“Once in a while we see a positive ‘Africa season’ – then western media revert to sensationalist and stereotypical coverage”- Afua Hirsch.
It is amazing how the western news media still pride itself in reporting Africa as a poverty- stricken, backward continent with a people in need of constant help from Westerners. These negative narratives about Africa and Africans are nothing but “historical baggage” carried forth by colonial masters who plundered Africa centuries ago thus needs to be dropped now!
The British public service broadcaster, BBC News, in a tweet on September 2, 2020 attributed Africa’s success in curbing the spread of the coronavirus on the continent to “poverty”, which according to BBC News has engulfed the African continent. The story, which was headlined, “Coronavirus in Africa: Could poverty explain mystery of low death rate?” is an example of the many negative stories the western news media always seek to champion about Africa and African people. The decision by BBC News to use such a headline on Africa’s success is baffling. Why is it a mystery for Africa to record low death rates in the Covid-19 fight? Why should the low death rates in Africa be associated with poverty? Are African leaders and citizens not capable of putting effective measures in place to curb the spread of Covid-19?
What happened to attributing Africa’s success to the fact that most African governments put preventive measures in place even before the first case of Covid-19 hit the continent? What happened to attributing the low death rates to Africans observing proper physical distancing measures, wearing masks, staying at home, contact tracing, etc.? Does it hurt that Africa has survived what you, -the western news media, thought would be the worst attack on the continent? We need answers BBC News!
The numerous news reports predicting doom for Africa when the pandemic hit did not stand after all. Maybe this is too hard to grapple with…?
In case the western media need a refreshing of memory, the first case of the coronavirus was not recorded in Africa. Africans saw the danger from afar, feared the destructiveness of the virus and put proper measures in place to curb it before it went wild. These are contributing factors to the low death rates not “poverty”!
A recent study by the Simon Fraser University, found clear evidence that the mandatory wearing of masks in Canada lowered the rate of the virus spread. This is something African governments like Ghana saw in the early stages of the pandemic and made it criminal to go into public spaces without a mask.
So, incase BBC News need a hypothesis to test and headline, here you go, – “Coronavirus in Africa: Could criminalizing the act of not wearing face masks in public spaces explain low death rates? Presenting Africa with these negative attachments have always been a growth industry for the western news media but the time to stop cashing in on African stories is now. Maintaining the single story that Africa is a poverty-stricken, misfortune continent shows the lazy reporting styles of these western news media.
In the case of New York, covid-19 is ravaging low-income neighborhoods but in Africa, this same low income is causing low death rates. This is indeed very surprising. A similar post by The Sun Newspaper again, shows the lazy reporting style of the western news media and their delight in propagating negative news stories about Africa. The UK based tabloid newspaper, The Sun, reporting the signing of Ghanaian footballer Thomas Partey, to Arsenal FC, chose the headline, -“Arsenal new boy Thomas Partey has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the game, coming a long way from his poverty-stricken existence in Ghana”. This raised a lot of backlash from the Ghanaian and African communities with some calling on Arsenal FC to bring the Sun to book.
An African Solution to a Global Plague
Indeed, the western news media is not prepared to shed off this historical baggage and negative notions about Africa. They are not prepared to stop cashing in on the negative news stories they propagate against Africa, thus Africans need to rise and put an end to it. The news media is powerful with its ability to shape people’s thinking and opinions thus such negative headlines and stories on Africa will not be left to remain and read as truth. To my fellow Africans, the world deserves to hear our success stories, the right context needs to be provided to African stories. We have been angry at these reportages for far too long and actions need to be taken. The Organization of African Union now African Union in 1979 took actions to end this canker by setting up the Pan-African News Agency, to serve as the voice of Africa on the international scene. Even though the news agency exists today, it is only a ghost of itself in need of a revamp. Other news platforms like the Ghanaian American Journal (GAJ) based in the United States have taken up similar mandates to provide authentic news about Africa to the international media.
The onus lies on us and individual media houses to tap news stories from these platforms that have a pan-African agenda at heart instead of drawing on these same western media, BBC, CNN, and the likes for news stories happening on the African continent. The time to end misrepresentation of Africa and Africans in western news reportages is now! Let Africans own and tell their stories!
#theAfricanstoriesbytheAfrican #EndMisrepresentation #PANA #GhanaianAmericanJournal
Writer: Deborah Acheampong
MA Global Communication Studies
Simon Fraser University
(deborah_acheampong@sfu.ca)
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