Towards media of Africa by Africans and for Africans

Abstract

It is possible to suggest that negative narratives about Africa ware coterminous with the occasion of Western civilization. Europeans‘ idea of superiority created an image of Africa which was the perverse opposite of Europe‘s. The slave trade, colonialism and racism helped to fuel negative narratives about Africa in Western discourses. Whereas slave trade abolitionists saw Africa as a place of suffering because of war, disease, famine and poverty provoked by slave trade, anti-abolitionists opined that Africa was so forbidding, making slavery in foreign countries a positive escape. The perception of Africa as a land of beasts and cannibals was justified as the reason for colonialism which brought light – Christianity, Civilization and Commerce; according to Livingstone‘s dictum – to the Continent. The racial dimension supposedly explains African "backwardnes" and 'savagery‘ as biologically predetermined. These lines of thinking have often influenced Western media African reportage. Although, the tendency in contemporary times shows that big global media appear to be moving away from this paradigm. But, what are African journalists doing in terms of reporting Africa for Africans? This paper discusses this all important media issue.