Another article reopening the debate about how badly Africa is covered in the media.
I am really interested in the topic, even if I have only lived in Africa for a year, working from Nairobi and reporting about Africa for three years. My idea is that we can only improve.
How not to write about Africa in 2012 – a beginner's guide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/03/how-not-to-write-about-africa
I could not agree more with the first sentence of the column:
"Nairobi is a good place to be an international correspondent. There are
regular flights to the nearest genocide, and there are green lawns,
tennis courts, good fawning service".
Binyavanga Wainaina is the author of memoir 'One Day I will Write About This Place' and a Kenyan satirist, as he calls himself on Twitter. He is also
Director of The Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artists at
Bard College. He is the founding editor of the literary magazine 'Kwani?' and won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002.
This sentence is harsh for Western media and catchy but so true:
"There are five or six places that have not been fully pacified inside
the vision of the world as run by the victors of the cold war: North
Korea, Gaddafi (that has been dealt with), Somalia, Afghanistan, the
women of Africa, and the poor poor people of China, slaving away under
the most terrible conditions doing confusing things like refusing to
evolve into Europe. Big places where history is still alive – like
Russia, China, the Middle East – are to be feared and demonised. Why
can't the Egyptians vote for a nice, safe, British-trained economist who
once worked for the World Bank?"
Then he continues further:
"If there was a new map, Africa would be divided into three:
1) Tiny
flares of
horribleness – Mugabe, undemocratic, war, Somalia, Congo;
2)
Tiny flares of
wonderfulness. Mandela, World Cup, safari. Baby4Africa! A
little NGO that does amazing things with black babies who squirm
happily in white saviours' hands because they were saved from an African
war. My favourites are
clitoraid.com and
Knickers 4 Africa
– which collects used panties for African women;
3)
The rest. Lets call
this the "vast grassroots". This part of Africa is run by nameless
warlords. When the warlords fall, these places are run by grassroots
organisations that are funded by the EU and provide a good place to send
gap year kids to help and see giraffes at the same time. Grassroots
Africa is good for backpacking because it is the real Africa (no AK47s
to bother you, no German package tourists). The vast grassroots exists
to sit and wait for agents of sustainability (Europeans) to come
and empower them".
Because he concludes and again, I so agree:
"What cannot be said is that history came surging to the present.
Market capitalism is shaking, and all of a sudden the vast grassroots
has oil and copper, and willing, driven and ambitious hands".
Which consequently leads
Binyavanga Wainaina to add:
"It is not a surprise that, in these days, there is a vast and growing
new middle class across the continent:
the British, American and
European media houses have lost us. Our own are booming, and we are
finding deals with CCTV (China) and al-Jazeera. We fly Emirates and
Kenya Airways. We make deals with those who see a common and vibrant
future being a platform for engagement".
A must read for anyone interested in today's Africa.
