermining its history, rich culture and tradition and overall historical contribution to world affairs.
Africa has about 54 nations in all, yet the problems of a few are used to project and determine the overall image of the continent. Television viewers are inundated with news captions like " AIDS is killing Africa" or " Where have all the parents gone ". They make Africa the ideal dumping ground for all that's wrong or bad with the world. Then some get a chance to visit Africa and arrive to see a place teeming with jovial people, going about their daily lives - working, eating, sleeping and loving, just like people anywhere else in the world. They wonder where all the dying victims of AIDS are. How come they can still afford a smile and a friendly welcome, supposedly living on less than 1 Dollar a day. There's a sudden realisation that things don't quite add up and there has been some error in the calculations.
There's no shortage of Western journalists, actors, charity workers and so-called celebrities heading for Africa, armed with cameras to capture every inch of their philanthropy, charity or display of sympathy. It is a rather trendy thing, for it could breathe life into a flagging career or be a springboard to fame for others.
Having lived in the West for about 5 years now, one comes to the realisation that this pattern of news coverage is a carefully choreographed mechanism designed to give the Western viewer a sense of comfort and superiority over other peoples and nations. And Africa holds a particularly titillating and amusing appeal, especially when things are not going well. Perhaps there is a secret desire for it to remain just the way it is, inherent with hunger and disease, war and famine, not peaceful, modernised with proper infrastructures and working towns and cities.
The media is a very powerful tool in shaping people's opinions and thinking. In my view, its use by the West has done more harm than good, and has given many a skewed perception of Africa and its people. It has discouraged business and tourism to many parts. It has wrongly stigmatised Africans in the eyes of many, partly why they often receive rather poor reception when they travel to many parts of the world.
As more westerners begin to travel to various destinations around the world, they begin to see for themselves the truth and misrepresentation. There's no doubt they will see poverty, diseases and chaotic, poorly managed cities. But they will also see a vibrant people, who in spite of their disadvantages politically, economically and educationally, look for ingenious ways of surviving. That the lives of some these people does not differ greatly from theirs and in some cases may be even better. They may also learn that their own government's political decisions are partly to blame for some of the problems many of these countries face. The world is wising up to the true history and politics of the world. The advent of the internet gives people anywhere in the world access to alternative news and information that might have otherwise been constrained by powerful governments and unreported by mainstream media organisations(Thank Godness..youtube,photo share rocks!!!!) People are beginning to tell their own stories and film their own events.
As far as Africa is concerned, it is up to its people and political leaders to shake off this image of a failed continent. They must run better governments aimed at improving the lot of their people. There's a need for more international media forums where Africans can report their own news and tell their own stories, instead of having someone else manipulate and contort these to suit their own ends. This way we can begin to correct the misrepresentation of Africa and re-educate people and draw the world attention to the varying aspects of this rich and diverse continent, still standing strong despite many decades of hardship, brutality and marginalization it has experienced.
This is what am burning on!!!
