Historically, the wildlife, natural
resources, and culture have made Africa a highly valuable continent to the
western world. Africa has gathered the attention of western tourists, western explorers,
and western imperialists from all over. As such, Africa has been heavily
influenced over time by western interests.
The parading of malnourished and
naked African children in front of cameras and images of lions and gorillas in
the jungle, have dominated most Western media news outlets over the past two
decades. The presentation of African news by Western media convinces the
audiences in United States, Europe and other parts of the world that the entire
continent of Africa is hopeless, poverty and disease stricken. Images of
skyscrapers, well developed road networks and other manifestations of modern
development in most African countries are usually absent in the mindsets of
Western media audiences. (Ahmed Mheta, 2015)
Western Medias when reporting tends
to focus on the negative and not the positive. Bad news sells well. People feel
better about their lives when they hear others have bigger problems than them.
A European who's unhappy he can't get a mortgage, will, however unwittingly,
likely see his life in brighter lights after watching footage of people with no
electricity, no running water and little food to eat.
So when a foreign journalist enters
a space in which he speaks the formal but only understands the informal, a
great deal will necessarily be lost in translation. I believe that it is in
this space that most of the mistakes occur when writing about Africa. I argue
that most Western journalists who come to Africa believe that they can get by
because they speak English or even Swahili, but never really get down to the
essence of what it means to be a South Sudanese in war for instance, an essence
that is fundamentally related to the ability to be able to switch between the
three or four languages and their attendant identities. (Nanjala Nyabola, 2014)
Even before the age of exploration,
countries have been acting based on their own personal interest. It was during
the late 1800s that the western world really started to explore deeper into the
heart of Africa. What the explorers found was an abundance of land and
resources. The only thing standing in their way was a group of primitive people
with spears, not guns. Through this technological advantage, Europe was able to
successfully claim Africa, its people and its resources as its own. Seeking
only to reap the economic and territorial advantages, settlers created quick
local governments and didn’t bother industrializing Africa. When countries in
Africa began to win their independence, these newly formed countries were left
hundreds of years behind the western World, with corrupt governments in
control.
If foreign aid would develop any
place, Africa will be the most developed continent in the world.
International AID is now doing more
harm to Africa than good. It became the main tool used by foreign governments
and organizations to corrupt the African elite, and get them to behave so
irrationally toward their own populations and the basic interest of their
countries.
Aside corruption and the
criminality, International Aid is the root of the 5 Stars colonization disease
that cripple the African elite which dislike the responsibility and the self-sacrifice
that comes with being in control of a nation destiny. As far as they enjoyed
the status offered by their positions, they never liked the responsibilities
demanded by the jobs; therefore they use international aid programs as
substitute to their responsibilities.
If Africa needs any aid, the most
urgent one is to get rid of the 40 billion corruption industry (called
International Aid) that shackles its youth and elite, cultivates and maintains
the beggar mentality. How would you develop any country when the dream of the
majority of its youth and elite is not entrepreneurship, innovation, education
and self-sufficiency, but the dream to have a job with a humanitarian
organization or to get their project financed by some International aid Agency
or proxy?
“Global Lying System” (referring to
the western Medias covering African news) is one of the biggest threats to
peace and development in Africa. The
colonial heritage of those journalists (unless they are instructed to do so)
makes them to see Africa only as a collection of tribes and focus their
coverage on what they call as tribal issues. They create new realities like
“People from the North” compared to “people from the South” or “people from the
West”. They invent new divisions with creative imagination, like the Belgians
falsely created the “Tutsi” and “Hutu” tribes in Rwanda which ultimately lead
to the genocide in 1994.
The western medias seems to follow
an agenda of further dividing African nations and populations with their
constant framing of Africa through fight between tribes, religions, geography,
etc. This must stop before African could unite to fight their way out.
The influence of western Medias in
Africa is very negative, and could be considered as part of Africa problems.
The other negative effect of the
western medias in Africa is that they tend to focus their attention on what the
Europeans or the White people are doing in Africa or for Africa, and how they
are saving Africa, therefore continuing to create the false impression that
Africa is a hopeless place with lazy people that could be saved only by the
white man.
What you often see is a white man
helping African or an outsider making change in Africa. That’s bad, and
perpetuates the feeling that Africans are incapable to solve their problem by
themselves, and reinforce in the mind of the young people and generation “the
white man as a savior” mentality. Very Bad!
Some Humanitarian organisation has
done more damage to Africa than the marginal positive impact they supposedly
have had. In order to raise money for their operations, they have engaged into
a “poverty porn” depicting Africa with the most degrading, and humiliating
images. African people dignity is not something they cared about. The huge
billboard and magazines photos showing Africa at its worst now fill the mind of
billions of people around the world, and unfortunately those people can’t help
but think about Africa only trough those images.
In the same
time, those Medias won’t show the photo of a dead American or English soldier,
because it’s shocking and doesn’t respect human dignity.
BY: SAIDINA
ALIEU JARJOU
Alias Dr.ABS Taal Jr.
