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| Upper Hill, Nairobi, Kenya |
We all agree that knowledge has become so broad that even
learning the history of your own country is quite a task. Most people now limit
their knowledge and skills to quests that make economic sense. Apart from making money, entertainment seems
to be the only other thing that people are interested in. The average citizen is either looking for
money or looking for ways to entertain themselves. As a result, we may forgive one another for
being too ignorant on issues that other people may regard as common knowledge. It’s
no coincidence that most Americans know Africa to be a one big country, and not
a continent of more than 50 states.
Ignorance about Africa continues to prevail, certainly not
deterred by the internet and other elements of the digital age. For instance, any
search engine will return thousands of results if queried about “Cities or
Countries in Africa”.
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| Part of Nairobi CBD: www.aljazeera.com |
CNN, BBC, FOX News, Reuters and a few others, herein
referred to as global media, are the sources from which the average European or
American uses to enlighten themselves on happenings beyond their borders. Its true that media
houses anywhere are driven by the demands of their audience. This has led to trend whereby stories that attract more attention are given more prominence, regardless of their relevance. You remember the Miley Cyrus twerking News that held the world hostage for weeks?
A little research
will show you that positive stories about Africa are rarely popular in the
Western Media. Stories that are given importance
are those that report on the sorry state of the continent. I doubt the motivation
for such biased reporting is driven by the need to highlight the plight of
Africans.
While it’s okay to report on the endemic problems facing the
continent, you will be respected more if you equally reported on the efforts to
address such problems, and particularly if you highlighted areas where success
has already been registered.
Africans are depicted as poverty, hunger, disease stricken
and ever-fighting population that can never do without aid. Look at any bad statistics on the internet and
they will be dominated by African countries – Corruption, Human development
Index, poor governance, weak, fragile or failed states, etc. Sadly, this is
partly true – but I strongly disagree that that’s what defines the African
experience.
The subsistence farmer in rural Africa or the Kenyan pastoralist is
happy with his way of life.
The prevailing notion in the western populace is that Africa
is a hopeless place populated by people who lack intrinsic motivation to take charge
of their own destiny. You have to read
the threads on Africa-related news to understand how bad the opinion is.
The Ignorant American
The skewed perceptions exhibited by most Americans,
including African Americans on matters Africa is a sign of lack of knowledge or
interest in knowledge on people they have an opinion on. Which therefore means
that when their media houses dwell on negative, they do not really do so to
find solutions to African problems. The typical American who thinks Africa is a
single impoverished country is both a victim of the biased media and his own
ignorance. It’s surprising that anyone can spent most of his time on an
internet connected device but will not spare a minute to confirm any facts
about a whole continent.
This implies that the issue might not be the unavailability of
information or miss-information for that matter. What is more worrying is the fact that such
views are not limited to the American layman. Some western researchers have made laughable
conclusions about some African-related phenomena. For instance, in explaining
why Kenya produces such good runners, someone stated that schools are very
far apart and children run kilometers to and from school. How does that explain
why Kenyan runners are so good when other African countries with similar
conditions don’t produce runners? Such an explanation shows a deliberate attempt
to rope in the bad state of affairs in Africa, even when making explanations of the few things that Africans have excelled.
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| Nairobi in the 80s |
African Problems
It’s true that Africa has many problems – poverty, diseases,
wars, famine, human rights violations, bad governance, corruption, high
mortality rates, terrorism, etc. It’s also true that where there is poverty
then other social problems will follow. History shows that regions all regions
of the world went through such.
But to what extend can African problems be blamed on
Africans? Some African problems such as
poverty can, to some extend, be blamed on unfair Western trade policies. For
instance, Kenya has been in close ties with the UK and the US since the 60s, but it’s
only when China came on board that we began to see some real change. They built
our first superhighway and are undertaking other major infrastructure projects.
Kenyans do not even need visas to go China. While the West is obsessed with governance,
democracy, and human rights. The kind of change they want is like the one initiated in Libya. Who doesn’t
know that Libya was far much better with Gaddafi than it is now?
Security and Wars
Arms dealers in the West are also known to supply weapons
that sustain the bloodiest wars in Africa. Like the mineral war in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has claimed more than 5.4 Million
lives. There are allegations that the smuggled minerals often end up in the US.
Whether American corporations have a stake in the war, as it’s believed in
Africa, that’s a topic for another day.
Kenya is currently under increased attacks by Al-shabaab
militants, a situation that arose when the country decided to help its partners
to fight terrorism. The isolated attacks
in far-flung areas have resulted into travel advisories from the very friends Kenya
was assisting.
Africa is changing
Unknown to the common American or European, things are changing
so fast in Africa. Close to half of the population is joining the middle class.
Nigeria and Kenya rebased their economies and are now regarded as middle income
countries. From 2000 to date, 6 of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Countries like Ghana, Rwanda and Angola have shown real progress in
tackling social problems. There very agencies are reporting this. We read that Nairobi is well on its way to become a global
financial center.
Such statistics have caught western companies off guard, as
most are now scrambling for investment opportunities. China has both feet on
the continent, and even though it’s choking us with fakes, we are at least grateful
because it triggered the health competition with the West. A competition that
was needed for Africa to rise from its knees.
