africa and the media

As I am getting older and older day by day, my childhood memories are fading away. But I still remember some funny stories; so let me share it with you.

I was born in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, as my parents were stationed there because of work. And I spent the first five years of my childhood there. Those days Libya was one of the better off countries in Africa. Owing to the black gold they had good infrastructures, better access to health centers and education, and relatively better social amenities.

One thing I shall mention is that I was born in the early 1980s, the days Africa was portrayed in the media as the land of famine and hunger, and home for millions of poor people. Those days, you turn on your TV, and what you see about Africa was dark colored women and children, covered with dust, flies on their faces and food, and so much more. Since then, every one from the planet earth, if he or she hears the word Africa, all those images come first.

When it was time to go back home, back to my country Eritrea, I was around 5. Since we settled in the capital, life was not that much different than that of Libya. However, as we went to a remote village to visit relatives, I saw images quite similar to the ones I saw on the screen before. And I remember to this day, I came closer to my mother and whispered on her ear “mom… is this Africa?” and my mother burst with laughter.

It seems a side track but I have a reason to tell this. Since long time ago I have been much more concerned about the issue of Africa on the western media. How many of us have thought of this issue before? Why do you think western media are always ready and hungry to hear or even sometimes make sad stories of Africa? The last time I went to Nanzan University to give a lecture on anthropology for undergraduate students, I showed them very “ugly” pictures from Africa and nearly the same “ugly” pictures from the “rich north”. Most of them were familiar with the images from Africa, but not with the ones from the “rich north”. And I asked them “why is that you always here about the failure stories from Africa and exclusively success stories from the so called “developed countries”? I may ask you all the same question.

As for me, Africa means much more than that. What would the world economy be like without the existence of Africa and its resources? Africa feeds the world industries with raw materials and man power. Not only this but also, what is the potential of Africa as a niche market for the world manufactured goods. In Africa we drive Toyota, Honda, BMW, Volkes Wagon, FIAT, and many other brands of cars; we wear Nike, Adidas, Calvin Klein, and many other brands of clothing; we import medicines, processed food stuffs, manufactured goods and to the worst weapons. Nonetheless, no one dares to talk about this golden contribution of the continent Africa.

May I ask you to make a pause for a second and ask yourselves “why?”

All the failure and sad stories from Africa made some people have an image about Africans as “lazy” and “irrational”. Although I am confident to say Africa is home for millions of intellectuals, rational and intelligent people, I will never say it. All I may say is “please think critically and check the content of the information that you get from media before you chew it and digest it and it goes to your body.”

I have so much more to talk about Africa and the Media, but let me stop it here for today.

Talk to you next time

Essam Yassin