This is Part II of my post about Cheryl Cole getting malaria. And although it will seem quite contradictory to what I was saying earlier on, read on and you will understand exactly what I mean.
I am patiently waiting for the day the BBC, or Channel 4, boradcasts a positive and inspiring documentary about Africa. There are so many things going right in Africa at the moment: Successful people, successful businesses, an improving and developping infrastructure, job creation, etc. But the media are still focusing on all the negative stuff such as corruption, poverty etc. Before you ask: I do not think that the media should stop showing the negative side of Africa. I simply think that the public needs to see both the negative AND the positive. If I didn’t believe this, I would be a hypocrite.
So there are two ways to look at it: Either they are genuinely trying to draw attention to the current situation and create awareness. In which case, I would actually applaude the cause and join it. Or they are deliberately choosing to provide the public with an unbalanced and inaccurate representation of Africa.
I agree that issues like poverty, corruption or lack of adequate healthcare in Africa all need to be brought to the attention of the Western world. But I worry that the world will only get to see one side of Africa, when clearly there is so much more to discover about our beautiful continent. Unfortunately the world is filled with passive viewers and audiences who believe everything they see on TV or in the papers. It is also filled with incurious, sometimes ignorant minds that never question the media or its tendancy to exaggerate or misrepresent certain things.
I also worry that Africa gets such bad press that it will affect its tourism industry and, consequently, its economy. *Negative propanganda comes to mind*.
Just to mention a few examples:
- The BBC’s patronising ”Welcome to Lagos” documentary series portrayed the Nigerian capital in such a hypocrite, negative, derogatory way and failed to show its modern and perfectly developped side. I actually believe the makers of the documentary attempted the “charming” approach. But I also believe they failed drastically.
- The BBC’s “Zimbabwe’s forgotten children” made me cry so much I felt like going to Zimbabwe the next day and hug all the kids featured in the documentary. It was the saddest programme I had seen in a very long time. Nothing wrong with it, just really, really depressing stuff.
- Channel 4′s Dispatches and the investigation of African churches in the UK, as informative and insightful as it was, turned out to be yet another documentary about extremely negative aspects of African culture.
And there are many more. However it might surprise you that I am glad I watched these documentaries. I really think I needed to see them. Having been in Europe for the last 20 years of my life, I seem to have lost touch with my country of origin (Congo) and I have to say, it is nice to see Africa on TV sometimes. But I would love to hear about the good things as well. I would like to hear about people who are living happy lives, working good jobs, their children getting a decent education, etc. Those things do exist in Africa, and the world needs to know that too.
You’re probably wondering “What good would it do to show these things?” I am certain it would do a lot of good. Perhaps people would be more informed about ways to get involved, invest in the economy, through tourism, etc. People wouldn’t be so scared or apprehensive as I was about visiting Africa for the first time (in 20 years, for my part). I was absolutely thrilled to see the way South Africa hosted the Olympics. It was breath-taking, amazing, out of this world… And last but not least, people would have more faith in the future of Africa.
Watch The Africa they never show you and tell me what you think.
How right you are. Europe’s view of Africa seems not to have changed since the 19th century. If all we get are the documentaries you mention and films like Blood Diamonds (“This is Africa”), how are we going to think otherwise? Stuff like this makes me want to be a reporter instead of an archaeologist.
While it may seem at first that telling people that there’s a good side to Africa too would make them less worried about the urgency of action to solve the corruption and poverty, I think it would help. I think that if people sees that Africa is NOT a mess and it’s progressing, they will believe that all the aid DOES work, and maybe they’ll give more. Some people just don’t donate because they think the situation it’s too big and can’t be helped (“I give my money to one child so he’ll die of starvation one week later. It’s of no use” is something I hear a lot) while really it can.
I was born in a South-American country, Uruguay, although all my family is from Spain and Italy. I live now in Spain and it just hurts to see how people think of South-America. The news generalize way too much, preventing the first world to consider third-world countries as equals.
This post inspired me to write about Africa in my blog from time to time. I think it helps if many people do point out some of the tons of good things that are right with Africa. It is a beautiful continent (that I have yet to visit) with a very rich history (and I hope a very rich future).
Posted by dinacardillo | September 23, 2010, 10:13 pmWaiky, nice post. However, I live in Africa, 16years now, and would like to tell you that corruption on the continent is about US $220 billion per year . Bad governance and corruption is the leading cause of all problems in Africa.
Cheers,
Posted by CRY ME AN ONION | October 12, 2010, 6:24 pmOh I don’t doubt that, I know how bad it is. But I guess what I was trying to say, at the risk of repeating myself, is that there are a lot of positive things about Africa that the media hardly ever report on.
Posted by waikisays | October 12, 2010, 7:22 pm