Africa has always had a voice. Or rather, a cacophony of voices, all of them pretty much saying the same thing, although in different tongues and with different instruments. With the Kaakaki, the Bata drum and the Ekwe, we have captivated and delighted visitors from other lands. With Things Fall Apart and Weep Not Child, we have opened their eyes and minds towards understanding us. But in recent times, Africa has often been misreported, thus misinterpreted, hence misunderstood, not only by our developing contemporaries, but also by the developed world. Africa says that the world hates our God-given prize– the black skin. The world says, Africa is the real Peter Pan – a child who has refused to grow up. But would things be said or done differently if Africa was viewed through the eyes of African media, rather than ‘foreign’ media?
The Americans have got CNN, Fox News and many more. Day in, day out, on a 24-hour cycle, these news stations feed the hearts and minds of millions of Americans. Through their lenses, America sees the world, and the world sees America. So it’s no surprise that whatever they say is held close to the hearts and minds of millions of Americans.
The British have always had the BBC. Starting as a government agency over 5 decades ago, the British Broadcasting Corporation has built an international reputation for a clean and in-depth news service and has grown to include many radio services in local languages spread in different parts of the world, with the BBC Hausa service having a weekly audience of 50 million listeners in West Africa.
No one covers Arabia like Al Jazeera. With impressive coverage of most Arab nations, Al Jazeera continues to be the bridge linking the social, cultural, economic and religious gap between Arabia and the West. Many other examples abound, such as the German owned Deutsche Welle and many others in the west. So where exactly does that leave Africa?
With no international media house of its own to speak of, Africa is often left in the hands of foreign media. Politics, society, culture, religion, economy, morality, fashion, values, ideas, public and individual opinion... the list is endless. Every single one of these can be understood and influenced by television. The implications of the situation where another society decides our position for us are tremendous. So what is our fate as Africans when we do not have our own voice?
Many Africans argue that this dangerous situation is of no consequence. According to this group of people, henceforth referred to as the antagonists, an international African media house will only be plagued with the tribal and sectarian politics that have divided Africans against themselves. In addition, their argument states that there are insufficient funds to develop and then sustain a broadcasting service of such proportions, considering that some nations cannot even pay their dues to the African union, and that the issue of technical know-how would require the recruitment of foreign experts. How African would such a media house be then?
They also base their argument on many other things– poor infrastructure in most parts of the continent, communication hitches, the diversity of the peoples with respect to languages, the educationally disadvantaged who account for majority of the continents people, and so on. And then they get down to the smaller issues – where will the headquarters of this giant media house be located? Will it be in South Africa, the most economically developed African state? Or will it be in Nigeria, the black nation with the highest population? Or will it be in Sudan, the country with the largest land area?
They go on and on with questions such as– what language would the ‘African voice’ speak in? Would it be English, the language of the colonizers of most of the African continent, would it be it be French or Portuguese, or would the over 1000 African languages have their own individual broadcasts?
Finally, these hopeless antagonists argue that Africa is also tuned to foreign broadcast stations and, considering that many Africans consume whatever they see on TV hook, line and sinker, creating our own will only cause more problems and not solve any.
To defend their case, the protagonists, of whom I am an unrepentant member of, ask some fundamental questions which our pessimistic brothers have forgotten are the major issues. Where lies the danger in allowing foreigners to speak for Africa? Of whose benefit and to whose detriment is this situation? How will our own voice change the current situation of poverty and crippling underdevelopment assisted by the ever-present corruption? Will the world see Africa differently if we begin to speak for ourselves?
My answers will not only uphold my view, but will make you, dear reader, join my crusade. According to the British author Charles Handy, “If there is one general law of communication, it is that we never communicate as effectively as we think we do.” This will definitely get many antagonists uncomfortable in their seats. Pray, if the developed world has still not mastered the art of communicating itself effectively, then what hope is there that Africa will be displayed in a better manner in their media. Beyond this, there lies the danger of misreporting African policies, agendas, initiatives dreams, aspirations, problems and people. The reasons for this misreporting, whether deliberate or otherwise, vary greatly. While some foreign media deliberately misreport Africa to attract more viewers, others do so because they are trying to promote government propaganda which is not in the interest of the African continent.
In other cases, private media houses paint the picture of Africa that they want so as to promote and achieve the selfish interests of their owners. An illustration is needed for optimal understanding of this last case: Africa is the continent most plagued by Malaria, HIV/AIDS, maternal and infant mortality, infrastructural decay, among many other ills. The implication of this is that Africa is the largest market for anti-malarials, condoms, anti-retrovirals, mosquito nets, bogus loans from greedy and faceless creditors, and economy-destroying help from international ‘donor’ and ‘assisting’ agencies.
What this means is that the international community as well as millions of Africans are forced to believe many things, all as an implication of what they have seen on TV or heard on radio. These include the following: condoms are needed to save the whole of Africa from dying out thanks to HIV/AIDS, governments should subsidise and stock anti-retrovirals also for the same cause, malaria will kill every young person in Africa very soon if millions of insecticide treated mosquito nets are not bought and distributed immediately, Africa is a huge jungle full of untamed beasts and uncivilised peoples, the few ‘developed ’parts of the continent are being taken over by slums, shanty towns, and ghettos, there is no suitable environment for investment in the continent– rather, it would be more ‘appropriate’ to bring foreign aid, all African leaders are corrupt and illegally elected despots, Africans are not capable of sustaining a good democracy, cannibals live only on this continent, etc. These are only a few of the millions of cases where the outside world says what it wants its people to know or see.
Other examples make the case for an African voice: the international media always makes a show of displaying their up-to-the-minute reporting by breaking fresh news even before local news stations in Africa have gotten wind of any events, thus embarrassing the government and media of the concerned country. In other cases, these foreign media always show militants such as those of the Niger Delta destroying government as well as private property, causing mayhem, and participating in oil bunkering. However, they never show us the foreign-owned vessels which transport the oil, the intercontinental destination of the oil, and the financers of these sabotaging activities, which are usually greedy multinationals and their nationals. Africa will always be on the losing end if someone else speaks for us. It would be of utmost benefit to us to develop our own voice. In the words of Julius Nyerere, Africa must refuse to be humiliated, exploited, and pushed around.
Now to the question of how the media will change the current economic situation in most parts of the continent: when the whole world knows that there is more to Africa than slums, ghettos, and corruption, their patterns of thought will immediately change. The very first impact will be the influx of investors, and with proper economic policies and effective planning, the continent will be the better. Next is the fact that Africans in the Diaspora would be treated in a better manner and would gain more respect in their societies considering that the world would be better informed about their fatherlands.
Other impacts of having our own media include: promotion of tourism by Africans and foreigners alike; better understanding of African norms, values, and cultures by fellow Africans and by foreigners; economic and social integration between African states; better understanding of conflicts in Africa such as the situations in Darfur, Somalia, Chad, and the Niger Delta– these would occur because these conflicts would be viewed through an African perspective and there would be better knowledge of African countries, most especially by other Africans.
Perhaps the most important of these impacts is that thousands of young, intelligent and daring entrepreneurs who can be found in every part of this beautiful continent would become more confident and recognise the existing opportunities for their business ideas, enterprises, and social movements. Encouraged by their counterparts in other parts of the world, they would see Africa in a different light, and would lead the march towards making Africa a better place.
To the questions of technical know-how, language choice, location of a headquarters etc, I say it takes sheer political will among our leaders (those elected and those selected alike) to kick-start the process. It might be a gradual process, considering the prevailing conditions on the continent, but it would eventually lead to our speaking for ourselves. So, it is only Africa that can speak for itself. No other people will carry the melodious beauty and captivating resonance of the African voice but the African people. And then, the world will not be able to help but listen.
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