African continent, the west and the media

Dr NC Iriemenam

Each time I read news about African continent, one thing is discernible. As said by Omelihu Nwanguma, 'the only news worth reporting about Africa is news that has a violent/barbaric undertone’. Many do not even know if Africa is a continent or a country. I once had a long argument with a lady journalist from Germany. She said she has been to Sweden, Japan, USA, England, Norway and Africa. I asked her which country in Africa and she responded over again, Africa. We argued for some time until I told her to go home and check the world map. The next time we met, she told me she was in Kenya, which is a country in Africa. A friend of my wife, who happens to write in one Swedish newspaper, once asked her if we have storey buildings in Nigeria. You can envision the nature of people’s contemplation towards our beloved home.

It is really pathetic when you view things from a bigger perspective especially things that have to do with our dear continent. Nothing good from Africa seems to impress anyone, in particular, the western communities. Balanced reporting is completely neglected or ignored when it has to do with the continent. Nigeria hosted All African Games, Abuja 2003 which was a classic event of its kind. No foreign media ever covered the event. The June 12 Nigerian election was a big success. Again, no western media covered it until Babangida annulled the elections. Ghana recently had highly contested violence free election which went into run-off. The only time CNN aired it was after the elections. The report was even bias. The picture of the winner was shown followed by two fighting he-goats. What has two fighting he-goats got to do with free and fair presidential elections? You can envisage the nature of the information they passed across to the whole world. If it were not free, it would have been different story in the media. Kenya’s recent election was the classic example of news worth reporting from African continent. Most media had almost 2 reporters stationed in Kenya to report the escalating post-electoral violence. That’s the signal of what is expected and accepted by the western news media.

African continent have never hosted the FIFA world cup competition. When South Africa won the hosting right, so much was said especially the ability and capability of an African country to successfully host an event of this magnitude. At a point, FIFA President Seff Blatter frankly said, ‘they do not want you to host this competition’ referring to the 2010 South Africa organising committee. Today, South Africa is more than ready for this event. Early this year, there was shocking news of two researchers who falsified their results ‘Harvard prof falsified sleep data :The Scientist [9th April 2009]’, and ‘Renal researchers faked data’. The news about these were somehow suppressed to only a few. If they were people from the so called ''third world countries'' or Africans, the news would have gone to the whole world through CNN, BBC, ABC and etc. They published in very high impact journals; Nature, Science and Cell. Their findings were all to get more grants for publications. They were not interested in solving any medical problem we have today. By the words of Rajneesh Jha, an Indian scientist, ‘‘...this really doubts the ethics and integrity of any great institution and science as a whole, which has greatest impact on any civilized society. Therefore, each of us should maintain high morale while contributing even a little drop into this sea of scientific world’’.

In November 2008, a month before Israeli/Gaza conflict, demonstration took place in London creating awareness of 5.4 million dead in Congo. But, the Israeli/Gaza conflict received unprecedented news coverage. The blood diamond is no longer issues. From Sierra Leone to Congo, the perpetuators are still at large while millions of Africans are suffering at the expense of these crooks. I am not professing being an expert on Zimbabwean issues, but there are so much unanswered questions. There are so many groups coupled with the western media calling on Mugabe to resign. In fact, he is tagged ‘Mugabe is Guilty’ most likely due to his land reform issues. When you know that what we see or hear is never the whole truth, it somehow drives you for a more objective perspective of the issues. Looking at events from different perspective, one continues to ask questions;

• Why are the fertile lands of Zimbabwe only owned by the whites?
• So many Zimbabweans were displaced during the colonial era. How come their respective homes have not been given to them?
• Most ethnic groups’ make-up or coalition background on Mugabe is 95% white and 5% mixed or 45 to 5 out of 50. Again, it could be argued that of course most Zimbabwean whites would want President Mugabe out because he has not allowed them to crab as much as they have wanted.
• How come it is difficult to see any objective news and viewpoints of Zimbabwe on our screens? Does everybody in Zimbabwe have the same viewpoint? Again I am not in support of any sit-tight politician.
• The humanitarian crises in Congo have lasted for over 15 years and more than 5 million people have died in the past 10 years alone. Villages burnt, widespread reports of rapes even by the UN soldiers and looting. How come the world is not rallying round like the Israeli/Gaza crisis of 2008 or the current swine flu pandemic?
• Every 15 to 30 seconds, someone dies of malaria somewhere in the world. 90% of malaria burden in the entire world occur only in African continent. About 2000 people die each day of malaria, majority in African continent. Yet, despite this startling statistics, many do not know about this and it is hardly reported in the news media. As many put it, malaria is a disease of the poor. But, if there is an air disaster with only 100 or 150 people on board, the news is highlighted with much emphasis. Pharmaceutical companies, on the other hand, are not interested in malaria vaccine development because to them, there is no market. If malaria were a western problem, by now, a vaccine would have been developed.
• If there are unspeakable acts of genocide in Darfur, Sudan how come there are no unspeakable acts of genocide in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration? Innocent civilians, women and children died in the hands of the coalition forces. Yet no pressure or sanctions in the terms of what has been given to Zimbabwe.
• I wonder how many countries would accept the nature of human deterioration in Niger Delta, Nigeria. Nevertheless, when the citizens speak out, they are termed rebels. The corruption of the oil companies, owned and operated by the west, remains suppressed in Nigeria. You hardly could find information on this. Probably, individuals they have carefully put in power are doing their perfect job. Again, more questions than answers.

Even when you do not need aids, African governments are always given. They don’t want us to come out of debt. Africa received more than $1 trillion from the west over the last half century, and yet Africa remains in dire economic straits. According to Dambisa Moyo, in her book Dead Aid, it does not work.

.....‘’She makes it clear at the outset what kind of aid she means. She does not mean humanitarian or emergency aid, mobilised in response to calamities; she does not mean charity-based aid, given to specific organisations and people on the ground, in order to achieve specific things (she sits on the boards of several charities, one of which distributes antiretrovirals); she is hopeful about a new attitude to food aid, whereby the money is used to buy food from farmers within a country, and then distribute it to those in need, instead of flooding the place with foreign food that undercuts local growers. What she means is "systemic aid", the vast sums regularly transferred from government to government, or via institutions such as the World Bank......’’ UK Guardian (19 February 2009)

Nothing good seems to come out of our continent in the western media. It’s all about war, poverty and corruption – the trinity that have shaped our continent for years. It is a well calculated way of putting us where they think we belong. It is interesting to remind ourselves that the worst corruptions of our times are never found in any African country. Today, we have heard stories of the biggest financial scandals; Enron scandal, failed companies, stolen money (secured in Swiss bank), kick-back pay, the world's biggest fraudster (Madoff), Wall Street, etc. None of these actually took place in any African country. Interestingly, the level of crimes in some countries in a day will never take place in the entire African continent in 6 months. We need to understand the dark side of western foreign policy built to give 1 and take 3 from the back. It is very unfortunate that in most cases, we always fail to learn. Our continual failure and lack of understanding have given room for under-development. Apart from South Africa, no other African nation produce guns and ammunitions but, any gun produced anywhere in the world is found in an African country the next day. We use the guns and ammunitions to kill ourselves while they keep stealing our resources directly or indirectly. Most western countries have never been in war but produce weapons of mass destruction, sell to nations to kill themselves but live in absolute peace. They complain of influx of immigrants from war-torn nations, yet they supply them with the needed ammunitions. Earlier this year, the Columbian government accused Sweden of supplying arms and ammunition to the FARC guerrillas. Does anyone know how many African countries they have supplied their home-made ammunitions? Pope Benedict during the 2009 synod of almost 200 bishops from 53 African states warned that a new form of colonialism continues to blight Africa. He pointed out that the developed world has continued to export materialism - which he called "toxic spiritual rubbish" to African continent.

The seed of disunity sown by our colonial masters seem to have worked very well. Years after independence, it is still very difficult for Africans to gather together, have meaningful deliberations and speak with one voice. There is always one problem or the other which normally ends in a stalemate. Unless we Africans carefully build our homes, nobody will ever do that on our behalf.

Robot  # 1 | 05.10.2009 14:17

...Read the full article.

Tall  # 2 | 06.10.2009 03:04

Oga, 'Unless we Africans carefully build our homes, nobody will ever do that on our behalf.' U said it all!!! If just Nigeria would use her resources judiciously, where would the black race be today? I have no more questions, your answer above says it all.